MAPC - Master of Arts in Professional Communication

This course is the initial experience in the Master of Arts in Professional Communication program. This course (re) acquaints students with communication theory, strategic leadership principles, and theories and praxes of professional presentation. 

Students will engage in a professional inventory of self-study that involves current work and educational practices in conjunction with study of integrated marketing-management principles as they relate to leadership of an organization, communication strategies, and interpersonal communication. These practical and theoretical endeavors will aid in the creation of professional presentation of self and work. In short, the study of communication theory of leadership will combine with projects unique to the student for a resulting excellent presentation. 

In this course, we focus on the fundamentals of global professional communication in both written and visual contexts. We draw from your professional and academic background to enhance your knowledge of intercultural considerations for professional correspondence. This course offers a foundation in intercultural communication, effective professional writing, and visual design. It also provides a brief grammar refresher as well as direct application to recent case studies. 

This course examines the role of communication within organizations and systems of behavior. Students will study theory and its application to real life examples. Once the foundation of organizational communication is established, students will then explore strategic communication and engage in activities to help them identify best communication practices in a global world. 

This course examines the role of communication during interpersonal conflict. It will train students to critically evaluate conflict situations by studying theory and then applying it via in class role plays and simulations.  From learning about sources of conflict to various types of conflict resolution strategies, students will also gain advanced communication skills.  The course includes critical analysis and application of theory to real life conflict situations. 

In this course, students will learn how to identify communication problems; form research questions and hypotheses; employ a variety of methods to collect and analyze data; report their findings and make recommendations.

Students will learn strategies, tactics, and tools to develop effective online content, messaging, branding, imaging, and search engine optimization to meet goals of an organization using performance measures.  Media planning and production will be based on market and audience analysis. Projects will include social media content development and curation, website production for multiple formats, video and 2-D production, augmented reality and mobile app conceptualization, and writing for online platforms and marketing reports. 

Emerging Technologies and Applications is a course that studies the current and upcoming status of technologies in relation to professional communications and leadership strategies. This hands-on course will explore open source and emerging tools related to visual and aural media, immersive tools,mixed and virtual realities, alternative and embedded screens, physical computing, biosensors, trackers etc., and how those tools provide essential data on how clients and users interact with products.

This course examines the role of law and ethics in communication. Topics include an overview of the American legal system, the first amendment, and other legal or ethical communication issues. Students will learn about a wide range of communication issues including communication in the digital space. By the end of the course students will be able to recognize best contemporary ethical and professional practices in communication. 

In this course, we focus on popular communication and contemporary issues as they relate to the field of communication and its impact on professional practice. In other words, what communication case studies and theories most impact communication practice at work, academia, family, and life? Popular communication often encompasses media and popular culture criticism. This course takes a step over and uses practices from that praxis to understand critical issues facing communication practice today. Topics include: entrepreneurship and sales communication, business communication 

MAPC 614 provides an overview of relevant issues in communication scholarship. We focus on 3 areas within the field of communication: ethics, health, and technology/globalization. These areas are separated into 3 modules with the expectation for the class to accept the challenge of locating common threads that connect the 3 as well as highlighting the distinct differences of each area of interest. Each of these 3 areas will engage a range of readings considered timely and/or foundational. Students earn a final grade based on the 3 tests they take as well as 3 papers and in-class participation

The capstone experience is designed as the conclusive experience in the Master of Arts in Professional Communication. The capstone experience is largely independent, and students will chose a faculty advisor with whom to formulate a process and complete a project. The syllabus highlights the procedures, objectives, outcomes, and guidelines for the MAPC 700 capstone in professional communication.