Long before the first day of class, students have preconceived notions about what a communication research methods class will consist of: mathematics, incomprehensible topics, boring content, and overall agony. These notions automatically make a research methods instructors' job quite difficult (Denham, 1997). Not only do they have to explain…

One of the goals for an undergraduate Communication Research Methods class is that students be able to read quantitative communication research from scholarly journals, identify the variables being studied, and understand the methodology employed. This sounds simple enough, but most students come into the class having never even seen a scholarly…

This article presents an activity that makes use of a questionnaire similar to a Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA) which elicit students' responses about their previous speaking experiences, their own definitions of anxiety and its causes, and their plans for future careers. This activity is aimed at helping students overcome…

Students just starting out in communication, or those who have been studying it for a while, often have difficulty understanding the various ways to view "communication." One way to help students make sense of the field is to look at it from the various traditions in the discipline. Craig (1999) identified the similarities and differences among…

Integrating "The West Wing" in public relations courses can effectively dramatize the concrete and abstract dimensions of public relations. In turn, students see public relations in action (albeit fictionally so) and learn much about it through structured lessons. From individual writing assignments about situations in "The West Wing," to the…