Courses
CMN 1100. Organizational Communication. (3 Hours)
Introduces psychological, sociological, and communication theories as they apply to organizational life. Offers students an opportunity to analyze the importance of effective communication for organizations in a rapidly changing environment. Topics include management and leadership, culture and change, diversity, conflict management, and employee engagement. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to examine their communication skills in the context of those competencies necessary in today’s complex organizational environments.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Interpreting Culture
CMN 1990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
CMN 2310. Professional Speaking. (3 Hours)
Emphasizes the practical skill of public speaking, including methods for overcoming presentation anxiety, and the use of visual aids to enhance speaker presentations. Offers students an opportunity to prepare for a variety of typical public speaking situations and to learn the basic principles of organization and research needed for effective message design and delivery.
Prerequisite(s): ENG 1103 with a minimum grade of D- or ENG 1105 with a minimum grade of D-
CMN 2990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
CMN 3100. Negotiation. (3 Hours)
Introduces the techniques of dispute resolution. Focuses on the processes of mediation, facilitation, and negotiation. Through readings, lectures, and class activities, offers students an opportunity to explore methods of applying these skills to professional settings.
Prerequisite(s): CMN 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or CMN 1103 with a minimum grade of D- or CMN 2210 with a minimum grade of D-
CMN 3220. Introduction to Public Relations. (3 Hours)
Offers students an opportunity to gain insight into the role of public relations in assisting organizations to achieve business objectives, ranging from branding and employee recruitment to product launches and stakeholder engagement. In particular, explores the intersection of traditional PR planning methodologies with today’s internet, email, and social media communications channels. Flows from the research, strategies, tactics, and evaluation found in effective public relations plans to the major tools that a practitioner can apply to a public relations campaign. These tools include media relations, social media, websites, employee communications, community relations, and events.
Prerequisite(s): CMN 1100 with a minimum grade of D-
CMN 3350. Intercultural Communication. (3 Hours)
Focuses on gaining an advanced understanding of the concepts associated with culture and communication. Offers students an opportunity to develop intercultural awareness and patterns of perception and thinking to enable effective communication across cultural boundaries. Discusses the effect of cultural differences on communication styles, personal identities, and various organizational contexts.
Prerequisite(s): CMN 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or CMN 1103 with a minimum grade of D- or CMN 2210 with a minimum grade of D-
CMN 3360. Crisis Communication. (3 Hours)
Introduces important implications of effective internal and external communication during crises. Examines proactive and reactive approaches to crisis communication from an academic and practical perspective. Considers elements of effective crisis communication plans and tactics. Offers students an opportunity to analyze several crisis situations.
Prerequisite(s): (CMN 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or CMN 1103 with a minimum grade of D- or CMN 2210 with a minimum grade of D- ); CMN 2310 with a minimum grade of D-
CMN 3410. Digital Communication Strategy. (3 Hours)
Introduces students to a communication-planning methodology that supports an organization’s short- and long-term goals. Defining digital communication objectives, audiences, tactics, channels, and success indicators are all critical components of an effective strategy. Emphasizes content marketing and inbound marketing tactics and how they fit the voice of the customer and the voice of the organization.
CMN 3800. Designing and Implementing a Promotional Campaign. (3 Hours)
Offers students an opportunity to design and implement a digitally based promotional campaign for an external sponsoring organization. During the campaign design phase, students become part of a creative team, perform target audience research, analyze the research findings, review key performance indicators, and develop a communication plan. During the campaign implementation phase, students execute the communication plan. Implementation includes creating email marketing and social media marketing messages, calls to action, client presentations, monitoring campaign results, and performing an overall project assessment. Each phase includes project updates to the sponsor and self-reflection on the learning experience. Students develop deliverables and track their work using a leading-edge marketing automation platform.
Prerequisite(s): MKT 3010 with a minimum grade of D-
CMN 3850. Managing Communication Projects. (3 Hours)
Offers students an opportunity to manage creative teams and develop client relationships during the design and implementation of a promotional campaign for an external sponsoring organization. Topics include project leadership, client management techniques, communication planning methodology, client and team presentations, evaluation of campaign effectiveness, coaching, and supervision.
Prerequisite(s): CMN 3800 with a minimum grade of D-
CMN 3990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
CMN 4850. Capstone in Professional Communication. (3 Hours)
Seeks to guide students in developing a semester-length service-learning project that integrates theory, practice, creativity, and reflection explored throughout their communication studies. The project helps students deepen knowledge and extend ability within their chosen concentrations by having them analyze and apply what they have learned in pragmatic ways that enhance the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. Offers students an opportunity to create a portfolio of meaningful artifacts useful for career entry, development, and advancement in this writing-intensive course.
Prerequisite(s): CMN 4220 with a minimum grade of D-
Attribute(s): NUpath Capstone Experience, NUpath Integration Experience, NUpath Writing Intensive
CMN 4955. Project. (1-4 Hours)
Focuses on in-depth project in which a student conducts research or produces a product related to the student’s major field. May be repeated without limit.
