Here are some things I do in my classes with my students that help you better see the kind of instructor I am.
This is a theory lesson I pared down to 5 minutes in length. It's not the entire theory, but it gives students the nuts and bolts in an amount of time they have an attention span for when they're on their electronic devices.
I created this during COVID lockdown to help students learn theory content. It's great supplemental material for learning theory.
I call these "Good Faith Effort" exercises (GFE's) because I just really want students to put good faith effort into learning course content, so I ask them to complete these. This incorporates short lesson vids, interactivity, and critical thinking which accommodates a variety of learning styles.
<---- <---- <---- Click Button on Left
With one group of students in a course project, we created and executed a Twitter conference for their peer undergraduate COM majors to publicly present the research they had conduced in their research methods course. (@ISU_COMference)
This was a great way to promote departmental undergraduate scholarship, creatively present coursework, and allow students to have a cutting-edge communication experience. It was a tremendous success, with over 800 views on some presentations!
Students in my Fall 2021 group communication course created and executed a successful campus canned food drive for the student food pantry.
This is consistent with assignments I had used in the past (2001-2003) where my courses quite literally raised thousands of dollars for charitable organizations, but this is the most recent iteration of it.
Fall 2021, in one assignment my students created and executed a super successful exhibition event to display outstanding student work in our department. This served not only to celebrate exemplary student performance but also to help motivate it.
It was a fabulous night of a myriad of different student work: videos, speeches, research papers, and more.
Our students are truly amazing!
Fall 2021, students in my Theory and Research in Small Group Communication course wanted to create and execute an etiquette dinner event for students in the School of Communication.
It was quite an experience for everyone involved. The event turned out great! And, while I learned a lot about students from the experience (I hadn't been in a small classroom working on projects with students for over a decade), I was elated that the students learned a lot from it, too (for a while I wondered, as they floundered a bit in their planning of the whole event).
Here are some of their post-event reflections:
When thinking about the future I think this class probably helped me the most. This was the first time I was asked to put on an event for class and not just make it up. I think that the real-world experience gained from the challenges presented in our groups is invaluable knowledge that you can only gain through do it. Learning that working in a group takes time but making those mistakes together only minimizes future mistakes made in the workplace. Having the pressure to get things right made me feel accomplished beyond belief when the event was over, and I could take away what I learned. -M.O.
Overall, I’ve had an absolutely incredible experience and I’ve gained so many new skills and knowledge about group communication, applying concepts to real-life events, planning, preparing an event, facilitating meetings, managing a large group, and so much more. I feel like it prepared and gave a glimpse of what the professional world could look like. -A.K.
The skills that were learned from this project are invaluable. Not only did we plan an event, but we also marketed for it, we made ads, we went into classes pitching this dinner, we had formal and informal meetings, we gained a lot of new skills as well as honing in on previous skills we already had. It was a great opportunity for us. -E.M
The Emcee
Some Attendees
Arriving to the Event
In 2006, students in my freshman "Learning in Communities" (intro to college) course partnered with graduate students in the College Student Personnel Administration program to perform service at ShareFest, a day of service in our community. They then reflected on that experience. Our class worked to spruce up the grounds at a local elementary school. This picture was featured in the local newspaper.
(This is an oldie but still a goody !)
In 2005 in my Gender In The Humanities Course, students held a "Global Gender Problems" day (I might now rename it "Gender Concerns" or "Gender Issues," but...I was younger then and sans PhD) - where they held a half-day poster session presenting their semester projects in the lobby of one of the busiest campus buildings: Fell Hall. In their projects they researched gender issues and then, obviously, created poster presentations on them.
One colleague from my department later emailed me with the following message:
"Jodi: I just wanted to commend your fine job guiding the poster session in the lobby of Fell Hall this week. I believe that Alison Bailey, Director of Women's Studies, also tried to make a trip over from Stevenson Hall to see the display. I think that the display idea is a great idea for educating our own students, but that it also really helps to get the name of the School of Communication out there. Thank you for your contribution to the Department."
(This is an oldie but still a goody. ;). )
