{"id":16856,"date":"2022-01-26T10:00:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T10:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/?p=16856"},"modified":"2022-01-31T21:23:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T21:23:51","slug":"what-do-you-learn-in-a-communication-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/blog\/2022\/01\/26\/what-do-you-learn-in-a-communication-class\/","title":{"rendered":"What do you learn in a communication class?"},"content":{"rendered":"

All industries require good communication skills, but what does a communication class really look like?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Western Carolina University\u2019s Communication Department offers a variety of communication courses that enhance student learning with innovative activities and engaging curriculum material.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Instructors of three of these communication courses – Foundations of Communication, Communication Theory, and Interpersonal Communication – introduced new and unconventional ways of teaching material and concepts to their students last semester.
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Professor Susan Schall teaches Foundations of Communication (COMM 201), which focuses on basic principles of communication skills and theory for interpersonal, small group and public communication. This is a required course for all undergraduate students as part of the liberal studies curriculum at Western.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schall has been teaching at Western since 2020 and has a master\u2019s degree in speech communication from Pennsylvania State University. She has been teaching in the higher education field since her time as a teacher\u2019s assistant in graduate school, and previously taught at Mitchell Community College in Statesville, North Carolina.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schall\u2019s COMM 201 class focuses on small group interaction in which students are assigned a group for the semester where they support each other and do activities in class.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"One topic her students covered last semester was leadership in small group communication. To illustrate the importance of leadership and group roles, Schall implemented an activity where students had to work together to build a pyramid of red solo cups. The activity was challenging because each group had to increase the height of their pyramids by adding cups to the bottom of their structure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Initially, students did not know the purpose of the activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am not sure they realized we were doing more than just messing around with cups for a while. But during the debrief, they could see what I was trying to do,\u201d said Schall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because they worked in their established groups since the beginning of the semester, the students had a rapport built with one another and worked seamlessly to complete the activity. This reinforced the concept of group roles and leadership that Schall was teaching.
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Dr. Candy Noltensmeyer teaches Communication Theory (COMM 350), which covers a survey of theoretical genres used across various communication disciplines. This is a required course for all communication majors and minors as well as journalism minors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Noltensmeyer has been teaching at Western since 2012 and has been teaching communication for 18 years. She has a doctorate in communication from the University of Missouri. Noltensmeyer has been teaching since her time in graduate school, where her love for teaching started.<\/span><\/p>\n

Noltensmeyer currently teaches interpersonal communication, communication theory and research methods. In the past, she has also taught family and close relationships, foundations of communication and sex and sexuality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Noltensmeyer approaches her communication theory class in an applied fashion and works to make direct applications of each theory she teaches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She implements two assignments in class that \u201cmake a big impact on class culture and the willingness to apply principles of theory to students\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first assignment asks students to choose a song that fits some part of the theory and tell the class how it fits. The second assignment asks students to create an activity that demonstrates the theory,\u201d explained Noltensmeyer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One student in Noltensmeyer\u2019s theory class last semester created a unique and engaging activity to illustrate the social exchange theory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Following the premise of the hit Netflix series, <\/span>Squid Game<\/span><\/i>, this student focused on how individuals choose competition partners without knowing the game they are playing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis represents how often we choose partners for work or personal relationships without knowing what part they may play in our lives,\u201d explained Noltensmeyer.<\/span><\/p>\n

The activity consisted of two games: ddakji, a traditional South Korean game, and rock-paper-scissors. In ddakji, students choose a partner and attempt to flip a card over using another similar card. The winner of the first game went on to play rock-paper-scissors, and the final winners received large candy bars as their prize.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The activity was received very well by Noltensmeyer\u2019s students.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was up out of their seats so they could watch and cheer on their classmates,\u201d said Noltensmeyer.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the activity, Noltensmeyer facilitated a class discussion on the nuances of costs and rewards across a variety of relationship types.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular activity really highlighted the multiple perspectives of what a cost or reward looked like to different folks and how widely it varied,\u201d said Noltensmeyer.<\/span><\/p>\n