CMN 4990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
CMN 6000. Introduction to Organizational Communication. (3 Hours)
Considers writing and other forms of communication as a management tool. Addresses how effective writing—in plain English—can shape project plans, motivate people, solve problems, and enhance one’s role as a communicator. Offers students an opportunity to demonstrate their writing and editing skills through research, case study analysis, and composing business-related communications as well as to develop other forms of communication, including oral presentations. As such, the two major goals of this course are to acquaint students with a step-by-step communication methodology and to provide them with an opportunity to develop and polish their writing and communication skills.
Corequisite(s): INT 6000
CMN 6005. Foundations of Professional Communication. (4 Hours)
Focuses on comprehensive reading and written communication from both academic and professional perspectives and integrates best practices in both. The key to success in any professional field is the ability to communicate effectively. Offers students an opportunity to evaluate personal adaptation to a new cultural and educational setting, including the use of learning resources.
CMN 6010. Strategic Communication Management. (3 Hours)
Focuses on the rapidly evolving role of organizational communication in the digital era. Since audience expectations regarding transparency and responsiveness are changing dramatically, the course introduces students to stakeholder analysis and the theory and practice of persuasion. Managing communication strategies requires a strong foundation in communication planning methodology in order to design communication programs and initiatives that support organizational performance. Offers students an opportunity to gain an understanding of the evolving roles and responsibilities of communication functions addressing both internal and external audiences.
Prerequisite(s): CMN 6000 with a minimum grade of C-
CMN 6020. Ethical Issues in Organizational Communication. (3 Hours)
Examines ethical questions that directly affect how organizations communicate and what they choose to relay and omit to their various audiences. Organizational women and men are compelled to make ethical decisions when they communicate. Proponents of strategic ambiguity in and for organizations have been confronted and countered by other theorists who reject ambiguity as a euphemism for lying. Analyzes cases and academic studies that reflect how ethical and unethical communication affected the fortunes of organizations. Analyzes and evaluates the practical values of ethical yardsticks.
CMN 6025. Digital Era Skills: Platforms, Tools, and Techniques. (3 Hours)
Seeks to help students develop content and community management skills by focusing on specific tools, techniques, and best practices for effective engagement on both public and private platforms (including time and information management skills). Both individual and organizational success in the digital era depends on the development of these skills by professionals in a range of disciplines. Offers students an opportunity to apply concepts by experimenting with various tools and platforms and reflecting on lessons learned from their own active engagement and to learn from the experiences and reflections of their peers.
CMN 6040. Consumer Behaviors in the Online Environment. (3 Hours)
Explores important concepts about consumer behaviors in the online environments, including the social media environment and the electronic commerce (e-commerce) environment. Topics include consumer engagement with social media, electronic word of mouth (eWOM), branding and advertising issues in social media, methodological perspectives on social media, consumer expectations and online shopping preferences in the e-commerce environment, and public policy issues in social and digital media.
CMN 6045. Leveraging Digital Technologies: Strategy, Assessment, and Governance. (3 Hours)
Focuses on the initial stages of social media initiatives: strategy identification, assessment, and governance considerations. Offers students an opportunity to learn the importance of establishing goals and objectives to guide subsequent development and implementation efforts, how to evaluate the potential for digital technologies to enable the pursuit of those goals and objectives, and how to conduct a comparative assessment of current and potential tools and practices to identify the most efficient and effective approaches. Also offers an opportunity to develop an appreciation for the governance issues that have to be considered once a commitment to leveraging new technologies has been made.
CMN 6050. Crisis Communication. (3 Hours)
Examines crisis communication from the perspective of practitioners as well as academics. Both groups have examined accommodation as well as avoidance strategies for crisis communication. Crises are a fact of life in organizations. Natural disasters, sexual harassment charges, psychopathic acts, and product callbacks are a few situations that require intelligent communication to internal and external stakeholders. Includes analysis of several crisis-communication studies, including recommendations for “what I would have done instead.” Reviews the elements of an effective crisis communication plan and development of communication tactics for a range of stakeholder audiences.
CMN 6060. Negotiation, Mediation, and Facilitation. (3 Hours)
Introduces the techniques of dispute resolution. Emphasizes the processes of mediation, facilitation, and negotiation. Examines techniques suggested by practitioners and researchers regarding best practices for effective negotiation. A central part of the course requires students to participate in and evaluate negotiation simulations.
CMN 6065. Implementation and Management of Social Media Channels and Online Communities. (3 Hours)
Focuses on the implementation and management stages of social media initiatives. Offers students an opportunity to learn how to establish/expand an organization’s initial presence on multiple platforms, define metrics for measuring success in both the short and longer terms, develop training for community managers and others, evaluate the performance of social media activities and revise strategies/tactics to adapt to feedback, and determine logical approaches for expanding a digital community and developing specific campaigns based on community activity.
