Free Course Materials in Online ADMN 6020: Advanced Managerial Communications

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID: ADMN 6020
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a management course for graduate students by Bailey Benedict at California State University – San Bernardino. The open textbook provides detailed coverage of written and oral communication, as well as principles of management. The book is supplemented with other online readings, podcasts, and videos made by the instructor. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was to save students money. Most students access the open textbook online.

Free Course Materials in Online ADMN 6020: Advanced Managerial Communications
Brief Description of course highlights: Advanced Managerial Communications (ADMN 6020) introduces students to the principles of communication strategy and persuasion, with a focus on written and oral presentation assignments to increase student proficiency in managerial communication. This course satisfies the graduate writing requirement.   https://catalog.csusb.edu/coursesaz/admn/

Student population: This course is required for Master of Business Administration students. Many students received their undergraduate degree in the last five years, and some of them graduated from CSUSB.

Learning or student outcomes: By the end of the semester, students will be able to:
A. Communication theories: Develop an understanding of foundational theories of communication such as the dynamics of communication and the fundamental roles of communication and persuasion in the business context.
B. Verbal presentation: Develop and expand the ability to research, organize, and deliver informative and/or persuasive presentations in various professional settings.
C. Written communication: Develop with an eye toward mastering the ability to use clear, concise, and grammatically correct language as students employ appropriate formats in various writing tasks.
D. Verbal and written communication foundations: Develop the ability to implement critical thinking skills to include consideration of audience, channel, and mode for successful communication for each task.
E. Ethics in business communication: Develop an understanding of ethical business communication and intellectual property use and protection.
F. Interpersonal communication: Develop interpersonal communication skills useful in business settings, such as active listening, conflict management, enhancing relationships for ongoing career growth, etc.
G. Team communication: Develop skills necessary for successful team collaborations and productive meetings.
H. Business communication and technology: Introduce and explore the use of multimedia technologies to enhance verbal presentation skills, written skills, and digital presence.

Key challenges faced and how resolved: The primary challenge was locating and vetting the textbooks, readings, and other materials. The process is time-consuming, and I should have started it earlier. Some other challenges I experienced include:

• Students’ Limited Access to Online Articles: I uploaded the files to a Google Drive folder and shared them with students. 
• Formatting: Sometimes, the formatting of the textbooks gets wonky when they are uploaded on different OER sites. We really cannot do anything about the formatting, but I copied the text into a Word document and fixed the formatting once when it was really bad.
• Organization on Canvas: When I first used OER, I tried to link each one individual in modules, but it became messy and overwhelming. Now, I link them in a Canvas Page, which makes it a lot easier.

Sample assignment from the course or the adoption: A summary of my free course materials can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeMUMYR7Cvc

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option. I used free materials in my course to save students money. Because I am a new assistant professor and was prepping a new course, the timing was perfect for me to choose Open Educational Resources.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? I browsed Open Educational Resources sites until I found a book that was easy to access and covered the material necessary for my course.

Sharing Best Practices: I highly suggest looking carefully for the date when an Open Educational Resource was initially published. I also recommend getting started with the process of finding materials early, because it takes a long time. Finally, if you’re going to create your own educational videos, I recommend hiring a student to help you through an assistantship or work study, because it’s incredibly time consuming to create good videos, and hiring a student provides them with a job relevant to many career paths.

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned. The biggest challenge I experienced was reviewing the abundance of online content focused on communication to find the best materials for the class. I learned I need to begin preparing long before the semester begins, much further in advance than when teaching with a print textbook.

Instructor Name: Bailey Benedict
I am a business communication professor in the Department of Management at the California State University-San Bernardino. I teach Applied Business Communication (MGMT 3500) and Advanced Managerial Communication (ADMN 6020). 

