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 3390. Health Communication. (3 Hours)
Examines how health-related organizations communicate internally and how health practitioners communicate to patients. Explores the theory, research, and practice in this emerging field.
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 3800 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 6005. Foundations of Professional Communication. (2 Hours)
Focuses on comprehensive oral, reading, and written communication skills from both academic and professional perspectives. Emphasizes developing academic acculturation and improving academic English.
CMN 6150. Communication Research and Strategy. (3 Hours)
Introduces the first two stages of an organizational communication program—research and strategy. Covers the information gathering a practitioner must perform, from organizational objectives to key stakeholder groups, to develop optimal communications solutions. Includes the three communications elements critical to achieving the desired communications outcomes—audience, message, and channel. Introduces methods for producing communications plans that support organizational performance. Offers students an opportunity to gain an understanding of the evolving roles and responsibilities of different communication functions.
CMN 6230. Content Creation and Delivery. (3 Hours)
Considers how internal and external communications networks through digital and nondigital media can be leveraged when designing and executing communication plans. Offers students an opportunity to construct multimedia signature stories to influence target audiences and to support organizational objectives. Explores stakeholder analysis, communication planning methodology, and the principles of persuasion. Students apply concepts by experimenting with various tools and platforms and learning from the experiences and reflections of their peers.
CMN 6250. Organizational Communication Assessment. (3 Hours)
Focuses on demonstrating the value of communication activities to the organization. Explores an evaluative framework and measurement tools to make data-driven decisions and recommendations for improvement. Offers students an opportunity to apply the framework to assess a communications channel for real-world organizations.
CMN 6300. Organizational Culture, Climate, and Communication. (3 Hours)
Examines the need for communication professionals to understand the environment and context for the communications programs they develop and operate. Explores how ethical issues and intercultural communication both affect and are affected by organizational communication programs. Considers key questions when it comes to topics that can trigger strong stakeholder reactions. Through discussion, real-world scenarios, and case analysis, offers students an opportunity to apply the framework and principles to answer these questions and keep the organization’s communications on the right path.
CMN 6400. Effective Meetings and Team Dynamics. (2 Hours)
Provides strategies for effective meeting preparation and facilitation. Examines challenges in the development, process, and effectiveness of organizational meetings and intervention techniques that leaders can use to reduce team tensions. Explores methods for managing both in-person and virtual meetings and team dynamics. Offers students an opportunity to develop skills in evaluating individuals’ behaviors using Team Emotional Intelligence strategies. A central part of the course involves participation in and evaluation of meeting interactions.
CMN 6600. Negotiation, Mediation, and Facilitation. (2 Hours)
Introduces the techniques of dispute resolution. Emphasizes the processes of negotiation and mediation, along with strategies for cross-cultural facilitation and ethical negotiation. Examines techniques suggested by practitioners and researchers regarding best practices for effective negotiation to produce win-win solutions and positive business outcomes. Requires students to participate in and evaluate negotiation simulations. Includes case studies and role-playing with a variety of intergenerational, international, racial, and interdisciplinary scenarios. Students practice verbal and nonverbal communication to strengthen their diplomacy and public speaking skills.
CMN 6610. Foundations and Development of Cultural Communications. (3 Hours)
Discusses methods to remedy the impediments to effective intercultural communication. Examines multiple levels of culture (e.g., ethnic, national, generational, socioeconomic) from three pillars: awareness, linguistics, and history/politics. Students investigate their personal identity and cultural awareness through two assessments. Offers students an opportunity to gain insights into communicating with different audiences by discussing the meaning of words across different languages. Examines the impact of history and politics on cultural groups and cross-cultural communication. Students develop a cultural audit connected to personal and/or career interests.
CMN 6620. Cultural Communications Lab. (2 Hours)
Introduces cultural communication within an organizational communication context. The lab’s experiential applications offer the learner an opportunity to discover the role and value of cultural resilience, along with the communication strategies and tools to promote cultural resilience. Three learning modules introduce students to data literacy, technological literacy, and human literacy. A cultural analysis self-reporting assessment (GlobeSmart or Cultural Intelligence CQ) offers important insights for learners' personal and professional cultural communication development. The lab project supports the learner’s exploration into trial and error methods to gather cultural data, analyze it, and develop a pilot or prototype cultural communications tool.
CMN 6800. Social Media Fundamentals. (1 Hour)
Examines how social media operates and how to setup personal and organizational social media accounts. Prepares students for more advanced social media courses and offers the opportunity to try out social media setup and posting in a safe setting. Designed for students interested in the study of social media who have minimal or no prior social media experience.
CMN 6810. Social Media Channels and Online Communities. (3 Hours)
Emphasizes the role of social media in supporting organizational goals. Focuses on strategy identification; community management and influencers; competitive analysis; social listening; and crisis, organizational training, and governance considerations. Studies the importance of establishing goals and objectives to guide subsequent social media development and implementation. Students develop a strategic measurement plan to gain an appreciation for social media governance issues.
CMN 6820. Social Media Content Curation, Creation, Marketing. (3 Hours)
Introduces the best practices, strategies, and tactics necessary to achieve branding, marketing, and sales success. Uses a combination of real-world case studies and experiential learning to offer students an opportunity to learn how to harness the full power of social media through the curation and creation of content that is received favorably by audience members in both personal and professional circles.
CMN 6830. Online Consumer Behaviors. (3 Hours)
Explores important concepts about consumer behaviors in online environments, including the social media environment and the electronic commerce environment. Covers consumer engagement with social media, electronic word of mouth, branding and advertising issues in social media, methodological perspectives on social media, consumers’ social media usage and online shopping behaviors, organizational use of social media marketing, and ethical issues in the social media and e-commerce environments.
CMN 6962. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
CMN 6980. Capstone. (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. Matches students with discipline-specific consulting projects provided by a wide range of sponsoring organizations in the private and nonprofit sectors. Requires students to develop a project plan, conduct research, develop and deliver recommendations to the sponsoring organization, and reflect on lessons learned. Aims to guide students to map organizational communication concepts and skills to the consultative process.
Prerequisite(s): CMN 6150 with a minimum grade of C- ; CMN 6230 with a minimum grade of C- ; CMN 6250 with a minimum grade of C- ; CMN 6300 with a minimum grade of C-
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 four times for a maximum of 20 semester hours.