ISUComm

Vision

ISUComm offers a vision of communication education appropriate to a changing world of communication practice. In particular, ISUComm promotes a curriculum that is contemporary in its attention to new forms of information technology, comprehensive in addressing the many manifestations of communication expertise, and consistent in its emphasis of ongoing communication experiences throughout the entire undergraduate career. The goal of this curriculum is to prepare our graduates to communicate with confidence and integrity in the varied contexts of their academic, professional, and civic lives.

Mission

The mission of ISUComm is to enact this vision in three ways. First, to address the changing nature of communication practice, ISUComm will integrate instruction in written, oral, visual, and electronic communication (or WOVE) and apply this integration to the variety of academic, professional and civic discourse. Second, to prepare all students for the diversity of contemporary communication, ISUComm will cultivate a full range of communication competencies: from critical reading practices to comprehensive research methods; from clear prose to effective oral presentation; from the systematic analysis of textual, verbal, and visual media to the development, design, and delivery of well-reasoned arguments. Third, to accommodate this broad and complex agenda, ISUComm will provide two, three-credit courses, taught in the first and second years, then build on this foundation by promoting regular communication instruction in advanced courses, including courses in the major.

Means

To realize its vision and fulfill its mission, ISUComm will place special emphasis on well-prepared teachers. That is, teachers contributing to ISUComm at both the foundation course and upper-division levels must receive effective education in WOVE pedagogy and suitable support for their efforts if ISUComm is to have a significant impact on student communication. In brief, effective teachers are the cornerstone of ISUComm.

Basic principles

The faculty of Iowa State University believes that all educated people should be able to communicate effectively in a variety of settings and media. Consequently, Iowa State University graduates are expected to develop competence in four interrelated areas of communication: written, oral, visual, and electronic.

This communication competence can best be achieved through the following five principles:

1. Communication instruction and practice are distributed over the student’s entire undergraduate experience, both in and out of the classroom, from the first through the senior year.
2. Communication instruction and practice are distributed across the curriculum, both in communication courses and in courses in the student’s major.
3. Active learning and higher-order thinking are fostered through communication.
4. Faculty across the university share responsibility for the student’s progress in communication practices.
5. Both faculty and students engage in ongoing assessment for continuous improvement of the student’s communication practices.

Iowa State University’s communication curriculum, based on these five principles, seeks to enrich the student’s understanding of the various subjects studied as well as prepare the student to communicate successfully in professional, civic, and private life.

Iowa State University’s communication curriculum, based on five basic principles, (see pre) enriches each student’s understanding of various subjects while preparing each student to communicate successfully in professional, civic, and private life.

Foundation courses

To ensure that broad communication competence is addressed and developed at the beginning of a university career, all students will earn six credits in the two-course introductory sequence, normally taken in the first and second years. Students will focus on writing and critical reading, with complementary instruction in visual, oral, and electronic communication; they will concentrate on civic and cultural themes; and they will enter work in a communication portfolio to document their current level of proficiency.

Upper-level curricula

Continuing development of communication skills will be directed by the student’s major department. Using the university’s basic principles as a guide, each department will specify a set of intended learning outcomes and design communication experiences by which students in the major can achieve the desired level of communication proficiency.

Departments may select from or combine a variety of communication options that best match their faculty, students, and curriculum:

• designated communication-intensive courses that integrate written, oral, and visual communication into a course in the major;
• a sequence of courses within the major that incorporates communication tasks of increasing complexity;
• linked courses—one in communication, one in the major—that integrate readings and assignments;
• advanced communication course(s) appropriate to the student’s major and offering instruction in written, oral, and visual communication;
• communication-intensive activities within or beyond course work, such as communication portfolios, discipline- or course-specific student tutoring, community service projects, internships, electronic presentations, informational fairs, juried competitions, entrepreneurial projects, newsletters, websites.

Departments are responsible for regularly assessing the degree to which their students achieve the specified learning outcomes and for making curricular improvements based on departmental assessment data.