The objective of this course is to cultivate a student's curiosity in the field of human reproductive biology, modern technological advancements such as contraception, assisted reproduction and stem cell research, and the social, economic, and ethical challenges and issues they create.
The goal of this course is to introduce major theories and methods for understanding and analyzing social media for information organizations (both non-profit and profit). This course will review topics such as social networks, ethics and policy, marketing approaches, and social analytics, and then discuss various applications of social media in different disciplines and information organizations including scholarship, library, healthcare, and education.
This class will cover the relationships between the sports journalists, athletes and audience. It will discuss the evolution of sports media from the early sports writers to the present day when athletes control their own messages via social media. This course is about developing literacy and critical-thinking skills about athletes, the sports industry as a whole and its relationship with the media. It will look at the role that sports - and sports media - play in public debate and to promote change.
Examination of a systematic framework for uncovering and understanding strategic communication audiences' motivations, influences, and decision-making processes. Major influences on audiences' conduct, such as psychological, situational, and socio-cultural factors. Implications of strategic audience insights for the development and implementation of integrated strategic communication programs.
Culinary medicine is a new evidence-based field that blends the art of food and cooking with the science of medicine. Culinary medicine is aimed at helping people reach good personal medical decisions about accessing and eating high-quality meals that help prevent and treat disease and restore well-being. The purpose of this course is to provide students with evidence-based, practical knowledge to better understand nutrition and how it relates to the health of patients through educational modules combined with instructional cooking videos.
This course walks a student through the process of acquiring talent for an organization. Topics discussed in detail include the design and analysis of jobs, HR planning, the recruitment, selection, socialization, and training processes. The course is primarily lecture- based but includes some hands-on activities with real world applications which leverage concepts from social network analysis and HR analytics.
With the increasing amount of information available in organizations today, talent and business decisions and recommendations will need to be data-driven and evidence-based. This course will provide an introduction to topics and analytical techniques to leverage people-related data into organizational and human resources (HR) insights. Specific topics will include foundational data literacy, data collection and management practices, data analysis techniques, and strategy development.
Understanding how behaviors, policies, and systems in organizations, specifically HR, can impact employees, teams, organizational effectiveness, and industry competitiveness requires methodologically rigorous research. HR and executive leaders need to leverage sound research in order to make evidence-based organizational decisions. This course will be an overview of a wide variety of methodological and analytical topics in organizational and HR research.
Organizations are webs of interconnected formal (reporting lines, team memberships, workflows) and informal (friendship, help, conflict) relationships. The pattern, presence, or absence of these relationships can hinder or assist in the functioning of an organizational. This class is designed to teach an analytic approach to the measurement and interpretation of these patterns known as social network analysis.
Among the issues facing humankind, providing adequate amounts of food to a growing population, developing CO2-neutral sustainable sources of energy, and managing water resources represent three key challenges. This course will provide the background for understanding these issues, especially as applied to the Appalachian region of the US.
