About Our Program > Objectives

ABOUT OUR PROGRAM
"Creating Communities of Competent Communicators"

Program Objectives
Mission and vision are empty statements if they are not realized in everyday practice. The implementation of our mission and vision is seen in the objectives that we seek to obtain when we enter the classroom, advise our students, and engage in our own scholarly efforts.

Teaching Objectives
The curriculum, programs, and learning activities provide students with critical, theoretical, methodological, and practical abilities. These abilities:

* equip students for the responsibilities of citizenship from a communication perspective;
* help students make personal and professional choices informed by an understanding of communication processes and products;
* prepare students for advanced study of skilled professional practices in communication;
* help students make ethical contributions to the communities in which they live.

Learning Objectives
As students move through the curriculum, they:

* demonstrate the ability to perform theoretically-grounded and critical evaluation of communication practices through oral and written class work;
* engage in performance-driven, active learning that combines communication theory and practice (e.g., public speaking, interpersonal communication, small group decision-making);
* participate in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities that involve them with other students and faculty. These activities include internships, departmental student organizations, peer consulting, and supervised research projects.

Scholarship Objective
As faculty members, we:

* present our work regularly to the intellectual community through publications and through presentations at regional, national and international conferences.
* receive recognition for our research in the form of honors, invitations to participate in scholarly events, citations of our work by other scholars, and sponsorship of our work from university and extramural funding agencies;
* incorporate the results of our research in our teaching and service activities.

Core Learning Objectives

1. To understand the process of contextualizing in communication practices.
2. To distinguish the differing demands and expectations inherent in different communication media (e.g., spoken, written, electronic).
3. To understand communication as a constitutive, creative and transformative phenomenon.
4. To understand the foundations and developments in the field of communication as distinct from other disciplinary perspectives on social action (e.g., psychological, managerial, etc.).
5. To appreciate communication as deeply cultured and expressive of various ways of being human.
6. To consider in a serious way the moral and ethical implications of communication practices.
7. To understand a diversity of perspectives on what communication is and how it works.
8. To discern the complexities embedded in communication practices.

Core Learning Competencies

1. The ability to organize communication and rhetorical discourses in a coherent manner.
2. The ability to gather, synthesize, and critically analyze various communication and rhetorical practices and artifacts.
3. The ability to initiate and execute a research project addressing a communicative and rhetorical phenomenon.
4. The ability to develop communication arguments and positions that are conceptually, philosophically, and theoretically coherent, rigorous, and compelling.
5. The ability to construct and sustain communication and rhetorical practices that respect peoples of diverse realities and histories.