Digital education is increasingly popular, and I am honored that PR professor Susan Gonders at Southeast Missouri State University enlisted Culpwrit as a “virtual guest lecturer” for her innovative curriculum. Here’s this week’s assignment for the 17 students in Susan’s PR Research & Strategy class.
‘Making CULPWRITS Of Students’
Susan Gonders, Professor
Southeast Missouri State University
Public relations students at Southeast Missouri State University will be CULPWRITS this week – prowling through Ron Culp’s blog to complete their assignment. I have several learning objectives in mind with this assignment.
- I want them to get familiar with navigating all that the blog has to offer. So I’ve directed them to click on several different “Categories” and “Read more” about various postings so they can answer a series of questions about career preparation, job searches and early days on the job.
- I want them to get familiar with leading practitioners. So I’ve “introduced” them to Calmetta Coleman, a Ketchum senior VP who was formerly a Wall Street Journal reporter and communications manager for J.P. Morgan Chase. Students have a question they can answer by reading Calmetta’s posting on business writing. I’ve also “introduced” them to Gary McCormick, who will become PRSA CEO (chair) in January 2010. Students will consider Gary’s resume and tell me which of Gary’s first 10 jobs they think was most pivotal – and why – in positioning him for his work with Scripps Networks and ultimately with HGTV. This may give them some ideas about how to position themselves for the jobs they want.
- I want them to actively seek many resources in their career development efforts. So I’ve directed them to Tim Conway’s posting about creating digital portfolios. Tim provides links to some no-cost templates, and my students need to access those templates and tell me which one they like best – and why. I also want them to read the “Career Quick Start” posting on volunteerism. It provides links to suggested programs. I want them to tell me which of the volunteer programs would most appeal to them – and why.
- I want them to become globally savvy. So I’ve also directed them to the “uncategorized” posting on “Global PR Facts and Insights.” They need to check out the links to summaries of different countries and tell me what they learned that would be helpful if they are working in one of those countries – or with partners in one of those countries.
- Because this is a public relations research class, I’ve also directed them to the “Undergraduate Twitter Survey.” This is very timely because we’ve been studying research findings about the use of Twitter and other online social media. Students need to respond to the survey and then tell me something they would recommend for improving the instrument.
I’ll report in about a week and let you know what the new CULPWRITS had to say about the many resources provided on Ron’s blog.
Dr. Susan Gonders was in the practice for 21 years before becoming a full-time educator. She is coordinator of the academic program in public relations at Southeast Missouri State University, head of the Public Relations Division (PRD) of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), and co-chair of Certification in Education for Public Relations (CEPR) through the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
Great idea, Susan. I may have to “borrow” some of these ideas for my fall management class.