Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences · Courses
COM
18 courses with the subject COM, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
COM 102Group Communication
This hybrid course (½ online and ½ face-to-face) is introductory and designed to provide basic understanding of the group dynamic and process. Critical facets of group functioning are studied and experienced to apply key concepts that are relevant to group development, team building, roles, problem-solving, and leadership. These concepts will be examined in a variety of group settings to help students understand critical events which occur in both large and small cohorts. (3)
This ESL Workshop provides one to one or small group support to students for whom English is a second language and have proficiency in English, but who require some specialized study to accompany their current courses. The course provides practice and instruction in the writing process, conventions of academic genres and English grammar and usage. The course is designed as a workshop to support students with the writing they are doing in an elective or required course such as Academic Reading and Writing, Principles of Communication, or the Humanities sequence. This course may be repeated for credit up to three times. (1)
This course is aimed primarily toward introducing students to academic literacy practices, including reading, writing, researching and using sources, speaking, collaborating with peers and using visuals. Students will establish a solid communication skill set to serve as a foundation for the rest of their academic and professional career. In addition,
Level 1 is an introductory level course for students with little or no prior experience in Sign Language. Expressive and receptive sign skills will be addressed as well as the manual alphabet for fingerspelling, basic grammatical structures, and how to develop vocabulary through sign production. The students will also learn about various forms of sign language and deaf culture. Class time will be devoted in developing basic conversations and the skills will be practiced in whole group discussions as well as small group exercises and discussions. Signs skills will also be enhanced outside the classroom through grammar and comprehensive exercises. (3)
Expressive and receptive sign skills will be addressed as well as the manual alphabet for finger spelling, basic grammatical structures, and how to develop vocabulary through sign production. The students will also learn about various forms of sign language and deaf culture. Class time will be devoted in developing basic conversations and the skills will be practiced in whole group discussions as well as small group exercises and discussions. Signs skills will also be enhanced outside the classroom through grammar and comprehensive exercises. (3); Prerequisite: COM 171
COM 175Academic Writing and Presentations for ESL I
This course is designed for nonnative English speakers who are proficient in English but need to improve their academic writing and presentation skills. Students will gain confidence in academic writing and speaking in order to increase fluency and proficiency. The course will also enable students to develop a practical understanding of the conventions of academic writing and presentations. Students will also have opportunities to work with and get feedback on writing and presentation assignments in other courses. (3)
The Spanish for Health Careers I and II sequence will provide students with specific vocabulary, grammar and cultural competencies that will be directly applicable to interaction with Spanish-speaking clients within a health care context. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the building of speaking/listening communication skills. Students will primarily communicate in the present tense and will be introduced to expression in the past tense. As the Spanish for Health Careers I Course is an introductory level language course, previous knowledge of Spanish will be helpful but not necessary. (3)
The Spanish for Health Careers II is the second course in the sequence that provides students with specific vocabulary, grammar and cultural competencies that will be directly applicable to interaction with Spanish-speaking clients within a health care context. (3); Prerequisite: COM 211 or permission of the instructor COM 230 Overcoming Communication Hurdles in Health Care (formerly LAS 251) This course addresses the development of students’ reading, writing, speaking and listening abilities. Through a mix of mini-lectures, workshops and active learning activities, students are presented information fundamental to understanding communication as a critical element in the delivery of health care. Through case studies, individual and group assignments, students will apply the communication strategies presented in class to situations of increasing rhetorical complexity and personal responsibility. (3); Prerequisite: COM 115 COM 242 Interpersonal Communication (formerly LAS 242) This course introduces students to the social scientific discipline of interpersonal communication. Interpersonal communication provides the building blocks from which all larger forms of social organization are created and maintained. Friendships, intimate relationships, families, football teams, juries, hiring committees, PR firms, hospitals, political campaigns, and governments all rely at some level on interpersonal communication. The course is divided into two large units. The first unit covers foundational theories in the area of interpersonal communication. The second unit covers what might be considered "problematic" aspects of interpersonal communication (e.g. conflict, deception, social predicaments). Throughout the course, concepts from interpersonal communication are applied to different health care settings, demonstrating how interpersonal dynamics affect the delivery and receipt of health care. (3) Prerequisite: COM 115
This course prepares students to become agents of change, capable of influencing the choice-making of individuals, organizations, and communities. Coursework provides students with foundational knowledge and skills in three interrelated domains of social influence: 1) logic and reasoning; 2) rhetoric and persuasion; 3) bargaining and negotiation. Students will develop and apply these skills through interactive communication projects that span a range of media (oral, textual, visual, and digital).
