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Course Syllabus

COMM 2120 Small Group Communication

  • Division: Humanities
  • Department: Communications
  • Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 3; Lecture: 3; Lab: 0
  • Prerequisites: None
  • Corequisites: None
  • Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring
  • Semester Approved: Spring 2026
  • Five-Year Review Semester: Fall 2030
  • End Semester: Fall 2031
  • Optimum Class Size: 20
  • Maximum Class Size: 24

Course Description

This course will introduce students to several practical and theoretical components of small group communication (e.g., leadership, decision-making, conflict management). Students will explore how numerous variables, such as power, normative influence, and communication climate, impact a group’s ultimate communication competence. They will also be exposed to several hands-on group experiences and activities to practice developing their own small group communication skills and abilities.

Justification

Group communication is essential to any organization. Many business and organizational concerns (e.g., mobility, human resource management, productivity, contact with the public, teamwork, conflict management) include group communication principles addressed in this course. This course provides students with several prominent theories, perspectives, principles, and concepts relating to small group communication that will prepare them for the future workforce, and they will receive several hands-on opportunities within the course to put these various resources into practice and gain practical skills—not just knowledge. This course is offered at all other USHE institutions and may provide students with a valuable source of transfer credit as they further their education in the future.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to exhibit their understanding of key small group communication theories, perspectives, principles, and concepts.
  2. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to explain how they can use competent small group communication knowledge learned from this course to improve their professional and personal lives.
  3. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate competent decision-making and problem-solving abilities within small group settings.

Course Content

Content for this course may be drawn from any of the following knowledge areas:

Communication Competence
Groups as Systematic Thinking
Meetings (Standard and Virtual)
Group Development and Identity Construction
Communication Climates
Leadership
Group Roles and Tasks
Teamwork and Relationships
Effective/Defective Decision-Making and Problem-Solving
Power Dynamics
Conflict Management and Negotiation
Ethics