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Classes

Classes are designed to challenge your thinking and develop your professional skills. You’ll leave each class with a unique set of tools to approach new communications challenges.

Tailor your experience to your career goals by focusing on one of eight areas of specialization. Use the search widget below to sort classes by quarter, specialization, instructor and degree track for each quarter. Get a comprehensive view of the full academic year in our Course Guide.

View the University of Washington Academic Calendar for important dates, including quarter start and end dates, registration dates and deadlines, and campus holidays.

Registration numbers (SLNs) are located on the Time Schedule. Please read the Department’s statement on internet resource requirements for access to courses.

COMMLD 560: Qualitative Research in Communities and Organizations

(

Coutu

)

- 2018-2019 | Winter

MCCN Elective | Meets Research Methods Core Requirement
Wednesdays, 1/9-3/13 | 6:00-9:50pm | CMU 242
Registration SLN: 12631

Course Description: 

Each organization and community has its unique “culture.” As technology has both enhanced and disrupted how we traditionally connect to each other, harnessing the culture within these specific social structures is an increasingly valuable strategy in the networked age. If we can discern the cultural foundation of an organization or community, we can interact with, and motivate its members more effectively and efficiently. In this course, you will learn how to determine the heart of a particular, localized culture of an organization (businesses, non-profits, civic entities) or community. Specifically, you will learn how to see the cultural values, rules, and symbols of a culture as vital resources for promoting successful collaboration within and across groups. This is a crucial undertaking for 21st century leaders who seek to inspire and transform through communication. Student Testimonial: “Communicating Through Culture was the most unexpectedly rewarding class I ever took. When the quarter began, I had no idea what to expect, and I was leery of the plentiful, heavily academic readings listed in the syllabus. I ended up enjoying the class so much I was sad when the quarter ended! Lisa took an arguably esoteric subject matter (the ethnography of communication) and not only did she help me to understand it, but she bridged the gap between academia and industry. I came out of the course with a newly positive attitude toward research and a keen interest in knowing more about how people communicate.”

 

Student Testimonial: “Communicating Through Culture was the most unexpectedly rewarding class I ever took. When the quarter began, I had no idea what to expect, and I was leery of the plentiful, heavily academic readings listed in the syllabus. I ended up enjoying the class so much I was sad when the quarter ended! Lisa took an arguably esoteric subject matter (the ethnography of communication) and not only did she help me to understand it, but she bridged the gap between academia and industry. I came out of the course with a newly positive attitude toward research and a keen interest in knowing more about how people communicate.”

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COMMLD 540: Mastering the Art & Science of Professional Communication

(

McCarthy

)

- 2018-2019 | Spring

MCCN Elective
Mondays, 4/1/19-6/10/19 | 6:00-9:50pm | CMU 242
Registration SLN: 12431

Course Description:

This course will provide necessary background on the many disciplines in the communications and marketing mix, identify areas of convergence and divergence between these disciplines, and learn how to use these tools help an organization achieve its objectives or business goals. The course will teach participants to anticipate the communications needs of a company or organization’s leadership and include a range of assignments that ask students to apply course teachings to real-world scenarios with strategic thinking, brand development, and compelling storytelling.

Student Testimonial:

“Molly did a tremendous job leading this class. She assigned valuable readings — articles that I’ve since bookmarked and expect to reference for years to come. She assigned Harvard Business School case studies that inspired critical thinking and thoughtful discussion in our class. Molly also brought in impressive guest speakers from a range of disciplines within marketing and communications. She struck the perfect balance of analyzing both current trends and timeless marketing strategies. I would rank COMMLD 540 among the top few classes I took over the course of the Comm Lead program.”

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COMMLD 530: Storytelling and Communication for Mission-Driven Organizations

(

Melograna

)

- 2019-2020 | Autumn

MCCN Elective | Meets Law and Ethics Core Requirement
Mondays, 9/30-12/2 | 6:00-9:50pm | CMU 126
Note: Due to the holiday the final class will be Monday, December 9.