This course offers a broad overview of the study of conflict from a communication perspective. It introduces students to current theoretical and applied issues in the study of conflict management using social science theories to help explain the process of interacting with others. Specifically, the course examines the nature, causes, and techniques for managing conflict across a wide variety of situations including societal clashes, psychological turmoil, group decision-making, intimate relationships, and organizational interaction. While each of these situations differs in important ways, there are commonalities in how conflict functions across them. We will look at those commonalities to understand the role of communication in conflict. The assignments and class activities focus upon the theories, models, principles, and concepts of conflict and their application to a variety of relationships. (3);
This course combines theoretical approaches to persuasion and behavior change with applied, experiential learning to provide students with the knowledge and skills to promote health initiatives in a variety of communication media.(3); Prerequisites: COM 115 or COM 120
Communication campaigns play an important role in public health and safety. The overarching goal of this course is to examine strategies and outcomes of informative and persuasive health communication campaigns. The course will first provide an overview of the history of campaigns, audience analysis, formative research, theory, design, and evaluation, and second, examination of specific health campaigns. This course will include a hands-on group project designing and implementing a health message intervention that will give students practical experience and will allow students to develop professional communication and teamwork competencies. Principles covered in this course are fundamental to the field of Health Communication. (3); Prerequisite: Junior standing or permission of the instructor
This course develops core communication competencies required for contemporary health teamwork, using dynamic game-based learning design and team-based experiences as contexts for concrete application of course concepts. Key topics include interdisciplinary role relationships, leadership styles, decision-making, and conflict management. The course adopts an ecological model of health and healthcare, examining the interactions and interdependencies of diverse professionals from across the health system (e.g. epidemiologists, health educators/interventionists, healthcare providers, policy makers, and more).
A great deal of health care is delivered interpersonally. When health providers and health consumers interact, they coordinate their social and communicative activities in order to realize the practical goals of therapeutic partnership. This course exposes students to a range of communicative challenges that health providers and health consumers experience when they interact. Various communication strategies for overcoming these challenges will be discussed and evaluated. Applying an ecological perspective on health care, relationships between macro-level factors (culture, gender, economics) and micro-level factors (interpersonal relationships, interaction) will be discussed. (3); Prerequisite: Junior standing or permission of the instructor
Modern health care systems require practitioners to provide care to patients with diverse values, beliefs, experiences, and behaviors. This course exposes students to the communication challenges that patients and providers navigate as part of an intercultural therapeutic partnership, with special emphasis on the ways in which health care delivery can be tailored to patients’ unique social, cultural, and linguistic needs. The course uses the term “culture” broadly and inclusively, highlighting traditional racial/ethnic cultures (e.g. Middle Eastern), national cultures (e.g. Mexican) and co-cultures (e.g. African American), while also including contemporary notions of cultural membership (e.g. cultures of medicine, cultures of disability, LGBTQ). Key topics include: minority health disparities, health literacy, barriers to health care access, cultural variations in communication style, the use of medical interpreters, traditional and complementary medicine, and culturally-specific media environments that influence health beliefs and behaviors. (3); Prerequisite: Junior standing or permission of the instructor
This hybrid course (½ online and ½ face-to-face) addresses the development of students’ writing abilities through a mix of mini-lectures, workshops and active learning activities. Students are presented information fundamental to understanding written communication as a critical element in the delivery of health care. Through case studies, individual and group assignments, students will apply the rhetorical strategies presented in class to situations ranging from the general to discipline/profession specific. (3); Prerequisite: COM 115
This is a mentor-student proposed elective course project focused on communication. The student under faculty advisement must submit a proposal to the Department Chair for approval. (1-3); Prerequisite: permission of the instructor
