Course Sequences by Cohort

Enrolling in Classes

As a student in the Online Strategic Communication and Digital Strategy Program, you will be automatically enrolled in courses each semester by your Student Success Coach. You can find your course sequence in the 'Announcements' section of this orientation. You will receive an email each semester asking you to confirm the courses you will be enrolled in. This email will be sent to your OU student email account and you must respond in order to be registered for the upcoming term.

Curriculum

Courses are offered in lockstep scheduling. All students take all 11 courses; there are no electives. The program is designed so students can enter at any point in course rotation.

JMC 5093 Introduction to Research Methods
JMC 5293 Professional Seminar in Strategic Communication
JMC 5343 Digital Strategic Communication
JMC 5413 Crisis Communication
JMC 5473 Social Media Marketing
JMC 5813 Ethics in Strategic Communication
JMC 5823 Cross-Cultural Communication
JMC 5863 Marketing and Media Analytics
JMC 5873 Strategic Planning & Brand Strategy
JMC 5883 Digital Behavior
JMC 5893 Management & Leadership

This course introduces students to thought processes and methods used in the systematic study of mediated communication. Students will learn the scientific method, conceptualization, measurement, and data collection and analysis techniques. Learning research tools available to explore professional and applied problems is a focus of the course.

Digital media bring new opportunities and challenges for strategic communicators that require new ways of thinking and responding. This course explores current, fast-changing industry topics and issues, helping students understand and craft solutions to advance their organization’s strategic needs.

Recognizing the growing importance of emerging forms of digital media to strategic communication, students in this course learn the potential of digital media and its ongoing impact on strategic communication, new concepts, and terminology in digital strategic communication, how to utilize various types of digital media in strategic communication, and ways to measure the effectiveness of strategic communication.

Strategic communicators are at the center of helping their organizations plan, respond to, and recover from crises. This course places emphasis on crisis planning, ethical decision-making, media relations, image restoration, and organizational learning. Students learn how they can help their organizations prevent or minimize crises and the role of media in crafting responses to organizational crises.

Social Media Marketing explores the most effective marketing strategies and tactics used by brands to engage with consumers on various social media platforms. Students learn social media marketing planning cycles, how to calculate a Proxy ROI, network logic to enhance audience reach, and how to understand and use social media monitoring tools.

The foundations of ethical thinking are rooted in moral philosophy, the scope and limits of freedom, and respect for the rights of others. Frameworks for ethical thinking and behavior are explored through essays, empirical research, and case studies. Students reflect on professional codes of ethics, the impact of the digital age on mediated communication, and the relationship between ethical norms and routine strategic communication practices.

This course strives to advance understanding and appreciation of the roles of culture in shaping society, our senses of reality, and media. The course focuses on media and culture, the power of mediated symbols to create public perceptions that misrepresent minority groups, and developing cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity in the creation of mediated messages.

Marketers rely on data in nearly every aspect of their craft: market sizing, customer profiles., media metrics and efficiency, return on investment, and A/B testing. Marketers need to know what data they should expect to see, what data they should ask for, and how to understand data to translate it into strategy and action. This course will explore how data analysis informs strategic communication by using real-world examples of customer and media metrics, common analytic techniques, and key foundational concepts.

This course explores the strategic planning process and how it impacts organizations in an ever-evolving media environment. Students learn to identify and manage how these changes impact their organization, and how to strategically adapt. This course will also explore the consumer-centric approach to understanding brand management and the brand planning process across firms and industries, focusing on the steps necessary to develop a brand strategy that effectively builds brand value.

This course explores how the digital environment has impacted audience use of media, primarily through the lens of psychological theories that explain the relationship between audience wants and needs and media functionalities that can fulfill them. Students in this course develop more effective communication strategies to engage digital audiences.

This course focuses on the management of organizations – how to build effective systems, motivate employees, and create innovative organizational cultures. Through scholarly and professional writings, students explore management roles and functions, leadership of people toward common goals, and processes of organizational change and development.