Frequently Asked Questions

+ How can I teach a C-I course without being a communication expert?

When it comes to teaching a communication-intensive course, the expertise that matters most is your knowledge of how communication fits in your field. As an expert in your discipline, you knowthe nuances of your field, and the particular formalities required of professional engagement—each of these aspects make you the expert in the room. To teach C-I, you need content expertise, a keen awareness of the best communication tools and tactics in your discipline, and a passion to share your expertise with others.

At the end of the day, remember you are the content expert ready to share your enthusiasm with your students. Trust your ability to know what communication tools are necessary and the best ways to use them. If in doubt or if you want a fresh perspective, seek out peers in your discipline or your institute’s teaching support for inspiration and consultation. Your experience, along with enthusiasm for high-impact pedagogical methods, is what’s important for teaching a communication-intensive class.

+ Won’t this mean I have to change my entire course design?

Intentional and reflective teaching takes time and adopting C-I pedagogy is really no different. You may be asking yourself if you have time to reimagine your current course or build a new one. While it will be important to consider the time cost, it is equally important to think about the potential gains.

Investing in C-I teaching means that both you and your students will gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the material. You will have created space for them to experiment, to test out how communication shares our ideas and intellect.

While implementing new pedagogical methods may originally take a while to become comfortable, once you have made the changes you want to make, and have worked with them for a semester or two, you are likely to see your workload return to a more normal level, and hopefully, you will enjoy your work more as you see better quality course products from your learners.

+ How can I teach C-I without sacrificing course content?

While this is an important question, let’s start by reviewing what is involved in C-I pedagogy. First, there is a course objective that includes communication. For many teachers, this is implied in the course content. For example, there may be a requirement that students understand and explain the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. In order to meet this objective, students need to communicate their knowledge.

In a C-I course, we make the communication goals explicit. A C-I instructor teaches the course content using formal and informal learning activities, providing a feedback loop, and focusing on disciplinary communication needs. Most instructors find that this change allows for deeper student learning of course content.

+ I teach (F2F, blended, online). Will C-I still work?

Students are asked to communicate their understanding of course material in every course, regardless of how instruction is delivered (face to face, online, blended/hybrid). Teaching models for C-I can be effective in all course delivery formats, and throughout this site we will address how C-I can be used in multiple instructional formats. Many C-I teachers have been successful in supporting student communication skill development in their courses online, face to face, and blended classrooms—in labs, seminars, and lecture courses. While the instructional platform changes the way instructors communicate with students, online offers unique opportunities for modeling and practicing communication within the discipline.

Teaching quality is not defined by the modality in which it is delivered. As Shannon Riggs noted in the book Thrive Online: A New Approach to Building Expertise and Confidence as an Online Educator, “Good teaching in any learning environment requires careful attention to course design and facilitation.”

+ I already integrate one of the modes, why should I teach two?

Multiple modes can:

• Provide more learning experiences not simply related to communication, but also to specific disciplinary content

• Help communicators identify preferred modes versus modes that need more development

• Offer more avenues to students to express talents and impress

• Extend audiences to reach different types of learners/people; new audiences outside of the field; and communicate messages more accessibly

• Reinforce communication message & student communication learning (e.g., concepts like organization is organization in many modes, a hook, etc.)

• Change scope to present different levels of information in the same communication (e.g., writing can be a summary while graphs and charts can present details)

• Create new synergies for creativity (we feel this is where a great teacher really shines; as we are fortunate to almost daily witness assignment and course design that push the envelope of traditional lecture (midterm, final) or seminar courses to inspire colleagues and students in the academy while dramatically extending engagement to even larger communities!

It is important to not confuse modes with disciplines. Writing/visuals/spoken/technological are modes of communication, while English/Art/Speech/Computer Science are disciplines. Each discipline combines modes and in different ways- but everyone, everywhere, uses multiple modes in some form. And this multimodality is a critical component of C-I pedagogy. As Bridwell-Bowles et al. (2009) asserted: “We can debate whether we are primarily in a print-based culture, an aural/oral culture, or a visual culture, but there is no arguing with the fact of multimodality.”

+ How might I frame my C-I teaching work when talking about it with others?

C-I teachers work hard and care about their teaching. Here are some ways you might talk about your C-I teaching work with others. Be sure to adapt these examples to fit your unique professional and disciplinary approaches.

Goals and learning from participating in CI teaching

As a teacher, I am committed to increasing the communication skills of my students. I do this by helping my students practice and expand their knowledge of course content through communication activities as well as real-world experience communicating their growing understanding.

Skills/approaches

CxC and teaching CI helped me to better explain my research to general audiences. My understanding of audience analysis and framing a message helps me to share my ideas with future funders, graduate students, etc.

Relevance to best practices

C-I teaching reflects best practices for teaching and learning.

Numbers

Another way to show impact is to share the number of students reached with your C-I instruction. Here are some ideas of the types of numbers you can share with others:

• students who have benefited from your CI teaching approaches
• products (# of presentations for an external audience, # websites, etc.)
• Distinguished Communicators, Communication Certificate earners

Impact

Numbers are easy, but showing impact is more challenging. Here are some ideas for how to share the impact of your C-I teaching work

• Students’ communication projects are often impactful. Share the role you played in facilitating these experiences and helping students communicate to external audiences.
• Student feedback on C-I course evaluations and teaching evaluations
• Reflection statements included with C-I projects