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| Communication |
| COMM-1510 Introduction to Communication Theory This course focuses on topics, theories, and research methods central to the study of human communication. The following kinds of issues and topics are considered: definitions/models of communication; what it means to use a language; how language affects the way we see the world; ancient and contemporary communication media; nonverbal communication; interpersonal and small-group communication. Fall and spring terms annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-2410 Perspectives on Photography This course helps students understand the meaning and emotional complexity of visual images in our culture. Students examine photographic imagery through three perspectives. The first—formal—addresses the design components of the image, such as vantage point and contrast. The second—psychodynamic—concerns the emotional dynamics of viewing. The third—social political— explores photographs as instruments for preserving or challenging cultural values. No technical knowledge of photography is needed. Offered annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-2460 Media and Popular Culture A general survey of contemporary media, their historical origins and social impact, with a focus on TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, film, and personal computers. Spring term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-2610 Introduction to Visual Communication This course is an introduction to basic principles of visual communication and an exploration of the graphic design process. The study approach is through laboratory work utilizing software applications currently used in the field. Topics include type and image; logo design and application; foundation statement creation; and print production methods. Fall and spring terms annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-2880 Interpersonal Communication A course examining communication processes between two individuals in a variety of contexts including friendships, families, and work relationships. Considers both scientific and humanistic approaches to interpersonal communication. Topics discussed include development of the self, interpersonal attraction, social exchange theory, family communication systems, conflict, and communication skills. Fall term alternate years. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-2940 Communication Studies Readings and projects adapted to the needs of individual students. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-2960 Topics in Communication Experimental courses tried out in one or two terms. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4170 Electronic Coaching Systems This course is based on theoretical work in cognition and motor behavior and on applied research in computing, sports, and arts. This course analyzes how designers think about human performance systems. Support systems analyzed include online tutorials, wizards, agents, and Web-based systems. Prerequisite: COMM-4750 or another LL&C 4000-level graphics or document design course, or graduate standing. Spring annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4180 Studio Design in Human-Computer Interaction In this course, students work on collaborative projects to design innovative human-computer interactions (HCIs) aimed at transforming the way people do things in their everyday lives at work, in the home, and at play. Students work with activity analysis to observe and analyze everyday practices, with object-oriented modeling to represent and transform those practices, and with UI prototyping for selected implementation. The course serves as the capstone in the HCI M.S. Certificate but is open to any student seeking an opportunity to engage in an extended design studio leading to an HCI design. Prerequisite: In general, at least one course in one of the following areas: Web design, database design, graphics design, document design, or software engineering design or permission of instructor. Spring annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4300 Communication Internship This course is designed for communication majors who wish to incorporate field experience in their educational programs. Students work with local business, industrial, civic, or educational organizations in positions where they can observe communication processes and apply written, interpersonal, and public communication skills to the solution of real problems. Prerequisite: undergraduate major in communication at junior or senior level or graduate status. Fall and spring terms annually. 1 to 6 credit hours |
| COMM-4340 Communication in Cyberspace This course involves students from multiple locations in the study of issues pertaining to forms and social effects of computer- mediated communication (CMC). Through both study and significant “hands-on” use of such systems, students learn to manage various network-based communication systems through collaborative projects in virtual teams through electronic partnership. Theories and illustrations regarding the impacts of CMC in relation to organizational communication and structure, group communication and decision making, and interpersonal effects are explored. Prerequisite: IHSS-196X or equivalent. Offered spring semester, alternate years. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4420 Introduction of Human-Computer Interaction Usability In this course we will consider methods for gathering users’ requirements for product functions and information, ways to test products and information for usability and suitability, and procedures for incorporating the results learned through testing. We will design and conduct usability tests on products, documents, and interfaces of interest. No prerequisite. Fall term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4570 Typography Text that isn’t noticed isn’t read. Typography is a studio course in graphic design that teaches students the fundamentals of how to choose appropriate fonts, design with type, and integrate text with graphics in any given composition. Designing emotive, aesthetically pleasing, and persuasive typographic compositions is the focus of the course. (Cross listed with COMM-6570. