Teaching

My teaching experience encompasses various areas including journalism, public relations, social media, computational communication, research methods, visual communication, and academic writing, among others. Below are brief descriptions of some representative courses I have taught. A comprehensive list of courses and my teaching experience can be found on the page of my curriculum vitae.

Computational Communication

(CUC 2035530152: Computational Communication; Graduate Level; Fall 2023, Fall 2022)

At the Communication University of China, I teach the course "Computational Communication." This is a graduate-level course I developed, with master's students from the Institute of Communication Studies and the School of Data Science and Intelligent Media. Differentiating from courses in computer science, "Computational Communication" emphasizes utilizing computational methods to explore research questions in the field of communication research. The course balances both theory and methods, with computational techniques including data collection and scraping, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, topic modeling, social network analysis, and more. The primary programming language used is Python.

Data Visualization

(COM EM 747: Trending Insights: Social Data Analysis and Visualization, Boston University; Graduate Level; Spring 2020)

This course familiarizes students with social-scientific methods for large-scale data analysis and visualization, including the application of relevant user and concept networks, time and spatial models, sentiment mapping, and comparison of matrices. In addition, the use of germane software in emerging and digital media research is developed. Most importantly, however, this course has a dual structure where students learn to not only carry our advanced analyses of large datasets, they also engage with how to visually represent with a wide-ranging skillset to scrape data, mine data, and present data in fields of specific areas of inquiry.

Social Media and Society

(COM EM 544: Social Consequences of Emerging Media, Boston University; Graduate Level; Fall 2019)

This course examines the social impact of new media. Theories from both quantitative and qualitative research will be used to explore: The role of new media technologies on a number of social entities, including interactions, networking, identities, capital, and resources; Effects of new media on civic and political participation; societal implications of the persuasive role of new media in a variety of contexts (entertainment, health, advertising, etc.).

Public Relations

(MC 4002: Strategies for Public Relations and Social Media; Louisiana State University; Undergraduate Level; Spring 2018)

This course aims to present students with the core concepts of social media and covers case studies from all realms of public relations, including crisis communication, media relations, international public relations, and more. This course will hone students’ skills at effectively analyzing a situation, applying the knowledge gained through their Manship courses thus far to elicit the best possible outcome, and communicating their ideas and results in an effective manner. Students will explore cases using traditional and new media, learning how social media complements traditional campaign strategies. Students will also encounter real-world professionals and situations to ensure that their experience in this class translates into their career as a PR practitioner.

Visual Communication

(MC 2015: Visual Communication; Louisiana State University; Undergraduate Level; Fall 2017)

The mass media are increasingly becoming visual. While you may not have aspirations of being the person who creates those visuals, you must have a conceptual understanding of the visual aspects of the mass media to be a successful media practitioner. Visual Communication focuses on understanding and applying layout and design for multiple platforms and creating and editing photos/video. This course is more than just learning software; this course is about learning how to be an effective communicator through visual media. You will use the principles and skills you learn in this course throughout your academic and professional careers.

Mobile Journalism

(MC 4971: Mobile Journalism; Louisiana State University; Undergraduate Level; Spring 2017)

Mobile Journalism is a special topics course in the journalism concentration. MC4971 will focus on using a mobile device for multimedia storytelling. Students will explore and practice using the latest mobile tools and apps with a commitment to telling stories that are fair, accurate, interesting, thorough, and human. Students will learn to use the latest techniques and tools for writing, editing, video, audio, and graphics for multimedia publication including print, web, and broadcast using mobile technology.