ISUComm

ISUComm is the most comprehensive curricular reform in recent Iowa State history. Developed by faculty from all Iowa State colleges and by administrators, students, and staff from across the institution, ISUComm is a detailed strategy for strengthening undergraduate communication education. The goal of this new curricular plan is to prepare graduates to communicate with confidence and integrity in the varied contexts of their academic, professional, and civic lives. While still in the implementation process, ISUComm has already begun to set a new standard for communication education, a model specifically adapted to the changing world of information technology.

The ISUComm project got underway in 1999 when the Faculty Senate initiated a comprehensive survey of the communication skills of Iowa State undergraduates. Iowa State faculty and employers of Iowa State students felt that graduates were not as well prepared as communicators as they should be, especially given the enhanced role of communication expertise in a world transformed by profound information technology changes. In response to these circumstances, the Provost’s office sponsored university-wide symposia in 2000 and 2001 at which faculty from across the disciplines at Iowa State succeeded in generating a set of guiding principles for a new approach to communication instruction. The Senate then charged a multi-disciplinary committee of Iowa State communication scholars with developing, piloting, and assessing a communication curriculum that put the basic principles into practice. In November, 2004, the Faculty Senate adopted the resulting ISUComm curriculum plan as a progressive new model for communication instruction at Iowa State (Please click here for a detailed report on ISUComm, its history, principles, and curriculum).

The Hallmark of ISUComm. The defining feature of the ISUComm curriculum is its focus on the integration of written, oral, visual, and electronic communication, or WOVE. Because of historic changes in information technology, written communication is now virtually inseparable from oral, visual, and electronic modes of communication, not just in education, but also in the professions, in business, and in the public sector. To effectively prepare our students for the actual communication challenges they will face in the academy and beyond, it is our responsibility to cultivate in them competencies appropriate to a new world of communication practice. In response, ISUComm will continue to maintain a primary emphasis on written communication as the cornerstone of communication practice; but we will also address the integrated nature of written, oral, visual, and electronic communication and the contribution of WOVE expertise to successful academic, professional, and civic lives.

In the Foundation Courses. At present, we are gradually implementing WOVE pedagogy in the 230+ sections of introductory communication courses (English 104 and English 105) that are required of all Iowa State students. The key to this transition from writing-only to WOVE pedagogy at the foundation course level is an effective program of professional development for all our composition instructors. This professional development program is now in place and involves regular workshops and consistent mentoring; it extends not only to Iowa State teachers but also to Iowa community college instructors. Eventually, we look forward to introducing WOVE pedagogy to secondary school teachers throughout Iowa and, through the scholarship of our faculty, to teachers nationwide.

In addition to the introduction of WOVE principles, the ISUComm foundation courses incorporate a number of other innovations in communication instruction. These include:

• A learning community format, with several sections linked together and taught by a collaborative team of instructors and with attendant academic and social benefits for students

• An emphasis on civic and cultural themes, which serve to enhance the emphasis on civic engagement as an essential feature of the undergraduate experience

• A communication portfolio that all students will initiate in the foundation courses and will continue to add to through graduation and into their early professional careers

• An emphasis on communication-to-learn, or communication as the essential vehicle for the acquisition of content knowledge in any and all disciplines.

Beyond the Foundation Courses. The further development of communication competencies beyond the foundation courses requires continued study and practice in courses in the major. ISUComm will foster this continued development by promoting the review of communication instruction in each academic department, with a special emphasis on the unique nature of WOVE practice in individual disciplines. To facilitate the WOVE approach to communication instruction in the major, ISUComm provides communication consultants to departments across campus. These consultants–an interdisciplinary cadre of Iowa State communication scholars–work to understand the unique nature of each department’s communication practices and to assist faculty in devising an approach to WOVE that is efficient, productive, and appropriate to the major. To date, five colleges have worked with the consultants in the process of curricular reform. As these partnerships develop, the common goal of both the ISUComm scholars and departmental faculty is to ensure that Iowa State graduates develop exemplary communication competencies that enhance their disciplinary knowledge and allow them to become leaders as well as experts in their chosen field.

The Process of Implementation. At both the foundation course and upper-division levels, the ISUComm curricular plan is now implemented and tested. Ongoing assessment procedures at the foundation course level reveal not only a high level of student satisfaction with the new model but also an ability to accommodate the increased rigor of the WOVE curriculum. Full implementation of WOVE pedagogy in the foundation courses is planned for fall 2007. At the upper-division level, departments across campus proceed at their own pace in adapting the ISUComm model to the needs of their students, the interests of their faculties, and the demands of their disciplines.

Once full enacted, the ISUComm curricular model will provide Iowa State students with the multi-modal, or WOVE, communication competencies required to meet the evolving demands for communication expertise in all realms of their personal, professional, and public experience. In the process, ISUComm will contribute to Iowa State by distinguishing this institution as a national leader in communication instruction, an institution that recognizes the central role of articulate professionals in the growth of a prosperous, humane society.