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9 Things I Learned From My Students, Spring 2011 Edition

Image Credit: “teeter-totter” by Junichiro AOYAMA

Like all semesters, Spring 2011 had its ups and downs. Here are a few things I learned, in no particular order:

  1. I was impressed with the writing and design skills of many of my students with their blog assignments. Some of them went far above and beyond my expectations, notably Cindy Cromeans, Amber Sakis, Sarah Allen,  Kyle Ashcraft and Megan Getter. I must remember to share these outstanding examples with students in the fall.
  2. I should not bother to hold any office hours for the first 3/4 of the semester, and pack them all into the last 1/4 — as this is when most of my students decide to stop by. (Okay, I probably won’t do that. But I am tempted.)
  3. I may need to be more specific in my assignment directions. For example, even though we had multiple discussions in class about the assignments, some of them still had a hard time understanding that the “Topic of the Week” for their blogs was due during a specific week. (Any idea how I could be clearer in writing about this one?)
  4. I was beyond delighted when students would share links via Twitter or bring up current events or PR news in class. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, I was thrilled.
  5. I need to reinforce our department’s attendance policy several times, especially early in the semester, even though it’s plainly stated in the syllabus. Some students were “surprised” when their grades were lower than they had anticipated. Since so much of what we cover in my classes is based on class discussions, being physically (and mentally!) present is critical. It’s also good practice to show up to class just like they will have to show up to work once they graduate.
  6. I will need to be clearer that when I put a hyperlink in a blog post, it’s for a reason. That reason is to provide amplification or examples about the points I was writing about. I fielded many questions about information that I’d linked to.
  7. I need to remember that not all students in my PR classes are as passionate about public relations and social media as I am. (We have a combined PR/journalism major at my university, and many students are much more interested in the journalism side of the major than the PR side.)
  8. I should continue to attend students’ outside activities often. It was great seeing them notice when I showed up (often unannounced) for campus and non-campus events, including one wedding proposal!
And here’s one final thing I learned that I definitely need some help with.
  • 9. I may need to lower my expectations that students will be fully prepared for class by reading the assigned materials, listening to the assigned podcast or writing the assigned blog post. I need to come up with an alternate plan (other than dismissing the unprepared students or the entire class) when they are unprepared for the discussion I had expected to have.
    What are your thoughts about this one?

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    Wrapping Up #COMM2322 with WKRP’s Turkey’s Away

    "Les Nessman" with my infant son James and me (1990)

    [Updated from a similar post in June 2010.]

    As we start wrapping up our spring semester in Public Relations Applications class, it’s time to end the semester in my traditional way: by watching a classic episode of the classic late ’70s / early ’80s TV show “WKRP in Cincinnati” :: “Turkeys Away.”

    According to the Internet Movie Database:

    “[Station manager] Mr. Carlson is beginning to feel useless at the new formatted rock station so he decides to create a big Thanksgiving Day promotion. His idea? Get a helicopter, with a banner attached to it saying “Happy Thanksgiving From WKRP…” Then, based on a botched promotion from a radio station in Arkansas, live turkeys are dropped from a helicopter. Chaos ensues.”

    Take 20 or so minutes to watch the episode below, keeping in mind what you’ve learned in COMM 2322 during the semester.

    So what can public relations students learn about how NOT to do a promotion from Mr. Carlson’s fiasco? I’ll get the list started:

    1. Communicate with your entire team before launching a promotional campaign (or a turkey).
    2. Do your research! It’s best to learn ahead of time that turkeys don’t fly.
    3. Get permission before doing a stunt.

    What would you add to this list? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

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    Key Learnings in #COMM4333 Writing for PR Spring 2011

    Image Credit: "New Zoo Review"

    It’s hard to believe the semester is almost over, but it most certainly is — at least if we can trust our calendars.

    As a way of reviewing what we covered and learned in COMM 4333 (Writing for PR and Advertising), each student will:

    • Choose a toy animal from a basket in class.
    • Name the animal.
    • Write the letters of the animal’s name down the left margin of a paper.
    • Come up with something we discussed in COMM 4333 that starts with each letter.
    • Reply to this blog post with a comment including the animal’s name & what they learned. Put a star/asterisk in front of the most important thing learned. (NOTE: Copy the comment before you submit it, and save it in a Word doc.)
    • Send a tweet with the most important thing learned and the class hashtag (#COMM4333)

    After each student is done with this, we’ll go around the room and each student will share his/her starred item — the key learning.

    Any why is  “New Zoo Revue” in the title of this post? It was among my favorite childhood TV shows. (It’s a little painful watching the production values in the show now, but I loved it as a child.)

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    Key Learnings in SPC 4350 AKA New Zoo Revue

    Image Credit: "New Zoo Review"

    It’s hard to believe the semester is almost over, but it most certainly is — at least if we can trust our calendars.

    As a way of reviewing what we covered and learned in SPC 4350 (Social Media for PR and Advertising), each student will:

    • Choose a toy animal from a basket in class.
    • Name the animal.
    • Write the letters of the animal’s name down the left margin of a paper.
    • Come up with something we discussed in SPC 4350 that starts with each letter.
    • Reply to this blog post with a comment including the animal’s name & what they learned. Put a star/asterisk in front of the most important thing learned.

    After each student is done with this, we’ll go around the room and each student will share his/her starred item — the key learning.

    Any why is  “New Zoo Revue” in the title of this post? It was among my favorite childhood TV shows. (It’s a little painful watching the production values in the show now, but I loved it as a child.)

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    How to Embed from SlideShare into Your WordPress Blog

    If you want to share a presentation you’ve created and uploaded to SlideShare (or one that you found on SlideShare), it’s surprisingly simple to embed the presentation into your WordPress blog. Here are the four steps:

    1. On the presentation’s page in SlideShare, click on the WordPress logo, which is to the left of the presentation.
    2. Copy the code for WordPress.com hosted blogs. It will look something like this: 
    3. Paste the SlideShare code into your blog post; use the Visual Editor, not the HTML Editor.
    4. Save your blog post draft, then preview it. The presentation should appear like the one created by my COMM 4333 class below. If it looks like you expected to, publish your post.
    That’s all there is to it. Simple, right?