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses.) Prerequisite: COMM 2610. Spring term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4580 Advertising and Culture An examination of the cultural impact of advertising in various media: TV, radio, print, and the Web. How does advertising inform our experience and identity? How has it shaped our culture? Who pays for it and why? These are the types of questions this course will address. Prerequisite: any COMM or LITR course or permission of instructor. Fall term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4590 Research Design and Analysis for New Media A practicum in research focusing on methodology for assessing Web usage and computer-mediated behavior. Topics include research design issues, data gathering, sample frames, recruitment and treatment of subjects and quantitative analysis of online surveys, server bits, and other forms of direct and unobtrusive data. Prerequisite: at least one previous 4000-level research course; one course in statistics is advisable. Offered upon availability of instructor. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4600 Rhetoric of Nature and the Environment A seminar course focusing on how attitudes are formed and people mobilized to action on environmental issues. Topics will include traditions of nature writing and art, the symbolic/conceptual formation of “nature” and “the environment,” and methods for analysis and development of discursive formations and persuasive strategies. (Cross listed with IENV-4600. Students cannot receive credit for both this course and IENV-4600.) Prerequisites: junior or senior status, two environmentally focused H&SS courses, and two courses in biology and/or geology, or permission of the instructor. Spring term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4610 Rhetorical Analysis A study of the persuasive use of language. Some basic theories of argument and style are explored as a means of improving the students’ ability to both analyze and create rhetorical discourse. Prerequisite: WRIT-2110 or permission of instructor. Offered on availability of instructor. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4640 Language and Power Language plays a key role in the creation and reproduction of social inequalities across groups and between individuals. This course explores the linguistic dimensions of colonialism; race, ethnic, gender, and class differences in communicative style; access to institutional resources such as jobs, justice, health care, and education; media manipulation; and the uses of religious rhetoric for political ends. Students learn how to gather and analyze real-life conversations. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Spring term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4650 Intermediate Visual Communication This is a studio course that grapples with advanced applications of the basic principles of design in print and electronic media. The focus of the course is on developing the student’s ability to derive viable concepts in the creation of meaningful, communicable, and aesthetically pleasing communication forms. Situated in a computer lab, students complete hands-on projects, thumbnail sketching by hand and using the computer as a tool. Prerequisite: COMM-2610. Spring term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4690 Introduction to Hypermedia Computing This course is an introduction to hypermedia design and development, focusing on user interface design for interactive multimedia programs. Special emphasis will be placed on the theoretical issues behind effective user interface design. Students will have an opportunity to put theory into practice. Prerequisite: an introductory course in communication, another social science course, or permission of the instructor; basic knowledge of authoring software for multimedia or Web development. Spring term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4720 Web Designing for Community Networking This course emphasizes participatory design and the development of functional communication products for real-world clients. Students create Web-based graphic, interactive, or multimedia information resources for arts and cultural organizations, city and county government, and social-service organizations in Troy, New York. These resources may be used by the Troy Coalition for Community Networking and TroyNet. Prerequisite: at least one course in database, multimedia, or Web design. Spring term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4750 Electronic User Interfaces Application of research on computer usability to the design of Web sites, graphic user interfaces (GUIs), personal digital assistants (PDAs), persuasive computing, and electronic performance support systems. Prerequisite: an introductory course in communication or another social science. Fall term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-4760 Task-Oriented Communication Teaches the practices of developing instructions for people performing mental and physical tasks. This course covers evaluating task performance, choosing instructional media, developing instructional objectives, and producing procedural information. Attention is given to graphic media and to nonverbal tasks and skills. Prerequisite: an introductory course in communication or another social science. Spring term, alternate years. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4780 Hypermedia Art and Fiction: Theory and Design This course is a seminar for students with some experience designing interactive multimedia computer programs (or Web sites). The seminar will explore new directions in interactive electronic art, in particular, audiovisual artworks and hypertext fiction. Students will evaluate how interactive electronic media can be used for creative expression and present their findings in oral presentations and written reports. For final projects, students will have the option of completing either a research paper or an interactive electronic project. Prerequisite: previous experience designing interactive multimedia computer programs (or Web sites). Fall term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4790 Social Impact of Electronic Media An exploration of the effects of electronic media such as the Internet, multimedia, computers, pop music, and television. The effects examined include changes in social and work relationships, time displacement, audience aggression, child socialization, education, and consumer behavior. Prerequisite: any communication course or permission of the instructor. Offered on availability of instructor. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-4800 Media and Memory Stories of the past are always told in some specific present, with emphases and interests grounded in that present. Collective memory is thus reshaped continuously as people fashion social realities that conform to their values and beliefs. This course focuses on the rhetorical formation of collective pasts, emphasizing the role of communication media in the process. Cross listed with COMM-6800. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses. Prerequisites: one WRIT course and one COMM course. Spring term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4810 Electronic Media and Society Electronic media such as the Internet, cable television, movies, and pop music are both producers of information and large organizational structures. The course analyzes the interplay between media organizations and society at large. Offered on availability of instructor. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4830 Organizational Communication Focuses on the central role of communication in organizations by exploring the way that communication is used in exercising authority, power, and control. Organizations with hierarchical and nontraditional structures are considered. The course also examines the role of communication in the social construction of organizational life. Prerequisite: an introductory course in the social sciences or management or permission of instructor. Spring term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-4910 EMAC Capstone Design EMAC Capstone Design is a two-semester sequence offered in fall and spring and is required for graduating seniors majoring in EMAC. Through a series of production and writing assignments, breakout seminars, group critiques, and public exhibition, the goal is to develop a work-in-progress in the fall semester and a final version in the spring semester of the capstone project and senior thesis paper. Both Arts and Communications sections are team-taught by faculty from the Arts and LL&C Departments. (This course is cross listed with ARTS-4910. Students cannot receive credit for both this course and ARTS-4910.) Fall and spring terms annually. 2 credit hours |
| COMM-4940 Communication Studies Readings and projects adapted to the needs of individual students. 1 to 6 credit hours |
| COMM-4960 Topics in Communication Experimental courses tried out in one or two terms. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-6110 Writing and Editing An advanced writing course designed to improve the student’s facility in writing and adapting material and style to the requirements of publishing technical and professional documents. Students write and assemble their own materials and edit the writing of others. Prerequisite: undergraduate technical writing or advanced composition course or permission of instructor. Fall term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6240 Rhetorical Theory I Introduces classical rhetoric and emphasizes the use of language as a means of winning the assent, sympathy, or cooperation of an audience. It examines the rhetorical theories of figures such as Gorgias, Isocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, and Saint Augustine. Spring term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6250 Rhetorical Theory II An introduction to modern rhetoric, with an emphasis upon the use of language as a means of generating knowledge and understanding and establishing and maintaining human communities. A study of the rhetorical theories of figures such as Francis Bacon, George Campbell, Richard Whately, Kenneth Burke, C. Perelman, L. Olbrechts-Tyteca, and Michel Foucault. Fall term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6280 Rhetorical Analysis The application of rhetorical concepts in the analysis and appraisal of discourse. Students pursue projects under the direction of the instructor; weekly seminar meetings are devoted principally to discussions of ongoing projects. Prerequisite: COMM-6240. Offered on availability of instructor. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6310 Seminar in Interpersonal Communication This graduate seminar introduces major organizing concepts in the social scientific study of interpersonal communication. Five general theoretical perspectives are reviewed: symbolic interactionism, social exchange theory, psychodynamic theory, social biology, and systems theory. Each perspective attributes different powers to actors and envisions human motivation quite differently. Each has also had major impact on popular and scholarly thought. Spring term alternate years. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6340 Techniques for Verbal Analysis This course introduces students to techniques for seeing the underlying patterns in verbal data, including conversations, texts, interviews, and protocols. Topics include: conversation analysis; content analysis; activity analysis; narrative analysis; protocol analysis; theme analysis; and discourse analysis. Students will have a chance to read a range of studies, discuss issues relevant to research in the field, practice analytic techniques, and conduct preliminary field research. Spring term alternate years. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6350 Literacy: Practices of Reading and Writing A survey of reading and writing practices. Topics include literacy in history, literacy and orality, the cognitive consequences of oral and written interaction, the social implications of oral and written interaction, and the relationships among orality, literacy, and cultural reproduction. Fall term alternate years. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6360 Rhetorical Invention: A Social Perspective This seminar explores contemporary perspectives on rhetorical invention and their implications for research and teaching in rhetoric, composition, literary studies, and inquiry in all disciplines. Social perspectives that question or complement traditional individualistic views of invention are emphasized. The relationship of rhetorical invention to creativity and to invention in its generic sense is also explored. Offered on availability of instructor. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6400 Publication Practicum An advanced practicum course in the design and preparation of materials for print production. Includes typesetting, selection and uses of image-based information, type and image integration, a systematic approach to the communication design process, organization principles for hierarchy and navigation, printing and binding, as well as the management and supervision of production resources. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses. Fall term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6420 Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction Usability In this course, we will consider methods for gathering users’ requirements for product functions and information, ways to test products and information for usability and suitability, and procedures for incorporating the results learned through testing. We will design and conduct usability tests on products, documents, and interfaces of interest. Cross listed with COMM-4420. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses. Additional assignments at higher level required for graduate students. Fall term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6480 Theory and Research in Technical Communication and Human-Computer Interaction This seminar course examines theories that have shaped, and continue to drive, the fields of technical communication and human-computer interaction with an emphasis upon the ways each field makes new knowledge. Connections between theoretical findings, research results, and the evolution of both fields as they are practiced in industry, government, and academia are important themes. Course work includes lectures, discussions, student presentations, and written projects. Prerequisite: COMM- 1510, or equivalent. Spring term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6510 Communication Theory Introduces students to a range of theories from across the humanities and social sciences: theories of meaning, discourse, persuasion, interpersonal communication, and mass communication. Also introduces students to how theories are constructed and how knowledge is generated in communication studies. Fall term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6520 Seminar in Communication Theory This course is based on the assumption that, because humans are symbol-using creatures, an intensive study of their use of symbols will illuminate human nature and behavior. This investigation relies on such thinkers as Aristotle, G. H. Mead, Richard McKeon, Ernst Cassirer, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Martin Heidegger. Topics in the course usually include the relationship between symbols and thought, symbols as a vehicle of analyzing behavior, and the use of symbols to coordinate social action. Offered on availability of instructor. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6530, COMM-6540 Communication Research I, II This course is designed to give training in field and experimental research methods, especially in scientific and technological communication. The student designs and conducts preliminary research projects as time permits. A fall-spring sequence annually. 3 credit hours each |
| COMM-6560 Visual Design This course introduces students to the theoretical and practical use of graphics as a form of visual communication. Discussions include such topics as visual perception, design theory, formatted text, and graphics. Students have an opportunity to put theory into practice using computer graphics software. Fall term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6570 Typography Text that isn’t noticed isn’t read. Typography is a studio course in graphic design that teaches students the fundamentals of how to choose appropriate fonts, design with type, and integrate text with graphics in any given composition. Designing emotive, aesthetically pleasing, and persuasive typographic compositions is the focus of the course. (Cross listed with COMM-4570. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses.) Prerequisite: COMM-2610. Spring term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6600 Research Design and Analysis for New Media A practicum in research focusing on methodology for assessing Web usage and computer-mediated behavior. Topics include research design issues, data gathering, sample frames, recruitment and treatment of subjects, and quantitative analysis of online surveys, server bits, and other forms of direct and unobtrusive data. Prerequisite: At least one previous 4000-level research course; one course in statistics is advisable. Offered upon availability of instructor. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6680 Rhetoric of Nature and the Environment A seminar course focusing on how attitudes are formed and people mobilized to action on environmental issues. Topics will include traditions of nature writing and art, the symbolic/conceptual formation of “nature” and “the environment,” and methods for analysis and development of discursive formations and persuasive strategies. (Cross listed with IENV-4600. Students cannot receive credit for both this course and IENV-4600.) Prerequisites: junior or senior status, two environmentally focused H&SS courses, and two courses in biology and/or geology, or permission of the instructor. Spring term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6700 Rhetoric of the Photograph This is a theoretical course exploring three aspects of photography that have a rhetorical component. These aspects are the formal “aesthetic” elements of the photographic image; the psychological, psychoanalytical relationship between viewer, model, camera, and photographer; and the social/political effects of photography in our culture. Prerequisite: graduate standing or permission of instructor. Offered on availability of instructor. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6720 Web Designing for Community Networking This course emphasizes participatory design and the development of functional communication products for real-world clients. Students create Web-based graphic, interactive, or multimedia information resources for arts and cultural organizations, city and county government, and social-service organizations in Troy, New York. These resources may be used by the Troy Coalition for Community Networking and TroyNet. Prerequisite: at least one course in database, multimedia, or Web design. Spring term annually. 4 credit hours |