Prerequisite(s): CMN 6045 with a minimum grade of C-
CMN 6075. Digital Marketing Analytics. (3 Hours)
Examines the measurement tools and analytics required to assess the effectiveness of customer acquisition and brand awareness campaigns and tactics. Focuses on the interpretation of marketing data sets and their use in performance dashboards. The ability to assess the impact of marketing communication tactics is a critical skill set. Experience with basic statistical tools is strongly recommended.
Prerequisite(s): CMN 6910 with a minimum grade of C-
CMN 6080. Intercultural Communication. (3 Hours)
Discusses the impediments to effective intercultural communication and methods for overcoming these impediments. The ease of travel, the pervasiveness of communication technology, and the realities of economic/political interdependence have made it essential for organizational women and men to be capable communicators in intercultural settings.
CMN 6085. Strategies for Cross-Cultural Facilitation and Negotiation. (3 Hours)
Examines several cultural theories, such as Hofstede’s national cultural dimensions, Hall and Hall’s contextual levels, along with Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s variations in value orientations. Culture is defined as a group of people with shared values and means of being. Offers students an opportunity to acquire skills to move from gut reactions to applying empirically tested methods for cultural interactions and diplomacy. Includes case studies and role-play with a variety of intergenerational, international, racial, and religious groups. Students practice verbal and nonverbal communication to strengthen their diplomacy and public speaking skills. The written signature assignment designs a communication collateral that meets the needs of stakeholders from two different cultures (include different languages/wording). Supports collateral differences based on cultural theories and evidence.
CMN 6090. Organizational Culture, Climate, and Communication. (3 Hours)
Examines the relationship between organizational culture and communication and discusses the advantages and elements of a supportive communication climate. Some researchers believe that the culture of the organization drives the communication quality in an organization. Examines both case analysis and academic research to address common problems pertaining to cultivating supportive communication climates and methods for improving these climates.
CMN 6095. Foundations of Developing Cultural Awareness. (3 Hours)
Examines culture from three pillars: awareness, language, and history/politics. Offers students an opportunity to investigate their personal identity and barriers by incorporating two assessments to determine personal implicit bias and cultural intelligence. Interpretations are constructed from self-reports employing the cultural intelligence (CQ) assessment and Implicit Bias Project. Focuses on the impact of languages on cultures. By identifying nonstandard language and discussing the meaning of words across different languages, offers students an opportunity to gain understanding and formulate sensitivity when communicating with different audiences, albeit intergenerational and/or international. Examines the impact of history and politics on cultural groups, specifically as related to cross-cultural communication. The written signature assignment is a personal reflection analysis on insights gained throughout the course and career aspirations.
CMN 6096. Cultural Communications Lab. (1 Hour)
Introduces cultural communication within an organizational communication context. The lab learning modules and experiential applications support the learner’s discovery of cultural resilience and how communication strategies and tools address this emerging global need. Three learning modules introduce students to data literacy, technological literacy, and human literacy. The Cultural Intelligence (CQ), a self-reporting assessment, is the basis of the learner’s application to their personal and professional cultural communication development.
CMN 6100. Communication Networks and Managing Information. (3 Hours)
Examines new electronic technologies as well as other approaches to disseminating information. Organizations can employ various methods for communicating in organizations. Analyzes what types of information must be communicated in organizations and the impediments to successful transmission of information. Uses case studies to offer students an opportunity to identify problems with information management as well as methods for ameliorating situations caused by poor communication management.
CMN 6110. Group Dynamics and Interpersonal Conflict: Meeting Management. (3 Hours)
Examines common problems with organization meetings and intervention techniques that can be employed to reduce the tensions associated with such interaction. Discusses methods used for evaluating individual members in meeting contexts. A central part of the course involves participation in and evaluation of meeting interaction.
CMN 6910. Organizational Communication Assessment. (3 Hours)
Discusses quantitative and qualitative methods for conducting assessments called communication audits. If communication is central to organizational activity, then persons must be able to assess the quality of communication within organizations. Offers students an opportunity to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each technique and to participate in conducting a communication audit.
Prerequisite(s): CMN 6010 with a minimum grade of C-
CMN 6940. Projects for Professionals. (4 Hours)
Offers students an opportunity to apply knowledge and skills gained through their organizational communication master’s program to challenging short-term projects under faculty supervision. Students are matched with discipline-specific consulting projects provided by a wide range of sponsoring organizations in the private and nonprofit sectors. They develop a project plan, conduct research, develop and deliver recommendations to the sponsoring organization, and reflect on lessons learned. Mapping organizational communication concepts and skills to the consultative process is a primary learning outcome.Application process is required. This is a capstone course.Students with less than two years of professional communication-related experience must successfully complete a noncredit Experiential Learning project before registering for the capstone course.
Prerequisite(s): CMN 6020 with a minimum grade of C ; CMN 6910 with a minimum grade of C
CMN 6962. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
CMN 6995. Project. (1-4 Hours)
Focuses on in-depth project in which a student conducts research or produces a product related to the student’s major field. May be repeated without limit.