Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons^™

Basic Course Forum: Section Introduction

Basic Communication Course Annual

Volume 30 highlights advocating for the basic course. Authors were asked to prepare an essay as if they were writing a letter to their dean (whose academic training was in another discipline) who (1) asked that enrollment in each basic course section be increased to a level that compromises the pedagogy of the basic course or (2) proposed that the required basic communication course be eliminated from the university’s general education program. The essays featured here provide strong arguments against such a move and, as you might expect, strongly defend the basic course.

Communication Apprehension: Understanding Communication Skills And Cultural Identity In The Basic Communication Course, Stevie M. Munz, Janet Colvin

Basic Communication Course Annual

Students enrolled in a basic communication course are required to self-examine their communication apprehension by means of the PRPSA (McCroskey 1970). The present study qualitatively examined pretest and posttest responses from 793 students enrolled in a basic communication course to assess their understanding of their communication apprehension. Our findings reveal that students articulate their communication apprehension in relationship to their public speaking skills (e.g., writing/outlining, audience analysis, and argumentation skills) and cultural identity (e.g., ESL, peer relationship, and religious identity). Our findings contribute to previous understanding of communication apprehension and are discussed in great detail alongside implications and future directions.

Conceptualizing Positive And Negative Experiences And Responses In The Basic Communication Course, Angela Hosek, Caroline Waldbuesser, Eric Mishne, Brandi Frisby

Basic Communication Course Annual

The present study used qualitative analysis of 259 students’ positive and negative experiences in the basic course and the ways in which they responded to these events. Students described four negative experiences: poor academic performance, time management, communication apprehension, and teacher driven challenges and four positive experiences: relational, growth, and presentation success. Students responded to these negative experiences using behavioral change, support seeking, doing nothing, and responded to positive experiences using emotive responses, communication with others, engaging in celebrating activities, applying skills, and lacking celebration.

“I Didn’T Even Think Of This”: Examining The Influence Of Student Disability Accommodation Training On Basic Course Instructors’ Attitudes And Self-Efficacy, Jillian A. Joyce

Basic Communication Course Annual

Despite the growing number of students with disabilities in the university setting, few resources are offered to teach instructors about specific disabilities or provide direction for how to accommodate these students. This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the influence of accommodation training on basic communication course graduate teaching assistants’ attitudes and self-efficacy regarding students with disabilities. The training used attribution theory as a lens to examine stuttering, a stigmatized disability that can uniquely affect the basic course classroom, and explore the logistical requirements for accommodating students in postsecondary education. This study used pretest and posttest data from …

Assessing Markers Of Student Development For Dually And Non-Dually Enrolled Students In An Online Basic Public Speaking Course, Joshua N. Westwick, Karla M. Hunter, Kelli J. Chromey

Basic Communication Course Annual

Critics of college dual enrollment programs suggest that online courses could pose significant challenges for dually enrolled students due to the online learning environment structure, concerns of academic achievement, and limited access to academic support. These concerns call into question the merits of online instruction for institutions who offer the basic public speaking course online to provide access to a broader base of students (e.g., in inner cities and rural areas). Dual enrollment continues to increase in popularity, especially within the general education curriculum, which includes the basic public speaking course at many institutions. Research shows these students excel academically, …

Engaging Students In The Basic Course By Asking Big Questions, Bryan Abendschein, Grace Giorgio, Adam D. Roth, Jennifer Bender

Basic Communication Course Annual

This paper advocates for the inclusion of big questions into the basic course curriculum. It begins by exploring the nature of big questions as those that engage pressing and perennial civic and global issues, and details their effectiveness in encouraging students and faculty to think about interpersonal responsibility and social space as dynamically interfacing and mutually reflexive, thus challenging us to negotiate the civic call of engaging in democratic processes. The basic course, whether public speaking or hybrid, offers a crucial opportunity for big questions to emerge because it brings people together to critically question and produce messages about the …

Research Articles: Section Introduction

Basic Communication Course Annual

The Basic Communication Course Annual publishes the best scholarship available on topics related to the basic course and is distributed nationally to scholars and educators interested in the basic communication course. Each article is indexed in its entirety in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), an authoritative database of educational literature and resources. Essential for education researchers of all kinds, it features journals included in the Current Index of Journals in Education and Resources in Education Index. Manuscripts published in the Basic Communication Course Annual are not restricted to any particular methodology or approach. They address issues that are significant …

Editor's Page, Joseph P. Mazer

Basic Communication Course Annual

Publication of Volume 30 of the Basic Communication Course Annual marks 30 since the journal’s official launch. In those decades, the Annual has featured the best scholarship on topics pertaining to our discipline’s “bread-and-butter” course, “front porch” class, or whatever metaphor you would like to use to characterize the great work that happens here. Although 30 years have elapsed, our scholarship is more important now than ever before; it is mission-critical to our country and our democracy.

As we know, the basic communication course equips students with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed as communicatively competent citizens prepared to …

Front Cover, Title Page, Contents, Editorial Board

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Interviewing To Understand Strengths, Michael R. Hass

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Interviewing clients about their strengths is an important part of developing a complete understanding of their lives and has several advantages over simply focusing on problems and pathology. Prerequisites for skillfully interviewing for strengths include the communication skills that emerge from a stance of not knowing, developing a vocabulary of strengths that allows practitioners to identify and name them, and having a “ear for strengths.” Building on this, Saleebey (2008) offers a framework of eight types of questions that allow us to explore strengths in depth with clients.