Course Description:

Nonprofits, NGOs, campaigns and social enterprises are driven by their desire to make the world a better place. As their storytellers, our job is to make sure their messages reach the right audiences and recruit those audiences to the cause. Keeping in mind that mission-driven organizations will often work on complex issues involving vulnerable populations, our job is to pursue this work within an ethical framework that centers the concerns and desires of the people whom our clients serve. Upon completing the course, students will be able to work with mission-driven organizations as their primary storytellers.

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COMMLD 560: Communication and the Environment

(

Russell

)

- 2019-2020 | Winter

MCCN Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement
Wednesdays, 1/8-3/11 | 6:00-9:50pm | CMU 302

Course Description:

Over the past 30 years since climate change became widely acknowledged, there has been much investigation and speculation as to why forces of climate denialism remain so strong and, more broadly, why we are failing to do more to respond to anthropogenic climate change. This course uses climate change as a critical lens to examine the forces shaping the contemporary information landscape, with a focus on efforts by various groups including NGOs, politicians, industry leaders, scientists, journalists, among others to shape environmental discourse and policy. 

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COMMLD 540: Distributed and Diverse Teams

(

Chang

)

- 2020-2021 | Autumn

Track Neutral
Saturdays/Sunday, 10/10, 10/11, 10/24, 11/21, 9:00am – 5:00pm | Online

Course Description:

Through this practical and applied course, students will build their leadership and communication effectiveness to work in distributed teams at the global, national, or local levels. With increasing interconnectedness that builds larger and more complex teams and also reduces face/face time of those teams, competencies in distributed leadership are a rapidly evolving must-have set in any professional context but especially in the field of communications. And yet opportunities to sharpen those nuanced skills remain less than optimal. Students will embark on a full-immersion experience by working in distributed teams using a combination of relevant practical materials and readings, ongoing team and individual assignments, personal self-reflection and improved self-awareness and the planning and execution of a class-wise exercise such as a strategy retreat or other learning event. Topics covered will include project planning, goal setting, managing through direct and indirect influence and communicating with impact over the e-highways. Distributed team technology will anchor the students together as they move through coursework that will help them to stretch, struggle, and succeed. By the end of the course, students will be able to not only recognize their progression but will also be able to more effectively articulate the related competencies using terminology and language relevant for professional pursuits. Please note that this course models distributed team leadership in that students will have a weekly distributed leadership team call and work in addition to the 4 on-site classes; this applied approach to the course offers deeper leadership transformation as well as practical skill development.

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COMMLD 540: Human Centered Design for Change Leadership

(

Cioffi

)

- 2020-2021 | Winter

MCCN Elective | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 1/6-3/10 | 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Online

Course Description:

Effective change leadership requires broad community engagement and clear communication about the process. Collaborative practices can address individual and group resistance to change. In organizations of many sizes, across multiple sectors, urgent questions about core mission, internal structures, and products and services must be newly addressed given the shifting contexts at every fundamental level. In many sectors, entire infrastructure change is being openly discussed and requested. Leading strategic organizational change, or providing communications support for that leadership, relies on pivotal human-centered design tools (HCD) and their application to achieve measurable success.

In this course we will examine case studies at varying stages of a HCD process. Students will manage research and incubation, communicate it effectively to stakeholders, and deliver a creative agency-level proposal for a client facing organizational change. Students will learn to manage a complex project proposal from start to finish and work effectively in teams to communicate a proposed prototype process using HCD principles and practices. The client relationship will be offered by the instructor or students will be able to propose their own client relationship.

