By: 2022 TCA Board | October 22, 2021
The following is the third installment of our informative pieces on the courses offered to MSTC students. The following discusses elective courses situated outside of the English department and available to MSTC students from the perspective of Sarah Barnes, Jules Millward, Adrienne Nip and Brooke Belcher who have successfully completed the courses.
EAC 580: Designing Instructional Systems in Training and Development
Application Elective – Department of Education | Typically offered in the Spring
Overview
If you are new to instructional design and want to understand the concepts and processes behind creating training programs, this is the course for you! Even pre-COVID, the EAC courses are taught entirely online and provide an opportunity for flexible, distance learning.
The key book in this course was Designing Effective Instruction, an excellent resource that provides a comprehensive guide on the different processes that instructional designers take to create training programs. Since this is an introductory course, the book and other readings provide a broad overview of instructional design models (ADDIE, SAM, etc.) and methods for creating training programs (needs analysis, design, development, evaluation, technology and training, etc.) rather than a comprehensive look at any one part of instructional design. Along with reading, there are discussion boards and quizzes along the way to help reinforce your understanding of instructional design concepts.
The big project for EAC 580 involved interviewing a current instructional designer and creating a paper and presentation based on that interview. Students could choose an instructional designer from their current network or consult with Dr. Petherbridge to find someone to interview. After the interview, students wrote a paper discussing the designer’s answers to interview questions, highlighting specific areas of interest, connecting the interview to course readings, and applying the interview content to the student’s own understanding of the field. The presentation involved recording a Powerpoint and voiceover (or screen capture) and sharing it with other students.
Tips
- If you have any interest in continuing to learn about instructional design, buy a hard copy (or accessible online copy) of the book. The instructional designer I interviewed uses this book in her work, and other students who continued to take instructional design electives mentioned that they refer to it over and over again.
- Find an instructional designer to interview early in the semester, even if you don’t intend to interview them right away. Especially if you are reaching out to someone you don’t know, it can be difficult to make contact initially and very stressful if you are doing it at the last minute.
EAC 584: Evaluating Training Transfer and Effectiveness
Application Elective – Department of Education | Typically offered in the Summer
Overview
An entirely online and asynchronous course, EAC 584 is a great option for students who have some knowledge of instructional design but want to learn how to create measurable impact through training programs. This course focuses on the importance of training and evaluation and teaches prospective instructional designers how to create realistic evaluation plans.
The main textbook for this course was Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation, a book that focuses on four aspects of training evaluation and how to apply them in the training and development field. This book helps instructional designers to differentiate between evaluation measures that simply look at student satisfaction or knowledge after the course and evaluation measures that actually impact work performance and business goals. The book also offers suggestions about how to create an evaluation plan, effectively track data after the course ends, and present a course evaluation to stakeholders.
The primary project in EAC 584 is a group project where members work together to create an evaluation plan for an online training program of their choice. Groups choose an online training program from a source like LinkedIn Learning; then, they write a report stating how they would implement this program in an imaginary company and then evaluate this program at the four Kirkpatrick levels. In this report, groups answer questions such as the following: how will we evaluate student satisfaction with the course? How will we help students apply the course materials in their individual positions? What kind of data will we collect to prove that this training program is effective?
Tips
- Set up regular group meeting times early (particularly if you take this class in the summer). Since this course is online and asynchronous, group members may be in different time zones or have full-time jobs that can impact scheduling.
ECI 586: Introduction to Learning Analytics
Application Elective – Department of Education | Typically offered in the Fall
Overview
ECI 586 is a course that focuses on analyzing data in the context of educational research intended to understand and improve student learning. You’ll gain exposure to key concepts in Learning Analytics as well as experience using common industry tools and techniques to analyze data. Even if your primary focus isn’t education, this course will still allow you to gain valuable skills and learn a new programming language that is useful and applicable to analyzing data in many different contexts.
