Course: This assignment is a unit activity designed for use in a skills-focused undergraduate public relations, organizational communication, or crisis communication course. Objective: The goal of this activity is to increase students' understanding of and ability to apply discourse of renewal in a crisis scenario. Students will work…

The last two decades have seen dramatic change in U.S. schooling as a response to high-stakes accountability and market-based reform movements. Critics cite a number of unfortunate consequences of these movements, especially for students in urban schools. This article explores the troubling ironies related to one strategy for survival in this…

Suggests that communication faculty should work toward structural realignments in universities to encourage cross-disciplinary work; design majors around competencies, not departments; encourage interdepartmental "communication dialogues"; read a broad range of literature and work toward expertise in a topic, not just a discipline; attend more…

Reports on an actual public relations problem that was used to introduce students to the practice of corporate public relations. Shows both positive and negative reaction to use of the case study in college classes. (RL)

Describes a two-week corporate public relations simulation that allowed students, acting as media representatives, to experience the frustrations of dealing with a typical company during a crisis. (HOD)

Because a requirement for students in many public relations (PR) courses is that they must pool their efforts with other students, problems may arise when good students must work with students less motivated or organized than they. One answer to this problem may be to steer the brightest PR students toward a course that integrates communication…

This paper offers techniques and strategies which high school and college teachers of speech communication can use for teaching units and/or courses in advertising. One such technique is role playing, which can involve the corporate chairperson, the executive coordinator, and chairpersons for magazine advertising, outdoor advertising, broadcast…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how exposure to classroom instruction affected the use of a computer simulation that was designed to provide students an opportunity to apply material presented in class. The study involved an analysis of a computer-based crisis communication case study designed for a college-level public relations…

Two public relations campaigns courses designed to provide senior students with practical public relations skills were organized in different ways. One class, employing small four- or five-member teams, implemented short-term projects that consisted of planning and implementing a campaign during the nine-week term. In the other class, students…

Students in the beginning public relations course at Kansas State University work in small groups to make case studies of the public relations needs of organizations (usually campus groups or nonprofit community organizations) and to develop public relations plans for them. After receiving project instructions, students suggest possible clients,…

The Public Relations Division of the proceedings contains the following 20 papers: "Communicating for Technical Change: Business-to-Business Communication with Small Manufacturing Firms" (Danielle Pontiff); "Integrating Editorial Presentation and Public Relations Publications: New Frontiers for Convergence and Collaborative…