The Department of Communication offers two research methods courses (see below) that play a crucial role in preparing students for the subsequent 400-level seminar courses, CMM454 Organizational Communication Seminar or CMM455 Interpersonal Communication Seminar. For this reason, the Department strongly recommends you take one of them instead of CMM353 Persuasion & Social Influence prior to the semester when you take your senior seminar.
Both methods courses, CMM352 Qualitative Communication Research Methods and CMM354 Quantitative Research Methods, help students become critical consumers of data and scholarly research as well as become familiar with techniques for how to design original research. Broadly speaking, CMM354 focuses on types of research and techniques that result in numbers-oriented data (e.g., surveys, experiments), while CMM352 focuses on types of research and techniques that lead to more context-centered data (e.g., observation, focus groups). Please don’t let the words “research methods” scare you! In the information age, being able to manage and analyze data are skills increasingly sought by employers from a wide range of communication-related industries and professions.
In sum, these two research methods courses play a crucial role in preparing Interpersonal/Intercultural and Organizational Comm. students for their later 400-level senior seminar. Again, we strongly suggest taking one of the methods classes in place of CMM 353 Persuasion & Social Influence to make sure you are best prepared for success in the senior seminars.