Public speaking creates discomfort for many students. Instead of seeking to avoid this inevitable discomfort, six speech-variation activities explained in this paper are intentionally designed for, a little bit at a time, embracing momentary discomfort in public speaking. By embracing the inevitable discomfort of public speaking head-on in a fun…

This single-class activity is designed to introduce concepts of rhetoric, narrative, and public memory to students and to help them recognize the persuasive structure of narratives, particularly as applied to value-based popular discourse. Courses: Instructors can implement this activity in a variety of classes, including Introduction to…

In most higher education institutions, course evaluations are conducted at the end of the term. While many instructors implement a feedback system such as a questionnaire or poll at the midterm point, we propose that having students use an arts-based representation (i.e. memes) for a feedback channel can help students and the course instructor to…

This article offers readers 11 classroom teaching innovations presented at the 2022 Association for Business Communication's (ABC's) Annual International Conference. Sessions were held online and on-site in Tampa, Florida, USA. Readers will find unique developments in teaching techniques--all designed to enhance students' communication skill…

Students typically find research methods and statistics classes intimidating. In particular, learning different types of data measurement and operationalization can take significant time and practice to understand. Utilizing a pedagogical approach that turns a party game into a fun exercise, students collaboratively learn to operationalize…

Despite what some students believe, there is far more to business law education than mastering myriad legal rules governing business. In addition to learning the "rules," many business law instructors want students to obtain a basic understanding of legal analysis and judicial decision-making. This article provides guidance for…

Courses: Public Relations, Business and Professional Communication, Training and Development, Digital Media Strategies, Digital Communications. Objectives: By the end of the activity, students will be able to synthesize the key attributes of the notion of personal branding and to apply them in their future professional communications on social…

Few academic disciplines make as frequent use of experiential learning exercises as marketing and sales. This is particularly true in selling courses, where a sales role play often serves as a culminating exercise in which students are tasked with building rapport with a buyer, uncovering buyer needs, overcoming objections, and closing a sale.…

In the field of communication studies, an understanding of the relationship between form and genre is essential for mastering both practical skills and theoretical concepts in core courses such as public speaking, communication theory, and rhetorical criticism. Building on scholarship on the visual politics of presidential portraiture, this…

Courses: Small Group Communication, Online Groups and Communities. Objectives: The objectives of this activity are to expose students to common-bond and common-identity group dynamics, including the differences between memberships, as well as member motivations, goals, and outcomes.

This article describes a game show-style classroom exercise that is appropriate for any management-related courses that wish to enrich students' understanding of a key phase of the hiring process. The activity introduces the importance of job descriptions and job specifications through a semiscripted unstructured interview patterned after a…

Courses: Digital Media, Survey of Social Media, Professional Communication Skills, Interviewing, and Mediated Communication. Objectives: The goals of this classroom activity are for students to understand strategic communication for self-promotion on social media platforms, especially Twitter, and to utilize them effectively for job applications.

Teaching students how to terminate an employee in a safe, legal, and humane manner provides them with a valuable management skill. This article describes an exercise for teaching students how to conduct termination meetings, guiding them through the process of creating a termination script that is consistent with best practices from the…

This brief presents Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a transformative exploratory tool for critical and curious educators. YPAR has been defined as a collaborative method of youth, with the support of caring adults, participating in research to explore social issues that impact them, with the end goal of taking action to improve the…

Information sharing is a critical aspect of effective team functioning. However, it can be challenging to discern whether the information communicated is fact, opinion, or someone's best guess (FOG) due to the varied understandings, assumptions, and interests team members bring to any collaboration. In this article, we introduce a role-play…