Elective Courses
Students have a variety of Communication Studies elective courses to choose from; all available courses are listed on the University's course offering web page. In addition, the list of Communication Studies courses is posted on the department Graduate School bulletin board outside the main office in Colvard North. One of the main criteria for selecting elective courses is the relevance of each course to the student's individual learning plan developed with the graduate program director during the first meeting after acceptance into the graduate program.
Required Courses
Spring 2014 Course Descriptions
Tentative Course Offerings Spring 2014 and Fall 2015
All Communication Studies Master's students are required to take foundation courses, regardless of their area of emphasis, within the first THREE semesters of their acceptance into the program. Those courses are:
COMM 6000 - Professional Seminar in Communication Studies - offered in the Fall Semester;
COMM 6101 - Contemporary Views of Communication Theory - offered in the Fall Semester; to be taken before Research Methods course;
COMM 6100 - Research Methods - offered in the Spring Semester; to be taken after the successful completion of the Communication Theory course.
You are also required to take an advanced Research Methods Course which is usually completed within the first three semesters.
COMM 6200 - Topics in Communication Research Methods
These courses must be successfully completed before the students can continue work on their respective elective courses. Each student is required to meet with the graduate program director before beginning his or her initial semester of work; at that time the graduate program director will advise the student on his or her initial course plan and enroll the student in the appropriate required course.
Depending on the student's part or full-time status, the student may choose to take one or more elective courses in the same semester as he or she is completing the required theory and research methods courses. It is highly recommended that part-time students and students working full-time take no more than SIX (6) credit hours (two courses) in any semester; that is particularly important in the student's initial semesters when he or she is getting acclimated to the rigors and requirements of graduate school.