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Student Resources

Contact Info

Advisement

The CAH Advisement Center is located on the Statesboro Campus in the IAB Building Suite 1040. The phone number is 912-478-7740.

Department of Communication Arts Advisors:

Make an Appoint with Your Advisor

Preparing for Graduation

  • Visit the Registrar’s Office on Sweetheart Circle during office hours. They are located on the third floor of the Rosenwald Building.
  • Pickup the graduation clearance packet from the Registrar’s Office.
  • Make an appointment with your advisor in the Communication Arts Department at least four semesters prior to the semester you plan to walk.
  • Plan for at least an hour for this appointment with your advisor.
  • Show up for your appointment with your advisor and be on time.
  • Complete the paperwork with your advisor.
  • Make a copy of the signed paperwork for yourself BEFORE submitting it to the Registrar’s Office.
  • Walk your form back to the Registrar’s Office to submit.
  • Watch your email for updates or notices from the Registrar’s Office (it may take several weeks or months for the paperwork to be processed by the Registrar’s Office).
  • Please note: if you make changes to your planned schedule to graduate on any of your remaining semesters, this may impact your graduation clearance.

Departmental Academic Policy

Responsibility and Accountability

The Department considers students to be individuals who are responsible for their own behaviors. Students are expected to make decisions with an awareness of the consequences which will most likely result from these decisions. Decision-making without considering the resulting consequences is not justifiable behavior if the consequences put the student’s academic efforts at risk. In other words, if you enroll in a class, you are obligated to meet the responsibilities of this class, regardless of other commitments, including work, family, and other class obligations.

Definition of Grades

The Department adheres to the following definitions as found in the General Catalog (page 40):

“The ‘A’ grade may be interpreted to mean that the instructor recognized exceptional capacities and exceptional performance.
The grade of ‘B’ signifies that the student has, for any combination of reasons, demonstrated a significantly more effective command of the material than is generally expected.
The ‘C’ grade is the instructor’s certification that the student has demonstrated the required mastery of the material.
The student is graded ‘D’ when his/her grasp of the course is minimal.
The ‘F’ grade indicates failure to master the essentials and the necessity for repeating before credit is allowed.”
It is the Department’s policy NOT to post any student grades at any time during, or at the conclusion of, the semester.
Posting of Grades
It is the Department’s policy NOT to post any student grades at any time during, or at the conclusion of, the semester.

Plagiarism

Cheating, in its multitude of forms, is a serious offense to the University and compromises the learning process of the violators and their classmates. Ultimately, the reputation of the institution is at risk. For these reasons, the Department expects students to understand the provision of the Student Conduct Code that addresses academic dishonesty and the penalties for it, and to conduct themselves with integrity in their academic efforts. To that end, students are expected to follow both the letter and the spirit of academic honesty and to consult beforehand with their instructors whenever those ethical standards are even remotely at risk.

Attendance

It is the Department’s policy that any student who misses twenty-five percent (25%) or more of the scheduled class days, for any reason, will receive a failing grade for the course. All days when a student is not present will be counted as an absence. Individual instructors may impose stricter attendance policies. Instructors are not responsible for reminding students about their total absences.

Civility

Students are expected to communicate in a civil manner in their academic interaction at all times, both in and out of the classroom. This means that interactions are to be carried out in a polite, courteous, and dignified manner, which are respectful and understanding toward both peers and professors. Failure to behave in a civil manner may result in disciplinary actions as described by the Student Conduct Code.

Communication Arts Programs Student Learning Outcomes

Communication Arts Program Goals

Students graduating from Georgia Southern University in Communication Arts, which includes the B.S. in Communication Studies program, should be able to demonstrate the following:

  • The ability to research and propose a cogent solution to a problem, incorporating research methodologies and/or technological applications.
  • The ability to apply communication concepts in critical thinking and problem solving as evidence in performative (including written, oral and mediated) contexts.
  • Knowledge of current events and/or trends as well as the history of their respective field.
  • Knowledge of legal and/or ethical implications of communication and/or performance.
  • Knowledge of audience analysis, including versatility in adapting to various audiences and diverse points of view.

Student Learning Outcomes

SLO 1: Play and Production Analysis: Students will critically analyze play texts and pieces of theatre (productions, performance events, etc.), using the vocabulary of the field, and will ascribe meaning to the usages and applications of production elements.

SLO 2: Communication: Students will develop and defend informed judgments of play texts and pieces of theatre, and will effectively articulate complex ideas in both written and oral communication. Students will create and articulate a personal aesthetic that applies the vocabulary of the focus area (acting, directing, design/technology, stage management).

SLO 3: Development of Theatre: Students will recognize historical styles, and the cultural forces that shaped them; students will be conversant with the major theatrical periods, personages, and technological innovations that have shaped the development of theatre, and will be able to differentiate the defining characteristics of distinct periods and styles.

