CCOG for COMM 218 Fall 2024


Course Number:
COMM 218
Course Title:
Interpersonal Communication (COMM214=COMM218=COMM218Z)
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Covers the knowledge and use of competent communication skills to better understand oneself, others, and the role of communication in interpersonal relationships. This course is part of Oregon Common Course Numbering. COMM 214, COMM 218, and COMM 218Z are equivalent. Prerequisites: MTH 20 or equivalent placement and WR 121 or any writing course for which WR 121 is a prerequisite. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon successful completion students should be able to:

1. Describe how culture, identity, perception, biases, and power influence the communication process.

2. Recognize and analyze interpersonal communication concepts (e.g., ethics, verbal and nonverbal communication, listening, emotions, and conflict).

3. Assess one’s own interpersonal skills to become more competent in a variety of relational contexts.

4. Apply foundational concepts and theories to interpersonal communication.

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

Communication is essential to being human. Communication courses inherently provide a foundation for understanding human interaction. While all humans use some form of communication to navigate the societies in which we live, each culture has its own set of ethical and social communicative norms. This course examines those norms by teaching students how to organize and make meaning of their own and others’ experiences and meet personal goals in a variety of communication styles and settings.

Course Activities and Design

Course outcomes and objectives are met in the face-to-face and online modalities with a combination of: lectures, online modules, in-class application activities, out of class experiential learning activities, reflection journals, group projects (role plays of course skills), discussion, discussion posts, exercises, interpersonal skill manuals, exams and service learning projects.

NOTE:  In order for the course to fulfill the Oral Communication outcome (outcome 4), instructors need to choose multiple assignments (at least 3) across the term that require synchronous, face-to-face oral communication activities.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

The forms of assessment will be determined by the individual instructor. 

Assessment strategies may include:

  • Qualitative examinations
  • Essays
  • Research papers
  • Portfolios
  • Oral presentations
  • Community Based Learning                        
  • Quantitative examinations
  • Journals
  • In-class participation
  • Projects
  • Group work
  • Dyadic exercises

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

Themes, Concepts, and Issues:

  • Identity
  • Perception
  • Self-Disclosure
  • Interpersonal Communication theories
  • Language
  • Relational Development
  • Active listening
  • Conflict Styles and Management
  • Nonverbal communication
  • Cultural context
  • Communication climate

Competencies and Skills:

Students will:

  • Be able to analyze dyadic conversations in terms of interpersonal communication theory.
  • Be able to explain communication models.
  • Be able to analyze the effectiveness of their own, as well as others’, communication choices in a variety of contexts.
  • Be able to explain how nonverbal behaviors influence the communication process.
  • Be able to see how the nature of language influences the communication process.
  • Be able to demonstrate effective listening.
  • Be able to identify a range of potentially useful conflict resolution behaviors.

A textbook is required. Suggested texts. Alternative texts need Dept. or SAC chair approval.

Interpersonal Communication: Competence & Contexts, Lane; Pearson

Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters, Wood

Interpersonal Communication, Floyd

Interpersonal Communication, Trenholm

Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others, Beebe, Beebe & Redmond

The Interpersonal Communication Book, DeVito

Reflect and Relate, McCornack, 3rd ed., Bedford/St. Martins

Interplay: The Process of Interpersonal Communication, Adler, Rosenfeld, Proctor. Oxford University Press

Just Relationships:  Living Out Social Justice as Mentor, Family, Friend, and Lover, Douglas L. Kelley