Health campaigns have long been viewed from a transmissive lens. That is, typically campaigns assume that medical experts, government officials, and nonprofit organizations have information about some form of care, prevention, or cure, which is then disseminated to those in need of their direction. Health communication scholars have started to…

The need for communication competence in the online environment has loomed large, made more apparent by the pandemic. Understandably, an immediate concern centers on instructors and their ability to deliver quality instruction. The authors have another educational mission, though, complementary in nature, involving the students. By designing and…

In this paper, we first frame Sprague's vision in the historical context from which it emerged. From there, we explore some contemporary concerns instructional communication researchers must grapple with, and then propose some practical next steps for envisioning instructional communication research as a platform for meaningful contributions…

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were initially adopted in 2010 and serve as high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy. The initiative has been met with mixed reviews. At the same time, the National Communication Association called for communication standards and competencies in K-12 education to enhance…

In this forum essay, the author's goal to is to offer insight as to how practitioners of communication pedagogy might consider human (inter)connection with land. The term "land" is used fully aware of the ways "landcentric" approaches in the humanities gain popularity at the expense of other ways of knowing that might relate to…

The pandemic exposed fissures within higher education that many knew existed but did not actively acknowledge. The pandemic forced everybody to see them. It is known that higher education privileges wealthy students, even before new students step on campus (Jaschik, 2019). Students' mental health is suffering as a result of the pandemic (Zhai…

In this article, we provide an overview of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and consider its implications for communication classrooms in higher education. We assert that we as communication educators have a moral imperative to consider the role of intersectionality and reproductive justice in our teaching philosophies and implementation, and to do…

The spring 2020 COVID-19 pandemic triggered a crisis in education as all instructors were suddenly required to modify face-to-face courses for remote delivery (i.e., synchronous and/or asynchronous) within a matter of days. In response to the need to move suddenly online, reliable video-conferencing software that had been unavailable in the past…

Do we study too much interpersonal communication and not enough of other topics in the instructional communication literature? This forum provides a mixed bag of both affirmative and negative responses to this question. On one hand, answering "yes" is quite defensible because there are many recent studies examining interpersonal…

In 1938, Dewey wrote "Mankind likes to think in terms of extreme opposites." In this response to the FORUM essays, Deanna Sellnow writes that she heard Dewey's words as she read the authors' struggle with the either-or question regarding the role of interpersonal communication in instructional research. She argues that this is not an…

In this article the author addresses whether educators have accumulated sufficient knowledge about interpersonal communication in the instructional context--at least as it pertains to the relational perspective--"and" whether other meaningful topics in the instructional communication literature have been ignored. The author's purpose…

In this response, Scott Titsworth analyzes similarities among the forum essays and then offers ideas for how instructional communication scholars might adopt greater situational awareness in research, theory, and application of their work. [Other essays in this forum include: (1) FORUM: Interpersonal Communication in Instructional Settings: The…

Educational encounters of the future (and increasingly, of the present) will involve a complex collaboration of human and machine intelligences and agents, partnering to enhance learning and growth. Increasingly, "students and instructors are not only talking 'through' machines, but also [talking] 'to them', and 'within them'" (Edwards…

Paul Witt challenges every reader to make a decision in response to the question: "Will the profession follow these recommendations presented in this forum?" Will "quick and dirty" survey methods be exchanged for more complex research designs?" He cautions readers to think first before replying, warning that this is a…

As students begin using more virtual and augmented reality tools for education and entertainment, they may come to expect instructors to use similar types of technology in their teaching (Kelly, 2016). Instructors may choose to employ this type of technology in the future, to create more of a real-life feel in the online classroom. The effects of…