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COMMLD 534: Visual Storytelling

(

Salkowitz

)

- 2020-2021 | Spring

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Saturdays 4/3, 4/17, 5/1, 5/15, 5/29, 9:00AM PST – 5:00PM PST | Online

Course Description:

This course will provide you with a solid understanding of the medium of sequential art and visual narrative (aka “comics”) and the practical ability to incorporate visual storytelling into traditional, digital, and transmedia projects in a variety of entertainment, business, education, social and journalistic scenarios. Why comics? Comics and sequential art have gone from the margins of popular culture to the center of a multi-billion dollar global industry and a respected art-form. Many of the most popular movies, television, video games and transmedia projects are adapted from comics and/or depend heavily on storytelling styles that originated with this unique medium. Issues of digital distribution, adaptation and audience engagement that arise in today’s “comics culture” affect the future of publishing, technology, social media and gaming. Beyond the world of entertainment, the principles of visual narrative are becoming fundamental to all manner of storytelling projects, global initiatives and creative enterprises. This class will explore the history and potential of comics as a storytelling medium in the digital age in both media studies and business dimension, incorporating both theory and practice.

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COMMLD 531: Foundations of Video Storytelling

(

Christensen

)

- 2021-2022 | Autumn 2021

MCDM Track | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 10/05-12/07, 6:00PM – 9:50PM PDT | CMU 302
Registration SLN: 23174

Course Description:

This course focuses on the decisions we make when we tell our stories. This course is both theoretical and practical. Students will be afforded the skills to create and distribute video stories. Additionally, students will be expected to display critical thinking around point of view, audience targeting, ROI success criteria, methodology, and production standards.

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COMMLD 535: Foundations of Audio Storytelling

(

Partnow

)

- 2021-2022 | Autumn 2021

Track Neutral | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 09/29-12/08, 6:00PM – 9:50PM PDT | CMU 242
Registration SLN: 23404

Course Description:

Whether gathered around a radio in a living room or walking plugged in with headphones, the medium of audio storytelling has always offered the opportunity to build a mindset-shifting community around content. This course traces the evolution of audio storytelling from radio to podcasting that links to communities for various purposes: to educate, to entertain, and to inspire action — and the new golden age of podcasting that we find ourselves in means that audio storytelling has the potential for broad reach and powerful impact. Consideration is given to the core characteristics of strong storytelling, observed through an auditory filter. Class materials are twinned with a selection of cross-sector guest speakers who bring their own craft perspective. Students will experiment with designing their own short audio pieces.

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COMMLD 538: Storytelling and Communication for Mission-Driven Organizations

(

Melograna

)

- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022

MCCN Elective | Meets Law and Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 1/3 – 3/7, 6:00PM – 9:50PM, + Saturday 3/5, 9:00AM – 5:00PM | CMU 302 | Hybrid
Registration SLN: 12701

Course Description:

Nonprofits, NGOs, campaigns and social enterprises are driven by their desire to make the world a better place. As their storytellers, our job is to make sure their messages reach the right audiences and recruit those audiences to the cause. Keeping in mind that mission-driven organizations will often work on complex issues involving vulnerable populations, our job is to pursue this work within an ethical framework that centers the concerns and desires of the people whom our clients serve. Upon completing the course, students will be able to work with mission-driven organizations as their primary storytellers.

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COMMLD 520: Qualitative Research for Social Media Marketing

(

Kubler

)

- 2021-2022 | Spring 2022

Track Neutral | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 3/28 – 6/6, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | CMU 126 | Partially In-Person
Registration SLN: 21605

Course Description:

From selling the newest runway fashions to promoting donations to Greenpeace, successful online marketing campaigns and product launches often start with well planned qualitative research. This course offers a qualitative methodological perspective on how to conduct interviews and focus groups. This course explains the who, what, why and how of qualitative research with practical applications for those professionally interested in marketing, branding, and even user experience as well. Students will work throughout the quarter to design and implement their own qualitative research project.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

Instructor Bio – Kyle Kubler
kubler@uw.edu
Kyle Kubler is a postdoctoral research fellow at the center for Journalism, Media and Democracy, where he studies social media, political economy and information communication technologies. Kyle recently received his PhD from the department of communication at the University of Washington. His dissertation project focused on the beliefs, strategies, and cultural production of fitness influencers and content creators on Instagram. Kyle has recently published research on the framing of technology and the economy in the business press, as well as collaborating on research projects with the University of Washington’s Family Communication Lab.

