This article, the first of a two-part series, catalogs teaching innovations from the 2014 Association for Business Communication Annual Conference. These 12 assignments debuted during two "My Favorite Assignment" sessions. Learning experiences included job-seeking skills--résumé writing, writing job applications, sharpening interview…

Human-centered design is of growing importance for professional designers and in the past two decades a series of techniques for designers to develop understanding of and empathy with a diversity of users has been developed within this field. In the second half of the twentieth century, intended users were involved late in the design process, i.e.…

Technology has and continues to transform communication channels. As a result, electronic communications has become ubiquitous in the workplace allowing for collaboration, cost reduction, and increased productivity. Social media tools allow for connecting to and interacting with a larger audience. The digital generation comes to the classroom…

On 12 November 2014 the Fairfax media reported allegations of cheating by students at a number of Australian higher education providers through the purchase of assignments, particularly through the MyMaster website. The Honorable Christopher Pyne MP, Minister for Education and Training, referred the matter to the Tertiary Education Quality and…

An asynchronous online discussion forum was created and used to post Arabization homework-assignments consisting of application questions and discussion threads covering the topics taught in class. The instructor gave communicative feedback on the location and types of errors. Errors were color-coded. No correct answers were provided. The…

This article describes an activity in which students will understand, analyze, and apply the principles learned in the RACE process (research, action, communication, and evaluation). Students should have the ability to identify the four-step public relations planning process and ultimately create a public relations plan. This two-week activity is…

Students with disabilities often find expressive writing frustrating and difficult. The prospect of writing a well-developed five-paragraph essay can be especially daunting. One reason is that struggling writers may have difficulty conceptualizing how the elements of an effective essay are developed. This article describes an instructional…

Imposing a penalty for late or incomplete homework assignments, Dueck says, neither inspires learning nor provides accurate grades. Dueck lists four rules that a teacher must follow if penalties for inadequate homework are to be efficient in prodding students to do that work. The usual homework penalty structures violate each of these four rules.…

Silence is not nothing. Its presence can occur as a meaning-carrying message during interpersonal interactions, making it a vital aspect of communication. It can also both guide and limit behavior and cultural understanding (Braithwaite, 1999). At either level, silence can bring some ideas into an interaction while excluding others--it can both…

As the design thinking approach becomes more established in the instructional design (ID) discourse, the field will have to reconsider the professional identity of instructional designers. Rather than passively following models or processes, a professional identity rooted in design thinking calls for instructional designers to be dynamic agents of…

"Doing Feminist Theory Through Digital Video" is an assignment I designed for my undergraduate feminist theory course, where students created a short digital video on a concept in feminist theory. I outline the assignment and the pedagogical and epistemological frameworks that structured the assignment (digital storytelling,…

In this article, I review how people organize values and goals in their minds and I suggest teaching demonstrations, exercises, and assignments to help students learn this material. I pay special attention to circumplex models, which represent the extent of conflict or compatibility between values and goals, and to the well-researched distinction…

This assignment described here serves as a meaningful way to engage students who are perhaps less involved in giving back to their own community (Galston, 2003). By engaging students in "pay it forward" experiences, this assignment can help foster a sense of active citizenship. Often political engagement is associated with acts related…

This article discusses how writing assignments focused on sports controversies provide students with opportunities to read, write, research, and debate in ways that feel authentic and meaningful. Athletes dominate the headlines about everything from dog fighting to domestic violence. Sports controversies are appropriate material for teaching…

The article describes a collaborative project co-taught by a creative writing teacher and the theater department's technical director that required students to write an original script and perform it as toy theater or shadow theater.