The corporate migration activity is designed to help students connect practical concepts of how language creates power within organizational structures. By engaging in this activity, students will demonstrate and observe how unclear language, (in)effective communication, and disorganization (re)create and sustain power within an organization. This…

This single-class activity augments the popular desert island activity to include a secret insider who aims to influence their group covertly. The motivation for this augmented activity is twofold: (1) to highlight and dispel notions of invulnerability to groupthink and (2) to provide an opportunity to engage in small-group decision making. To…

Undergraduate courses on small-group communication often cover group roles, group conflict, and conflict management styles. Although these concepts are valuable to learn, merely memorizing them does not address the practical skills students need to employ conflict management strategies when situated in group conflict. This activity provides a…

Courses: Small Group Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Relational Communication, Communication Theory, Introduction to Communication, or any course with a unit on teamwork or a group project. Objective: This activity engages students in an experiential learning activity through the popular online video game Among Us in order to teach…

Courses Leadership, Strategic Communication, and courses within communication that include a complex group assignment. Objectives The Zombie Apocalypse (ZA) learning activity is part of a second-year course in an international master's program. The course introduces students to key concepts in strategic communication and leadership and encourages…

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 original teaching idea uses an adaption of the STEM activity the Paper Tower Challenge to have students examine task and maintenance roles as well as non-functioning behaviors in small groups. While problem solving as a small group, students navigate conflict and frustration, assume various small-group roles, and then reflect on their own and…

Courses: Group and Team Communication, Communication Theory, Rhetorical/Media Criticism. Objectives: The aims of this single-class activity are to (1) illustrate the basic concepts, processes, and properties of symbolic convergence theory; (2) apply fantasy theme analysis to the decision-making practices of a zero-history group; and (3) critically…

In a small-group communication course, students participate in a semester-long project to observe an organization while applying many group communication principles, including conflict resolution, group dynamics, teambuilding, leadership, and diversity. In groups of five, the students select any organization, agency, or department on campus or in…

Courses: Persuasion, Group Communication, Communication Theory, Computer-Mediated Communication. Objectives: In this activity, students discuss and analyze film clips in order to understand theories, processes, and applications related to the concept of deindividuation.

Courses: Campaigns, Account Planning, Public Relations (PR), and any other strategic communication course where groups are assigned. Objectives: The purpose of this single-class escape-room activity is to increase students' ability to work in time-demanding group settings while utilizing unconventional methods to reinforce material covered in…

Course: Small Group Communication. Objectives: Students will identify their personality traits; synthesize the relationship between personality, small-group interdependence, and grouphate; and apply collaborative skills and knowledge of individual personality differences in building small-group success.

This study examined how group members with differential levels (highest, middle, and lowest) of ability contributed to argumentative communication while facilitating a cooperative learning process in a small group communication course. Results demonstrated that during discussions: (1) highest ability members utilized more evidence than middle or…

Courses: Small group communication and advanced group dynamics. Objectives: After completing this single-class activity, students should be able to: (1) evaluate successful communication characteristics that enhance the group's ability to achieve specific goals; (2) identify small group communication barriers; and (3) develop strategies to…

Courses: Introduction to Communication, Introduction to Interpersonal Communication, Family Communication, Small Group Communication, Communication and Listening. Objectives: By this end of this activity, students will be able to identify and practice supportive and defensive communication; understand a dialogic approach to conflict; and…