SLO 4: Research: Students will conduct research by selecting appropriate resources to inform artistic decisions; students will analyze and synthesize information from multiple sources in the construction of a production, design, or acting concept. Students will assess scholarship in the field and connect that scholarship to their understanding of historical practice.

SLO 5: Professional Development: Students will demonstrate the ability to collaborate effectively with both peers and professionals in a production setting, consistently demonstrating a disciplined usage of professional working standards. Students will produce a body of work built on sound professional practices, which is presented in a portfolio appropriate to the focus area; students will identify career opportunities within the focus area.

1. Research and Methodological Application

SLO 1a. Students completing the COMS program will develop a research prospectus employing appropriate methodologies to study their stated communication research question and/or hypothesis regarding human communication behavior.

SLO 1b. Students completing the COMS program will develop an analysis of a communication artifact utilizing an appropriate rhetorical criticism model.

2. Critical thinking/problem solving in performative (including written, oral and mediated) contexts.

SLO 2a. Students completing the COMS program will develop a research report that applies Dewey’s reflective thinking method to a contemporary communication problem to reach a rational solution to the problem.

SLO 2b. Students completing the COMS program will demonstrate knowledge of various rhetorical criticism models used to analyze speeches and/or rhetorical movements.

3. Knowledge of current events/historical trends

SLO 3a. Students completing the COMS program will demonstrate knowledge pertaining to the historical underpinnings of the field of communication studies and how historical developments have influenced the current study of communication.

SLO 3b. Students completing the COMS program will utilize current events as data for analysis of arguments in persuasive communication.

4. Legal/ethical implications of communication and/or performance

SLO 4a. Students completing the COMS program will demonstrate an awareness of ethical standards as related to original research.

SLO 4b. Students completing the COMS program will demonstrate an awareness of ethical standards as they relate to persuasive communication.

5. Knowledge of audience analysis and diverse points of view

SLO 5a. Students completing the COMS program will recognize the importance of culture and its impact on the reception of communication messages.

SLO 5b. Students completing the COMS program will demonstrate the ability to adapt the content of an oral performance to the audience.

SLO 1 News Story Creation: Upon completion of the B.S. degree in Multimedia Journalism, journalism graduates will be able to create news stories at a professional level, using appropriate media platforms.

SLO 2 Critical Thinking: Upon completion of the B.S. degree in Multimedia Journalism, journalism graduates will be able to apply critical thinking and problem-solving concepts in selecting relevant sources and collecting information in order to synthesize complex information for mass audiences.

SLO 3 Editing and Designing Media Content: Upon completion of the B.S. degree in Multimedia Journalism, journalism graduates will be able to critique and to correct news content for accuracy, fairness, grammatical correctness, aesthetic values and appropriateness for diverse audiences.

SLO 4 Understanding Legal and Ethical Issues: Upon completion of the B.S. degree in Multimedia Journalism, journalism graduates will be able to analyze and to evaluate the potential legal and ethical implications of journalistic communication.

SLO 5 Research and Application: Upon completion of the B.S. degree in Multimedia Journalism, journalism graduates will be able to differentiate historical and current patterns in media coverage, and to connect those patterns and to assess their relationships to ongoing societal issues.

SLO 1. Graduating MMFP B.S. majors will identify a media related research problem and propose a cogent solution, incorporating appropriate theories and research methodologies.

SLO 2. Graduating MMFP B.S. majors will analyze how specific groups of people, based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and disabilities, are represented in the media.

SLO 3. Graduating MMFP B.S. majors will apply critical thinking in their ability to accurately research, write, and produce stories across multiple media platforms.

SLO 4. Graduating MMFP B.S. majors will evaluate student productions for accuracy, fairness, appropriateness, grammatical correctness and aesthetic values.

SLO 5. Graduating MMFP B.S. majors will identify and analyze historical and/or current influences that have impacted and/or are continually affecting changes in the multimedia industries.

SLO 6. Graduating MMFP B.S. majors will identify and analyze the influences and role of ethical and legal issues within the multimedia discipline.

SLO 1. Public Relations seniors, at the completion of the program, will be able to assess organizational problems and research solutions using primary and secondary methodologies, and will create solutions using appropriate interpersonal and mass media channels.

SLO 2. Public relations juniors and seniors will construct public relations plans and collaterals integrating public relations principles and theories.

SLO 3. Public relations majors should be able to connect the historical developments of public relations with current practices.

SLO 4. Public relations juniors and seniors will be able to assess and evaluate key legal concepts and ethical implications related to public relations communication.

SLO 5. Public relations juniors will be able to design audience analyses for organizational issues, and will be able to suggest and adapt messages designed for a variety of audiences and media.