COMS 184: Social Media and Public Relations

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  COMS 184
 CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: These open resources are being utilized in a social media and public relations course for undergraduate students by Dr. Cheng Hong at California State University Sacramento. These open resources include free certificate programs and social media open resources that provide students with the most recent trends and strategies in social media. The main motivation to adopt an open resource is that social media is a rapidly changing field. If we stay with a traditional textbook, the cost will be high for students and the materials may not be the most updated. Most students access the open resources through our course management system–Canvas.

COMS 184: Social Media and Public Relations
Brief Description of course highlights:  Examine and apply public relations principles and strategies to research, plan, execute, and evaluate social media management on different platforms. Through discussion, simulation projects, and certificate education, students explore brand communication strategies with different social media tools, social media policy, influencer marketing, employee advocacy, crisis social media, and social media measurement.

Student population:  Students who take this class are mostly communication studies and public relations majors. They have already taken the prerequisite course–Survey of public relations–and gained basic understanding about public relations principles and strategies.

Learning or student outcomes:  List student learning outcomes for the course.

• Describe how various social media platforms can be used by organizations to build and maintain relationships with stakeholders 
• Identify key performance indicators to evaluate social media strategy success
• Distinguish the features of different social media platforms
• Explain how existing mass communication and public relations theories can be used to inform social media management process
• Develop and create research-based social media strategies to reach target audiences and achieve stated objectives.

Syllabus and/or Sample assignment from the course or the adoption [optional]: To illustrates how the open textbook is used in the course.

Key challenges faced and how resolved: Finding quality materials was at first hard for me because when it comes to social media strategies, there were tons
 of information out there. I will need to be extremely careful and selective. However, it later became easier when I identified and focused on some well-established resources about social media strategies, such as HootSuite, SproutSocial. They also offered free certificate resources to higher education students so I also applied for student programs which would give my students free access to obtain their industry-recognized certificates. 

My evaluation of open resources starts with my own reading and understanding the materials. Since I know the field of social media marketing and have been exploring relevant resources, I was able to quickly locate the resources that are most updated and align with the principles and strategies in public relations. 

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: I chose to (a) include industry-recognized certificate courses/programs, and (b) create my own course materials (PowerPoints) by combining various information/resources related to the field of social media. 

Brief Description: The course materials in my class are zero cost. First, since I applied for the Hootsuite Student Program, my students were able to take the courses and obtain certificates for free. Second, I created my own course materials (powerpoints) by combining various information/resources related to the field of social media (references and citations are accurately included) and I have been updating them frequently because the social media world is changing every day. Third, I also created modules on Canvas called Social Media Resources. In that module, I have organized and offered open resources of podcasts, campaign related websites, and social media news websites. Students are required to share what they have explored and learned in this module with each other, including recent feature changes on social media platforms, successful campaigns, most updated strategies, etc.

Student access:  Canvas

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook. A textbook could cost between $40 to $100 for each student.

License: The Hootsuite materials must be copyrighted. Whereas the other social media resources are mostly open licensed, available to the general public. 

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option. I chose to use the "Adopt" approach by looking for open resources and combining them as my course materials. The main reason is that social media management is a rapidly changing field and thus my course materials need to be updated frequently. If we stay with one textbook in a traditional way, the information may be outdated and we may not be able to help our students get ready for real jobs after they graduate.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? I consulted librarians and have explored various open source textbooks. The most helpful resources that I found are the websites of established social media management tools such as HootSuite and SproutSocial, and social media case study websites such as ShortyAwards, as well as the social media platforms themselves. These websites are usually most updated and share with social media professionals the most recent news, campaigns, and resources on social media.

Sharing Best Practices: My advice is that it is not an easy job to replace course materials with AL$/OERs, but there is a long-term benefit of doing that. The best approach to make such changes might be to start from small changes and see how students respond to it.

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned.  The biggest challenge is for me to be selective when it comes to open resources about social media. There are many experts in the area who want to share their wisdom but as professors we need to be the gatekeeper and provide students with the most relevant and updated resources. 

Instructor Name - Cheng Hong
I am a Public Relations Professor at California State University, Sacramento.  

https://www.csus.edu/college/arts-letters/communication-studies/meet-us

Please describe the courses you teach.  I teach Social Media and Public Relations, Survey of Public Relations, Survey Research Methods in Communication Studies, Issue Management and Case Studies in Public Relations, etc.

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.  I believe teaching in higher education is a very rewarding process. I enjoy giving students real-world experiences and connecting them with community partners in my classes. I hope by doing so, I can help them get prepared for their career after graduation. My research interest lies in corporate social advocacy and corporate social responsibility.

I am a public relations professor at California State University Sacramento. https://www.csus.edu/college/arts-letters/communication-studies/meet-us/