| COMM-6730 Computer-Mediated Communication This seminar examines the social uses and impacts of computer-mediated communication in contexts such as education, industry, and informal social interaction. Students may examine traditionally important variables such as self-disclosure, rules, status, power, message sequencing, etc., as well as processes such as reality construction, learning, decision making, and group development. The course introduces analytic procedures that are as useful for spoken or written discourse as for computer-mediated discourse. Fall term alternate years. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6740 Hypermedia Design and Development This seminar course will investigate issues in hypermedia design and development. Class discussions will include topics such as designing the structure of a hypermedia program and designing the user interface. Students will have an opportunity to put theory into practice by designing and developing an interactive program. Prerequisite: COMM-4750, COMM-6400, COMM-6560, or permission of the instructor. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6750 Communication Design for the World Wide Web This course introduces hypermedia interface design and communication issues involved in designing interactive programs for the World Wide Web. Students will design and develop an interactive Web site or experience and explore related rhetorical, social, cultural, and legal issues. Prerequisite: (1) completion of Web development or hypermedia development course and (2) knowledge of basics of Web or hypermedia development, or (3) permission of the instructor. Fall term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6760 Electronic Coaching Systems This course is based on theoretical work in cognition and motor behavior, and on applied research in computing, sports, and arts. This course analyzes how designers think about human performance systems. Support systems analyzed include online tutorials, wizards, agents, and Web-based systems. Prerequisite: COMM-4750 or another LL&C 4000-level graphics or document design course, or graduate standing. Spring term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6780 Hypermedia Art and Fiction: Theory and Design This course is a seminar for students with some experience designing interactive multimedia computer programs (or Web sites). The seminar will explore new directions in interactive electronic art, in particular, audiovisual artworks, and hypertext fiction. Students will evaluate how interactive electronic media can be used for creative expression and present their findings in oral presentations, written reports and electronic media. Cross listed with COMM- 4780. Prerequisite: previous experience as per above. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6800 Media and Memory Stories of the past are always told in some specific present, with emphases and interests grounded in that present. Collective memory is thus reshaped continuously as people fashion social realities that conform to their values and beliefs. This course focuses on the rhetorical formation of collective pasts, emphasizing the role of communication media in the process. (Cross-listed with COMM-4800. Students cannot obtain credit for both courses.) Prerequisites: one WRIT course and one COMM course. Spring term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6810 Studio Design in Human-Computer Interaction In this course, students work on collaborative projects to design innovative human-computer interactions (HCIs) aimed at transforming the way people do things in their everyday lives at work, in the home, and at play. Students work with activity analysis to observe and analyze everyday practices, with object-oriented modeling to represent and transform those practices, and with UI prototyping for selected implementation. The course serves as the capstone in the HCI M.S. Certificate but is open to any student seeking an opportunity to engage in an extended design studio leading to an HCI design. Spring term annually. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6940 Communication Studies Readings and projects adapted to the needs of individual students. 1 to 6 credit hours |
| COMM-6960 Topics in Communication Experimental courses tried out in one or two terms. 3 credit hours |
| COMM-6990 Master’s Thesis Active participation in research, under the supervision of a faculty adviser, leading to a master’s thesis. Grades of IP are assigned until the thesis has been approved by the faculty adviser and accepted by the Office of Graduate Education to be archived in a standard format in the library. Grades will then be listed as S. 1 to 9 credit hours |
| COMM-9990 Dissertation Active participation in research, under the supervision of a faculty adviser, leading to a doctoral dissertation. Grades of IP are assigned until the dissertation has been publicly defended, approved by the doctoral committee, and accepted by the Office of Graduate Education to be archived in a standard format in the library. Grades will then be listed as S. Variable credit hours |
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 110 8th St., Troy, NY 12180. (518) 276-6000 Please direct questions regarding this site to catalog@rpi.edu. |