Serendipity35

MSPTC CorpCommPodcast is a new venture by a group of graduate students in the Master of Science Program in Professional and Technical Communication (MSPTC) at NJIT.

The CorpCommPodcast group was designed to allow students to define, refine, and strengthen skills in corporate communication through a case study approach. The students enrolled in PTC 642 during the Spring semester of 2007 designed the service.

They are providing informative, easy-to-use podcasts that explore the global communication challenges facing organizations - business, non-profit, educational and social interest - in a manner that is well-researched, informative, and entertaining.

PTC 642 (Corporate Communication) is taught by Dr. Norbert Elliot who is also supporting the CorpCommPodcast program.

This post is not categorized under "podcasting" because, like the work the students completed for the course, it's not really just about podcasting. Beyond the free resources that they are offering, what really appeals to me is that Professor Elliot has been rethinking how students produce their "writing" for his classes.

A look at the site will show that beyond the podcasts, there is much of the "traditional" content being examined by students (Usability, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Final Reports, Advertising, Core Values, Product Development (all available as PDF downloads too) and that students are gaining the skills in communications that might have been taught earlier through the production of essays, reports and research papers.

For example, there's a podcast on "Media Relations Today"

With the turn of local news toward harder news stories, the explosion of new media sources including the internet and the 24-hour news channels, individuals are capturing news from multiple channels. How does a media relations professional pitch and have a story carried through these tougher media channels. This podcast will outline that evolution and offer media relations professionals some tips as to how to think and react differently in this new arena.

The podcast supporting materials includes: objectives ("Following this podcast, the student should be able to discuss Argenti’s eight-step model for crisis communication and understand how the model can be applied to a real corporate crisis.), works cited, and a text transcription of the audio. In other words, it's student and teacher-friendly.

The site will continue to grow in content with students in subsequent semesters. In fact, they are looking for users suggest a topic that they would like to see produced for inclusion on the site.