2023-Sum-COM-105-ONLIN-6W1-G01-03143-Com in Global Contexts

The final syllabus will be available in the Learning Management System.

This is a past syllabus providing a general idea of what the course entails. This does not represent the current course's syllabus, requirements or expectations.

Course Overview

In Communication 105, we examine communication processes and how they influence human behavior and the construction of social realities across global contexts. Our central goal in Com 105 is to familiarize ourselves with the critical role communication plays in an increasingly global world – cultural conflict, crisis situations, brand management, and international politics, among many other contexts. The material is organized around three modules: cultural communication, risk and crisis communication, communication technology and social media.

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

As contemporary technologies and especially communication technologies change, our world becomes ‘compressed’ – the distance between people living and working in different cultural and national contexts becomes, in a way, shorter. As a result, we all need to become more literate in both the production and consumption of communication and information as these directly impact our capacity to operate in an increasingly complex and digitally oriented world in cultural communication, strategic communication and social media contexts within and across national boundaries. Specifically, Com 105 will advance students in the following course objectives:

  1. Identify primary theories and concepts in cultural, strategic and social media contexts.
  2. Recognize the potential for and challenges involved in communicating effectively in cultural, strategic and social media contexts.
  3. Demonstrate the capacity to utilize communication concepts to analyze actual cases from cultural, strategic and social media contexts.

Murrow College of Communication-Core Curriculum

Murrow SLO 1: Demonstrate knowledge of Communication Concepts. SLO2: Acquire and analyze information per communication objectives. SLO3: Create communication products (written/oral) via multiple platforms. All of which are introduced in Com 105, which is a UCORE: HUM course.

The information you need is contained within these pages and on Canvas, so keep track of it and refer to it for important course info. If you do not find what you are looking for, ask a classmate or post your question on the discussion board in Canvas. Personal concerns may be of course emailed to me.


Course Work

Students will have a clear set of directions and evaluation criteria for each specific assignment. Each rubric will involve specific criteria for each aspect of the assignment. The rubrics are available on Canvas; I highly recommend you consult the rubric for each assignment as you are working on it so that you know exactly what you will be graded on.

Lecture Viewing

Students are required to watch lectures and assignment walkthrough videos. They can be found in Canvas under the “Panopto” tab. Lecture and assignment walkthrough viewing is both mandatory and critical to your success in this class. I will assign points for lecture and assignment walkthrough viewing. You will earn 10 points for each video you watch in its entirety. 

Perusall – We will be using Perusall to complete the textbook readings each week. It is required for your success in this class, as there will be weekly readings and homework assignments to complete each week. Perusal will allow you to comment and discuss the readings with your classmates in the PDF files. You will earn up to 10 points for readings and engaging in discussion through the text. Perusal will automatically assign points for your participation in the text. It will award fewer points if you do not distribute your comments evenly throughout the text. For example, if all comments are placed on the first page of the document, you will not earn full points. Show me that you've read the entire thing!

The final due date for the daily readings will be Sunday evening at 11:59 pm PST.

Homework Assignments - Each week you will have multiple homework assignments. They can be accessed through the "Assignments" link on the left hand side of the screen. Homework assignments will cover the textbook chapters and YouTube videos assigned in the readings each week. The questions on the homework will be a combination of matching, true/false, multiple choice and fill in the blank. The homework assignments will be open Monday mornings (12:00am) and are due Sundays at 11:59pm PST.  You will want to check the "Lessons" tab on the left hand side of your screen to see what is due each week  as well as the "Schedule".

The homework questions are not timed and you can resubmit your answers as many times as you like, however you will not see a grade for the homework questions until after they are due. You will also not be able to see the answers to the questions, you will just see your score and which questions you missed. If you would like to go over the questions in more detail, you can set up a time or call/ZOOM and I will be happy to go over the questions with you.  

Analysis Papers - Following each unit, you will be required to complete an analysis paper. There is an assignment description that walks you through the expectations for the paper.

Exams - Following each unit, there will be an exam. The exam will not be proctored. It will be available online for a two day period the week it is assigned. It will be T/F, multiple choice and or matching. The exam will be timed. Each exam will be worth 100 points. There is to cumulative final. 

Discussion Boards - As this is an online class, we will also have discussion boards. For each discussion board assigned, you are expected to leave 5-7 full and complete sentences. When the discussion board asks for you to look up content, please be sure to provide a link to the source where you found the information. You should also be responding to and interacting with other students in the discussion boards.

Grading

Assignment Breakdown
Assignment Points
Canvas HW 350 points
Reading Assignments  160 points
Lecture and Assignment Videos (10 points per video)  430 points
Discussion Boards (10 points per board) 120 points 
Analysis Papers (1 paper at the end of each unit) 225 points 
Exams  300 points
Total ~1585 points

*Points may be adapted/changed as necessary to fit the needs of the semester. All updates will be posted on Canvas.

Grading Schema
Grade Percent Grade Percent
A 93-100% C 73-77%
A- 90-92%  C- 70-72% 
B+ 88-89% D+ 68-69% 
B 83-87%  D 60-68% 
B- 80-82%  F 0-59% 
C+ 78-79%