Program Learning Outcomes
The Communication Baccalaureate of the Department of Communication at Dixie State University is driven by specific learning outcomes, skills and competencies that the degree is designed to reach in both human and mediated communication. These include:
Theory - Explain and apply concepts from communication theoretical traditions in small groups, business, interpersonal, mass media, and public settings.
Content Creation - Create appropriate and effective messages based on skilled analysis of the audience and situation using mediated and non-mediated presentations with a variety of purposes.
Critical Thinking - Apply good reasoning, critical thinking and problem solving skills in interpersonal, small group, organizational, public, and mass media settings.
Research - Apply effective skills in researching, organizing, and writing appropriate professional documents, personal communication, and effective communication analysis.
Global Perspective - Demonstrate effective cross-cultural communication knowledge and skills in achieving a global perspective.
Ethics - Exercise ethical principles in all aspects of the communication discipline.
This course, New Social Media, seeks to sustain these outcomes through the student learning objectives below.
Student Learning Outcomes
This intermediate course is designed for majors in the New Media track interested in how and why new social media works. Curriculum focuses on the emergence and progress of social media, monitoring personal social media usage, gathering data, analyzing innovations and platforms and their uses in networking, marketing and disseminating information.The Communication Baccalaureate of the Department of Communication at Dixie State University is driven by specific learning outcomes, skills and competencies that the degree is designed to reach in both human and mediated communication. These include:
Theory - Explain and apply concepts from communication theoretical traditions in small groups, business, interpersonal, mass media, and public settings.
Content Creation - Create appropriate and effective messages based on skilled analysis of the audience and situation using mediated and non-mediated presentations with a variety of purposes.
Critical Thinking - Apply good reasoning, critical thinking and problem solving skills in interpersonal, small group, organizational, public, and mass media settings.
Research - Apply effective skills in researching, organizing, and writing appropriate professional documents, personal communication, and effective communication analysis.
Global Perspective - Demonstrate effective cross-cultural communication knowledge and skills in achieving a global perspective.
Ethics - Exercise ethical principles in all aspects of the communication discipline.
This course, New Social Media, seeks to sustain these outcomes through the student learning objectives below.
Student Learning Outcomes
Facebook and Twitter are the social media of study with the overarching goal to develop graduates with marketable new social media skills in creating content, targeting audiences and monitoring reactions.
To this end, if you show up regularly, listen and contribute to discussion, and do the activities involved in this course’s curriculum, you will be able to:
- Understand the emergence, progress, and damages of social media,
- Assess impacts of social media and citizen journalism on being well informed,
- Increase awareness of communication contexts involved in social media,
- Create, maintain and promote a Facebook account,
- Create a social media campaign,
- Execute basics of Facebook advertising,
- Cross-promote a social media campaign,
- Collect and assess campaign analytics,
- Apply social media marketing principles in different organizations.
- Increase critical approaches in evaluating social media content.
Item Pool
These activities are designed to get you discovering different aspects and applications of social media, develop a working knowledge of specific social media technology, and contribute to your portfolio. Be certain to read the rubric, linked to each assignment for the full scope of what's expected.
On the Media (Objectives 1, 2 and 3) 300 Points - Three posts at 100 points each
Listen each week of the semester to the program, On the Media. During the semester, choose three of their stories from their broadcasts and post your thoughts/opinion/argument about the content of that story on your class blog. Create a discussion on at least one of your peers' posts as well.
Well Informed Posts (Objectives 1, 2, 3 and 10) 300 Points - Three posts at 100 points each
Throughout the semester we'll be researching and discussing certain hot spots in social media in an effort to examine what it means to be well informed. As of this writing those topics deal with Politics and Social Media, Fake News, Security and Privacy, Law Enforcement and Racism, Learning and Thinking, Radicalization and Religion, Terrorism and Tribalism, and Syria and Immigration.
Choose three of these topics to research and post on them being sure to follow the rubric expectations. I'm expecting you to be prepared to join and contribute to the discussion, both online and in class. Post on your blog what you've found to be relevant by the Tuesday, beginning of class time, of that week's topic. Check the schedule. Follow up your posts, or those of your peers by continuing the discussion after the class meetings for the week.
Social Media and Political Science (Objectives 1, 2, 9 and 10)
What are the effects of social media on our country's political and electoral process? Over the course of this semester we'll have ample opportunity to examine anecdotal and real evidence of social media and networking effects on America's constitutional processes, from legislation and law enforcement, to how the most powerful office on the planet will be reformed. There has been no greater need than now to be competent in deciphering social media impacts on civil discourse, public opinion and democracy in general.
Social Media Campaign (Objectives 4 - 9) 300 Points
Create your social media campaign, a designated Facebook page designed to promote your communication objectives cross-promoted on other social media such as Twitter and Instagram. Plan your approach and present the plan to the class. Develop your social media presence and promote your agenda via pages with specific content strategies and create demand through social media ads and integrating campaign approaches through other social media channels. Collect baseline data from Facebook Insights. Analyze and evaluate it, interpreting user and interaction data in terms of demographics, page views, and media consumption, and discuss how the numbers reflect your attempts in reaching your campaign goals.
The Automatic Attitudinal Response (Objective 10) 100 Points
During this semester you'll be exposed to and will write about various issues ranging from On The Media and chances are there was something you heard that made you default to a primary certitude, a hidden assumption, or an ethnocentric position. Since a big part of changing the way one thinks is recognizing certain automatic attitudinal responses like those listed above, I'm asking you to write about recognizing your own default responses within your own writing - assertions you've posted in your responses to the OTM assignment.
Policies and Resources
Qualification
As a core class for the Bachelor of Communication degree, you need to achieve a C+ or higher as the grade outcome of this class for it to count towards your degree requirements.
