Spring 2017  |  COMM 4250 Section 001: Environmental Communication (53189)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Discussion
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
Completely Online
Class Attributes:
Community Engaged Learning
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Online Course
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/17/2017 - 05/05/2017
12:00AM - 12:00AM
Off Campus
Virtual Rooms ONLINEONLY
Course Catalog Description:
Historical, cultural, material contexts within which environmental communication takes place. Understand environmental communication as well as develop communication strategies that lead to more sustainable social practices, institutions, and systems.
Class Notes:
For more information about this course, please visit: http://classinfo.umn.edu/?pedeltmh+COMM4250+Spring2017
Class Description:

4250 is an online course that takes you out into the field.

Effective communication helps people create sustainable communities and institutions. Whether you are an average citizen concerned about toxins in local lakes, a salesperson marketing biodegradable products, or a scientist explaining the results of climate change research to policy makers, it is essential to know how to communicate clearly, creatively, persuasively, and accurately about environmental issues.



COMM 4250 is not just an online course; it is also a field-based experience. You will explore a field site and create an interpretive talk about an environmental issue relevant to that site. Your field site can be any public place: a national park, state park, city park, wilderness area, campus, superfund clean-up site, river, stream, private land with a public access easement, or any other public site that you care about. If you don't have fun, you aren't trying hard enough.



As part of a land grant university, we share a commitment to public lands and clean, safe, just, and biodiverse ecosystems. You will teach us all how to make the University of Minnesota's land grant rhetoric a lived reality. You will develop your project on a week-by-week basis with the assistance of instructor feedback, course readings, a project guide, and help from your classmates. You will demonstrate that you have learned course concepts and skills by applying them at your field site. The adventure begins.


Grading:

Weekly Quiz (30%)



Each week you will take a ten-question, multiple-choice quiz over the reading and key concepts. Rather than extensive reading, COMM 4250
reading assignments are reasonably paced, but they are to be used and understood well, not skimmed over. The weekly quizzes will provide a structured way to learn key concepts and essential information while allowing you to demonstrate what you have learned.



Weekly Project Reports (30%)



Each week you will submit a weekly report to a Moodle assignment module by midnight on Thursday (no late reports accepted under any conditions; do not ask for an exception). Each week's instructions are provided in the weekly Moodle report instructions. In the reports you will demonstrate progress on the interpretive talk assignment and use your project to examine concepts or cases in the reading assignments. The instructors will read, grade, and provide feedback based on your weekly reports.



During the third week of class, every student is required to meet with the instructor
in person or, if the instructor cannot travel to your campus, via Google Chat. The instructor will assist each student in working out a site and subject that works for their individual needs, background, and interests.



You will spend the first part of the class doing research and design and the second half of the semester crafting, rehearsing, and then performing your interpretive talk. One goal of the course is to help you produce a professional presentation, one worthy of showing to a potential employer.



Interpretive Talk (30%)



You will create an interpretive "nature talk" for presentation at a public site. This will also constitute your final exam. The classic "ranger talk" is adaptable to all environmental interests, perspectives, talents, professions, and majors. You will use scientific information, historical data, social research, and/or artistic expression. It is up to you. You will craft the performance to fit your personal goals, talents, and interests. You could tell the story of historical preservation efforts at Itasca state park, or present a scientific lecture-tour about toxic pollution at a superfund site that abuts a wilderness preserve, or perform a song in your local park that references bird communication, or advocate for better city park access policies, or provide a sustainability tour of your campus, or...you get the idea, there are thousands of possibilities. Each week's instructions are available on Moodle. If you follow the instructions each week, you will have a quality project by the end of the semester. The instructors and your classmates will help you to produce a quality presentation.



The final version of your interpretive talk will be uploaded as a video, using your smartphone, tablet, or camera (or, video cameras can be checked at each campus, see Moodle for links to video resources at each campus). The "conference cut" of your video is due by midnight on Thursday, April 21. If after receiving feedback and a preliminary grade on the conference cut you are satisfied with that grade and your video, you do not need to complete another version. However, if you would like to improve your grade on the project after submitting the conference cut, you will be allowed to submit a final, revised version of the talk by [final exam time and date TBA] for a final grade. Note: the interpretive talk, as the culminating assignment for the course doubles as your final exam. You will have demonstrated that you have mastered environmental communication by completing a quality interpretive talk.



Participation (10%)



Environmental communication requires active engagement and collaboration. Those skills will be practiced in this course. The class is a learning community as well as a working community, not unlike the typical nonprofit organization, business, or governmental agency. Your forum contributions and VoiceThread activity will be assessed at the end of the semester. Forum and VoiceThread activities will range from posting a comment in a class discussion to providing peer feedback on classmates'
scripts and videos. You will be encouraged to use the forum to form an online community with students completing similar projects (e.g., students emphasizing the physical sciences, creative performance, talks with similar ecological issues, working at similar sites, etc.).


Exam Format:

Weekly Quiz

Each week you will take a ten-question, multiple-choice quiz over the reading and key concepts. Rather than extensive reading, COMM 4250 reading assignments are reasonably paced, but they are to be used and understood well, not skimmed over. The weekly quizzes will provide a structured way to learn key concepts and essential information while allowing you to demonstrate what you have learned.
See "Grading" section to read about your interpretive talk, the final version of which also constitutes your final exam
Class Format:
online and "in the field" (read Course Description, above, so see what that means)
Workload:
10 multiple choice questions and two pages of reporting per week (a weekly report about your developing project activities). Peer engagement on the Moodle forum (occasional posts). Watch one 12-60 minute video per week and listen to one 5-30 minute audio podcast. Read an average of one textbook chapter per week.
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/53189/1173
Syllabus:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/syllabi/pedeltmh_COMM4250_Spring2017.docx
Past Syllabi:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/syllabi/pedeltmh_COMM4250_Spring2016.docx (Spring 2016)
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
2 November 2015

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