Communication Studies, COMM 4390: Capstone in Mass Communication

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  Communication Studies, COMM 4390: Capstone in Mass Communication
 CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a Communication Studies course for undergraduate or graduate students by Dr. Kate Kurtin at California State University, Los Angeles. The open textbook provides free resources for students in the course. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was to limit the cost for students. Most student access the open textbook in Canvas, our LMS.

Communication Studies, COMM 4390: Capstone in Mass Communication

Brief Description of course highlights:  Course Description: Demonstration of fundamental knowledge of the Communication discipline with a specialization in Mass Communication culminating in a portfolio project in Public Relations and/or Advertising.

Student population: This class is typically the final class that communication students take.  Because of that, they are exclusively graduating seniors.   Cal State LA is a minority-serving institution.  You can learn more about our student population at calstatela.edu

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

1. Ability to demonstrate knowledge of the fundamentals of the fields of the Communication Discipline including communication theory, research methods, superior writing, and public speaking;
2. Ability to demonstrate a knowledge of Public Relations or Advertising by delivering a professional portfolio;
3. Preparing students with the tools to promote themselves to the next stage in their careers either by entering a graduate program or the workforce. 

Key challenges faced and how resolved: Our students all need jobs after graduation.  For our Mass Communication students, most of them want to go into creative fields like Public Relations and Advertising.  In order to get a job in those fields, you need an internship.  Most of our students work full time, take 4 or 5 classes, and have other responsibilities (taking care of children, parents, etc).  Because of that, this class gets the students an internship with a real client, while they also get credit for a class.  This class uses resources the students have gained throughout their time at Cal State LA.  Historically I required all of the books from the previous classes.  The problem is that students typically sell their books after the classes ends.  Instead of having them rebuy the materials, this semester I found open source materials for them instead.

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: More than 15 resources used, - ZenXLA Reading List Fall 2024.pdf

Brief Description: This class is pre-professional and focuses on various elements of advertising and Public Relations. I divided the recourses by area and used a combination of books, articles, and examples.

Student access:   The students will access the material from the reading list in Canvas 

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  Using free and open materials saved the students an average of $75 for this class.

License: . I focused on openly licensed materials

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option. As indicated above, I wanted to students money, and customize materials for that will help in this internship environment.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? I browsed OER sites that were provided.

Sharing Best Practices: There is still so much I don’t know about this. I think additional training and more opportunities like this for faculty to get involved in great. I would also like to see the school library buying more books for our students to use and the school bookstore giving discounts on material that cannot be open sourced.

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned. This is still new and the exact materials I needed were not out there.  That is why I needed to use so many.  Also, the system of connecting the material to canvas could be seamless and that would make it better to use because I could put the material directly in the module instead of a reading list. 

Instructor Name - Kate Kurtin
I am a Communication Studies professor at the California State University, Los Angeles.

Please provide a link to your university page.
https://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/kate-kurtin 
 
Please describe the courses you teach.  I teach mass communication, media effects, media literacy, children and media, advertising, and graduate courses.

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.   I like to teach in a pre-professional way.  My students are here to get jobs and I want to make them the most qualified they can be.