Missing Class
Class attendance goes without question. Two absences and your evaluation drops one whole grade. Four absences results in administrative withdrawal or if after the withdraw deadline, failing the course. There is no such thing as an excused absence. You show up or you don’t. The drop date this semester is April 7th.
Plagiarism and Cheating
Plagiarism is the use of another source’s words, ideas or statistics without their permission and/or proper citation. Anyone who plagiarizes material in my class will receive a grade of zero on that assignment. Anyone found cheating on term assessments will fail the test, though I also reserve the right to assign you an “F” for the course and/or refer you to our chair for further sanctions. If you submit a falsified electronic document that I cannot open, you will fail the assignment. Please keep in mind that one can be expelled from the college for academic dishonesty.
Also see Academic dishonesty / Academic integrity policy.
Electronic Devices
Bring your technology to class, your tablets, laptops and smart phones, and use them in our discussions and presentations. But, please don't text, call or surf online for anything not having to do with the day's topic. Please put your phone on vibrate. Should your device make any ring or notification sound, interrupting class, you owe me a completely stamped Waffle Love card.
Submission of Assignments
Any work for this class that is to be submitted by means other than online will be submitted as a google doc. This ensures I can open your document and verify contents regardless of platform. No other format will be accepted. Format your submissions in the subject line with the course number, assignment, and your name. If I were submitting the first assignment for COMM3480, my subject line would read:
COMM3480, Assignment 1, Young.
Likewise, if you email me a link to your work on your blog, please format the subject line in the same manner.
Assignments are due the date indicated on the course schedule on this web site. I don't accept late work nor do I accept technical excuses like a crashed computer or an email glitch. Papers are due by the beginning of class. Work containing typographical and grammatical errors will be returned without evaluation. Proof your work. The college provides a free service for students desiring additional assistance with their writing assignments. The Writing Center is located in the Browning Building. Call Barbara Turnbow at 652-7743 for information.
Email Communication
Important class and college information will be sent to your D-mail account. All DSC students are automatically assigned a D-mail email account. Click and select D-mail for complete instructions. You will be held accountable for information sent to your D-mail, so please check it often.
Hostility
I reserve the right to remove any student from this class and/or program based on documentable breech of citizenship such as sexual harassment, hostile environment, discrimination based on race, religion, gender and/or sexuality, as well as plagiarism, misrepresentation, and/or malicious gossip.
Withdrawal and Drop Deadlines
Please consult the semester schedule for withdrawal and reimbursement deadlines. You will be charged a $10 fee for dropping this class. No, I don't see a penny of it.
Late Work and Missing Tests
Should you miss an assessment due to medical reasons, you must provide documentation that states you were otherwise occupied at the time or in the general vicinity of class time. All excused absences must be presented right after the absence, and will be verified. I will determine what is excused. Any missed exams will only be made up with appropriate excused documentation.
Students with Disabilities
If you are a student with a medical, psychological or a learning difference and requesting reasonable academic accommodations due to this disability, you must provide an official request of accommodation to your professor(s) from the Disability Resource Center within the first two weeks of the beginning of classes. Students are to contact the center on the main campus to follow through with, and receive assistance in the documentation process to determine the appropriate accommodations related to their disability.
You may call (435) 652-7516 for an appointment and further information regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 per Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The office is located in the Student Services Center, Room #201 of the Edith Whitehead Building.
Bias, Discrimination and Harassment
DSU seeks to provide an environment that is free of bias, discrimination, and harassment. If you have been the victim of sexual harassment/misconduct/assault we encourage you to report this to the college'sTitle IX Director, Cindy Cole, (435) 652-7731, cindy.cole@dixie.edu. If you report to a faculty member, she or he must notify the Title IX Director about the basic facts of the incident.
Library and Literacy Contacts
Dianne Hirning is the librarian over Communication resources. She is your resource and guide for research within this discipline. You can reach her at hirning@dixie.edu and by phone at 652-7720.
Resources:
* Library - http://library.dixie.edu
* Writing Center - http://new.dixie.edu/english/dsc_writing_center.php
* Testing Center - http://new.dixie.edu/testing
* Tutoring Center - http://dsc.dixie.edu/tutoring/
Should you miss an assessment due to medical reasons, you must provide documentation that states you were otherwise occupied at the time or in the general vicinity of class time. All excused absences must be presented right after the absence, and will be verified. I will determine what is excused. Any missed exams will only be made up with appropriate excused documentation.
Students with Disabilities
If you are a student with a medical, psychological or a learning difference and requesting reasonable academic accommodations due to this disability, you must provide an official request of accommodation to your professor(s) from the Disability Resource Center within the first two weeks of the beginning of classes. Students are to contact the center on the main campus to follow through with, and receive assistance in the documentation process to determine the appropriate accommodations related to their disability.
You may call (435) 652-7516 for an appointment and further information regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 per Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The office is located in the Student Services Center, Room #201 of the Edith Whitehead Building.
Bias, Discrimination and Harassment
DSU seeks to provide an environment that is free of bias, discrimination, and harassment. If you have been the victim of sexual harassment/misconduct/assault we encourage you to report this to the college'sTitle IX Director, Cindy Cole, (435) 652-7731, cindy.cole@dixie.edu. If you report to a faculty member, she or he must notify the Title IX Director about the basic facts of the incident.
Library and Literacy Contacts
Dianne Hirning is the librarian over Communication resources. She is your resource and guide for research within this discipline. You can reach her at hirning@dixie.edu and by phone at 652-7720.
Resources:
* Library - http://library.dixie.edu
* Writing Center - http://new.dixie.edu/english/dsc_writing_center.php
* Testing Center - http://new.dixie.edu/testing
* Tutoring Center - http://dsc.dixie.edu/tutoring/