Please provide a link to your university page.
https://www.csusb.edu/profile/bailey.benedict

Please describe the courses you teach.
MGMT 3500: Being able to communicate ideas and interact with others effectively, efficiently, and ethically is important in businesses and other professional settings. This course focuses on written and oral communication skills for managers and introduces students to foundational theories of communication including those that cultivate a global mindset. Students will practice writing and speaking professionally in ways consistent with the three E’s and will also learn about small group dynamics and techniques for communicating in teams.

ADMN 6020: Communicating effectively, efficiently, and ethically is important for managers and people in business and other professional settings. This course focuses on written and oral communication skills for managers and introduces students to foundational theories of communication, including those that cultivate a global mindset. Preparation materials and assignments address both professional and interpersonal communication theories, concepts, and skills that will help students be successful managers and business communicators. Students will work toward mastering writing and speaking effectively, efficiently, and ethically and will also learn about managing small groups and teams.

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.  
I am passionate about teaching and believe my role as an educator is to promote students’ resilience. My teaching philosophy is rooted in fostering learning by creating spaces for growth, while recognizing the real threat of mental health crises on college campuses. Consequently, my pedagogy revolves around valuing transparency, cultivating comfort, and reducing uncertainty. I work to expose students to new ways of answering their questions about the world and to build practical skills with students that will benefit them in professional, academic, and personal situations, while protecting their well-being and appreciating their intersectional identities. I also study resilience, especially when encountering difficult life experiences, such as recovering from a natural disaster.

I currently teach Applied Communication in Management and Advanced Managerial Communications, and I previously taught several courses in communication at other universities: Foundations of Presentational Speaking, Business and Professional Communication, Organizational Communication, and Small Group Communication.

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: 
Marriot School of Business. (2022). Management Communication. Brigham Young University. https://mcom320.net/   * Labelled MCOM

School of Language and Liberal Studies. (2021). Advanced Professional Communication. Fanshawe College. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/llsadvcomm/   *Labelled APC 

University of Minnesota. (2015). Principles of Management. https://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmanagement    * Labelled POM

Brief Description:  Management Communication covers why communication matters, how to prepare to communicate, and how to structure your ideas and communicate clearly and concisely. The book covers conducting research, designing visual communication, and revising your work. Additional topics include grammar, presentations, personal branding, and the job market. My favorite part of the book is the appendix that covers 18 common writing rules that are broken in college students’ writing: https://mcom320.net/mcom-WRITE.html

Advanced Professional Communication takes a liberal arts approach to managerial communication and covers communication models and processes, as well as business styles, formats, and composition. The book also covers social, cultural, and employment communication, as well as researching, report writing, and communicating with groups and teams. It is a fairly traditional online textbook.

Principles of Management is also a traditional OER. I used this book the least of the three, since many parts did not explicitly address communication. I used chapters on general management principles, personality, attitude, leadership, performance evaluations, decision-making, managing groups and teams, and motivating employees.

Authors:  Marriot School of Business at Brigham Young University, School of Language and Liberal Studies at Fanshawe College, University of Minnesota

Student access: I create a Canvas Page with the materials for each week and hyperlink them individually in the page. The links take students to the materials in their web browsers. I also sometimes put files in Google Drive for students to access.

Supplemental resources: I post a weekly video introducing students to the topics and assignments each week. I supplement the textbook readings with popular press articles from Harvard Business Review, Gallup, Greater Good Science Center, Indeed, LinkedIn, and Medium, as well as a couple of academic journal articles. I also assign materials written by other universities, such as Cornell, Duke, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Temple University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Penn State. Sometimes, I assign podcasts. I like the show, “Think Fast, Talk Smart,” the best for communication classes, but I use others, too. 

Finally, I supplement the textbooks with videos from me. I assign them as PlayPosits, where students watch the video in Canvas and quiz and discussion questions pop up throughout. I have 25 videos on communication topics and tutorials on my professorial YouTube account: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0mj2dNZxca1S3-qBHGV1iw 

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  Other sections of ADMN 6020 recently used materials costing a total of $47, $121, ($226 per student.) With 23 students, my class saved between $1,097 to $5,203, but probably around $2,300.

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