Collins’ fresh take on an old standard

With the introduction of a new professor under the TMU Communication Department, a course with a rich tradition within the major has gotten a makeover.

The course in question: C382 Persuasion, was originally designed and taught by Dr. Julie Larson, who retired after 40 years last spring. Beginning this year, the course has been taught by Dominick Collins. He has taken a new approach.

The previous approach to the class revolved around students preparing three projects–a political campaign, a marketing campaign and an argumentative speech. For the political campaign, students traditionally present the  campaign idea and then discuss the process of putting that campaign into action. Collins took it a step further this year, giving students the platform to not only plan the campaign, but also to launch it. 

This year’s students, as a class, put on a campaign, “Letters of Appreciation,” setting up a day for all The Master’s University students to sign or write cards to their favorite faculty and staff. This event took place on April 25. This project taught the students how to work as a team and in specific roles to produce a successful event.

Campaign manager, Audrey Kim, led the entire project, keeping everyone on track.

“[My favorite project is] probably the classwide project. I served as the campaign manager, I oversaw the entire project. It’s been really cool to see everything come together and I’m really blessed to have this amazing group of people to work with,” Kim said.

Luis Vasquez said he enjoyed the brainstorming aspect of the project.

“I really liked brainstorming with everyone and fleshing out the details,” he said. “And just the logistics, the behind the scenes. Like, how we’re executing the plan. I thought that was cool, the teamwork behind the plan.”

The campaign project was also Joon Chang’s favorite.

“I liked how I was the one to bring up the idea. But more than that, I just like how, as a class, we’re doing our own thing,” Chang said. There’s no one slacking off and it’s a beautiful harmony of teamwork. We’re getting it done. Audrey’s done a great job managing and everyone’s done a great job in their respective fields. I also like how [professor Collins] isn’t controlling it. He’s letting the students be creative and use their skills, but also making sure we’ve stayed on track. I’ve learned that if everyone pulls their weight, group projects can really shine.”

Kim noted that the most valuable lesson she learned while planning the event was delegation.

“Just playing to people’s strengths is really important. To know what people are good at, and figure out how to best support them in that.”

If given the chance, Kim said she would take the class again.

“Persuasion is a valuable topic and it’s really important to learn how to persuade without manipulation. In a lot of senses, it’s like acting. Acting is living truthfully in imaginary circumstances and persuasion is convincing people with the facts.”

Another project was a group project. The objective of this project was to launch a successful marketing campaign for Trophy Coffee, the coffee shop on campus. Each group, a group of 3-4 students, had a different angle and target of people to which they wanted to advertise. One group advertised to athletes, both on campus and the many that pass by. These campaigns were presented in class and Trophy’s manager came to view the presentations. She also offered advice and feedback. 

The last project was an individual project, presenting an argumentative speech to a hostile audience. The range of topics presented was very vast, ranging from wanting to have warnings in books to advocating equality in which baseball players get to be in the Hall of Fame. 

“I inherited the class from a different professor. I was given her syllabus and assignments. And she had three projects: a political campaign project, a marketing project and an individual speech project,” Collins said. “The first semester, I adhered to [the syllabus] as close as possible, as I was still learning. As I was going through that process, I learned about her style and her expectations, and how they correlated or separated from my own personal approaches. When it came time for this semester, I really loved the projects, and saw so much correlation to the textbook, but I wanted to change [the projects] a little bit.”

The projects were originally all individual projects and “more like a presentation,” as Collins noted. 

“I wanted to see how far we could go. If we were doing a political campaign, rather than just presenting a theoretical campaign, what if we did something? I applied this to the marketing [project]. The one that stayed the most similar was the individual project.”

Collins wanted to expand on what was previously taught in a way that would hopefully be enjoyable for the students and most applicable.

To execute these changes, Collins needed permission. 

“I reached out to [communication department chair] Dr. [Bob] Dickson and sent him my syllabus and my handout for project one, the political campaign, in an email, saying this was what I was envisioning,” Collins said. “I asked for feedback and concerns from him, letting him know I would set obvious limitations. Like [the students] would not be campaigning for pajama day, or something that would challenge the culture here at Master’s.      Dickson was like, ‘Go for it.’ He gave me a lot of support and liberty to show I wanted to see it come about.”

Collins believes the class has gone well so far and would love to teach the class this way again. Having had the manager and marketing manager of Trophy Coffee sit in on the class during the presentations for the marketing campaigns, Collins said they are invested and excited about next year.

“Even if the day of [the political campaign] is a failure, if nobody comes, I think it’s still a success, because of what I’m seeing everyone learning. They are problem-solving, distributing assignments, they are making connections,” Collins said. “Those are things I’m hoping the students are paying attention to and learning from, being able to leverage whatever they do next, whether it’s another class project or career or even in their church. So yes, I’m excited to teach this again.”