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COMMLD 511: Introduction to User Centered Design

(

Joslyn

)

- 2022-2023 | Autumn 2022

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Sundays In-Person (10/9, 10/23), Online (11/6, 11/20), In-Person (12/4), 10:00AM – 4:00PM | CMU 104
Registration SLN: 13014

Course Description:

This course focuses on the fundamentals of user experience design, identifying the skills and concepts needed to successfully design products and services for humans. We will learn the principles of design thinking so that students come away from the class with a framework for understanding how to identify real user problems, design solutions for how to solve those problems, and then test those solutions with real people.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

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COMMLD 511: Intro to User Centered Design

(

Gordon

)

- 2024-2025 | Autumn 2024

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 9/30 – 12/2, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 230
Registration SLN: 13048

Course Description

This course focuses on the fundamentals of user experience design, identifying the skills and concepts needed to successfully design products and services for humans. We will learn the principles of design thinking so that students come away from the class with a framework for understanding how to identify real user problems, design solutions for how to solve those problems, and then test those solutions with real people.

Meets Research Methods Requirement

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COMMLD 510 C: User Interface & Visual Design

(

Gordon

)

- 2024-2025 | Spring 2025

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 4/2 – 6/4, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 230
SLN: 21706

Course Description

Design encompasses a variety of interconnected concepts. User Interface Design (UI ) is concerned with how navigational components are organized  within a system interface to ensure the layout is intuitive and helps users achieve their goals. Visual Design emphasizes aesthetics and the strategic use of communication elements, such as images, colors, fonts, and other graphic components, to create visually appealing layouts that achieve a business purpose.

Some of the topics we’ll cover are research, mood board creation, testing, user flows, Figma essentials, component libraries, general layout and design, wireframing, prototyping, microcopy, and more. At the end of this course, students will know how to create impactful UI designs and have knowledge of the tools to bring designs to fruition.

This class is a good match for students who:

• want the fundamentals of human perception and cognition that inform effective interaction design;

• want to understand how UI and Visual Design complement each other;

• want to learn the essential steps, tools and knowledge that inform effective UI & Visual Design workflows

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COMMLD 511: Intro to User Centered Design

(

Gordon

)

- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 9/29 – 12/1, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | DEN 258
Registration SLN: 13009

Course Description

This course focuses on the fundamentals of user experience design, identifying the skills and concepts needed to successfully design products and services for humans. We will learn the principles of design thinking so that students come away from the class with a framework for understanding how to identify real user problems, design solutions for how to solve those problems, and then test those solutions with real people.

Meets Research Methods Requirement

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COM 597: Mastering the Art and Science of Professional Communication

(

McCarthy

)

- 2017-2018 | Spring

MCCN Elective
Wednesdays, March 28th-May 30th, 6:00-9:50pm | CMU 242
Registration SLN: 12422

Course Description:

Few careers are changing faster than that of the professional communicator. Communications and marketing leaders have made their way into the C-suite (as Chief Marketing Officers) across the nonprofit, private, and public sectors and influence everything from branding and sales strategies to organizational culture. This course will provide necessary background on the many disciplines in the communications and marketing mix, identify areas of convergence and divergence between these disciplines, and learn how to use these tools help an organization achieve its objectives or business goals. The course will teach participants to anticipate the communications needs of a company or organization’s leadership and include a range of assignments that ask students to apply course teachings to real-world scenarios with strategic thinking, brand development, and compelling storytelling.

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© Copyright 2025 Department of Communication. University of Washington

© Copyright 2025 Department of Communication. University of Washington