MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Good teachers look for innovative ways to engage students in the classroom and maximize learning in a limited amount of time. During the Summer 2018 term at the University of Kansas, students in Journalism 560-Message Development gained real-world experience by working with a government entity as their client. Students are traditionally exposed to the corporate world throughout the Strategic Communications program at the University of Kansas. For this particular summer term, the instructor took students out of their comfort zone and presented them with the challenge of developing strategic messaging products for the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence Doctrine Division. The instructor used a flipped classroom teaching strategy to allow students time in-class to work in their assigned groups and the opportunity to get immediate feedback during the creative process. Students developed the following products during the eight-week summer term: Strategic Message Plan, Print and Digital Advertising, brochures, radio and television advertising, news releases, and a 30-day social media calendar.

Students were interviewed at the end of the term to gain their perspectives on their educational experience during the class and education goal outcomes. Army representatives were interviewed to provide perspective on the client experience. Once the client launches the messaging products developed by the students, the instructor and the client will work cooperatively to measure the impact of the students’ work by examining the organization’s social media and website analytics.