This is an online and asynchronous course that uses lessons in the programming language R to engage students with varied applications of analytics from numerous diverse data sources. The course is structured using modules which each span three weeks and build upon one another. In each module, the first week consists of conceptual reading and discussion. Discussions and readings range from foundational concepts to different methods such as text-mining, sentiment analysis, and data visualization. The second week focuses on learning new concepts in R through structured tutorials and exercises. The third and final week builds on the foundational concepts and exercises in the form of a case study where you utilize the skills learned in the module to work with real data sets and create data products. Throughout the process, the instructor provides troubleshooting support and you can often tailor the data products to your individual interests. At the culmination of the course, students use the skills and concepts learned throughout the course to conduct an independent analysis on a self-selected topic resulting in an original data product. The flexibility of this final project allows you to tailor your interests so that your analysis and data product are applicable to your career interests or field of study.
Tips
- Don’t be intimidated by learning a new programming language. The class consists of learners from a variety of skill levels – learners of all skill levels are welcome!
- Remember to reach out to your instructor and peers as they are valuable learning resources who can also help with troubleshooting code.
- Start thinking about your final project earlier as you’re working through your modules. Consider how the concepts and strategies you are learning can be applied to work that you are interested in.
COM 523: International and Intercultural Communication
Application Elective – Department of Communication | Typically offered in the Fall
Overview
This course dives into international and intercultural communication theories and issues. Professor Johnson has detailed powerpoint presentations that are coupled with readings where theories are applied or expanded in different cultural contexts.
In this course, we analyze how verbal and non-verbal forms of communication vary by cultures. We learn about cultural patterns to help avoid conflict and improve intercultural communication. We learn about cultural identity, cultural adaptional, traditional/digital media, stereotypes and prejudices.
Each week, there were approximately 3 articles to read, averaging 30-100 pages. Each student is able to select two readings throughout the semester to be a Discussion Leader for. This discussion leadership accounts for 20% of your grade. Another 20% is your participation in other’s discussions and various in-class activities. 60% of your grade comes from the Research Paper. Your Research Paper Draft is 10% of your final grade. The Research Paper itself accounts for 40% of your final grade. And the final assignment, a Research Paper Presentation, is 10% of your final grade.
I think anyone in Tech Comm could benefit from taking this course. It opened my eyes to cultural differences present in society and how that impacts communication on every level.
Tips
- Try to select your Discussion Leader readings as quickly as possible. The professor will likely share a Google Doc with the readings broken down by date. You can preview the readings and select ones you are most interested in to lead the discussion. Also, if you know you’ll be busy one particular week, you can sign up for another week to lead the discussion to help even out your workload.
- Since Participation is such a large chunk of class, make sure you talk at least once per class, if not more.
- Try to make friends in class early on – having a peer to bounce ideas off of will help throughout the semester.
COM 530: Interpersonal Communication in Science and Technology Organizations
Application Elective – Department of Communication | Typically offered in the Summer
Overview
This course combines theory and research of interpersonal communication to better understand issues within organizations, practices in active listening, management of conflict, communication in teams, and more. In this class, students will learn how to develop and maintain effective interpersonal relationships at work to improve student’s communication competence.
Each week has a similar grouping of assignments; readings, lectures, discussion posts, case analyses, and “try it out” exercises. A lot of this course is centered on professional self-improvement. How to be a better communicator and peer. Students take a personality assessment, reflect on that assessment, and at the end of the semester, will reflect on everything they’ve learned in the course and create a Self-Improvement Report. I think this is a fantastic course to take as a communicator who plans to work in a professional setting.
Tips
- The readings for this course are from a coursepack you have to purchase. Not wildly expensive but not free.
- NOTES: I took this course over the summer so it was packed into 5 weeks. I think the pacing of the course worked well under the condensed schedule so I’d recommend trying to take it over the summer if you can. I’m sure it is still a great class during a full-length semester.