Beyond Audience Analysis: Conceptualizing Empathy For Technical Communication, Bernadette L. Cash

Technical Communication Capstone Course

The concept of empathy involves understanding others’ perspectives. Technical communication requires knowing the context of users; however, empathy is neither a prominent term nor a common subject in the accompanying literature.

This article will establish a foundation for empathy to be conceptualized for technical communication. Several definitions of empathy will be reviewed, followed by applicable resemblances from examples pertaining to audience analysis. A wide‑ranging analysis will connect features of empathy to topics from the areas of user experience, human‑information interaction, user value, business, and design thinking.

This article concludes that there is significant value in giving empathetic attention to the …

Motivations, Team Dynamics, Development Practices And How They Impact The Success Of Open Source Software: A Study Of Projects Of Code For America Brigades, Le Chang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Open data movement has nurtured the growth of civic open source software (OSS) in the recent decade. This emerging phenomenon has demonstrated a way that a community can collectively utilize technology to solve its problems.

This study is based on software projects in brigades of Code for America, which is a network of organizations that group volunteers to create digital solutions to community problems. In this study, we analyze the software engineering practices of current civic open source software development, participants' motivations and perceptions of the projects, and provide insights on the antecedents of success of the application development.

A …

Mutual Gaze Among Strangers, Allie Vaknin

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reactions people experienced when engaged in extended eye contact with a stranger. Artist Marina Abramović and an organization entitled The Liberators International have demonstrated a spectrum of reactions, many emotionally-charged, that have occurred from the opportunity to sit across from and gaze into the eyes of a stranger. Current research on eye contact has been predominantly quantitative, with no available research that qualitatively investigates the scenario in focus. The design of this study involved interviewing 35 people who participated in "The World’s Biggest Eye Contact Experiment," where individuals paired with a …

The Effect Of Competition Presence On Relationship Retention Decisions, Kaycee Champion

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

Relationships are connections between two or more people, which determine how they behave toward one another. Romantically speaking, relationships can become more complex. With the high levels of interference from people outside the relationship added to the personality traits of each individual within, romantic relationships may suffer or face difficulties over time. Mate retention behaviors are based on a variety of factors, but this study specifically focuses on the effects of threat perception in the presence of competition for females. By surveying females in a relationship, the information on attachment styles and threat perception was collected. By using a female …

Improving Software Projects With Cloud Computing, Sunil Maddipatla

Dissertations and Theses

As organizations are experiencing regular unforgiving financial conditions, ideas, for example, outsourcing, deft and lean administration, change administration and cost diminishment are always increasing more consideration. This is on the grounds that these ideas are altogether gone for saving money on spending plans and confronting sudden changes. Most recent innovations like cloud computing guarantee to turn IT, that has dependably been seen as a cost focus, into a wellspring of sparing cash and driving adaptability and dexterity to the business. The motivation behind this paper is to first incorporate an arrangement of properties that administer the deftness benefits added to …

The Impact Of Cultural Communication On Team Performance, Bret Hunley, Smarajit Chakraborty, Stephen Macdonald

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

The trend in today’s corporate workforce continues to move towards becoming more culturally diverse; while beneficial, to maintain competitive edge this element also increases functional challenges between working group members. In order to achieve a high performing team, it is imperative management understands the cultural and lingual differences among the individual members, and develop practices that diminish these challenges. Workforce diversity has been identified as being able to add value to the overall outcome; however, success ultimately depends on the team’s ability to interact culturally, communicate effectively, and understand the mannerisms unique to each team member’s individual culture.

Examining Geert …

Impact Of Leadership On Team’S Performance, Harshitha Gadirajurrett, Raj Srinivasan, Jake Stevens, Nihal Jeena

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

The concept of leadership is a widely discussed concept, with numerous articles and books being dedicated to the exploration and evaluation of leadership and its impact on team building, team performance and team dynamics. In this paper, we will be looking at the impact of leadership on team performance, and evaluating it through the lens of different leadership styles, focusing on the idea of Transformational Leadership. Through numerous article and journal reviews, we will seek to identify characteristics and strengths of these leadership styles as they pertain to the performance of teams within an organization.

Mom To Mom: Online Breastfeeding Advice, Jennifer D. Furkin

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Exploring online support groups has gained more and more popularity in the last decade. Investigating the type of support messages users send each other has broadened the already extensive social support framework built in the last forty years. Mothers utilize online support for various topics, and a very common topic is breastfeeding. The perception of breastfeeding has changed throughout history with shifting beliefs and societal norms coupled with solid facts about its importance in the sustaining of infants. Online breastfeeding support has been previously explored through the categorization of types of support and themes within the interactions. This study extended …

Acculturative Stress And Identity Negotiation: A Dyadic Experience, Ana X. De La Serna

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Institutions of higher education in the United States have long been attractors for international students from all over the world. The number of international students had been constantly growing until the past couple of years. This is a concerning issue because international students play several important roles in higher education institutions. International students bring different points of view that enhance other students’ learning and institutions gain financial benefits from the presence of international students. Thus, it is important to understand how to improve the experience of international students. For the present study I used a phenomenological approach to explore the …

Microfinance: Combating World Poverty One Small Business At A Time, Alison Basney

Senior Honors Theses

Poverty is a major problem that reaches millions of people around the world. Although many organizations and individuals work daily to combat this, much of the work done to reduce poverty lacks sustainability and serves only to remedy to the effects of poverty, rather than create a solution to the causes of poverty. Microfinance can be very basically defined as the provision of banking to the impoverished who would not otherwise have access to these services. This purpose of this thesis is to show that microfinance is the ideal solution to the poverty problem by using research and evidence from …