Undergraduate Courses
For descriptions and times of our numbered cataloged courses, refer to the university catalogs and registrar's website.
ADV/PR 361 and ADV/PR 378 Elective Course Descriptions | Fall 2025
Entertainment Brand Communication | Steve Rossmann | MWF 10:00-11:00am, DMC 4.204
This course introduces students to the dynamic world of entertainment, focusing on brand awareness through communication, public relations, and creative storytelling. Students will analyze industry case studies to uncover successful strategies and learn from challenges, then apply these insights to craft innovative approaches for today's diverse audience. With an emphasis on modern tools like social media, influencer collaboration, and experiential campaigns, the course equips students with practical skills to address the complexities of entertainment promotion and create impactful campaigns.
Creativity in AI | Erin Reilly | TTH 2:00-3:30pm, Web-based, synchronous
Prepare students to creatively apply Generative AI tools in storytelling and immersive experience design. This is an online course. Activities include trying various generative AI tools from text, image, sound, video, and more. Final projects are using generative AI tools to design fictions offering a solution to a wicked problem impacting society. Students should expect subscription fees during the semester for use of these tools in lieu of a text book.
Foundations of Immersive Media | Erin Reilly | TH 5:00-8:00pm, DMC 4.206
Emotional and Persuasive Message Design | Deena Kemp | TTH 11:00am-12:30pm, CMA 3.210
Emotions play a critical role in advertising and public relations—from humorous ads that help us remember the products they promote to angry audiences motivated to take action on serious social issues. This course will introduce you to psychological frameworks on emotion relevant to consumer behavior in different contexts. You will learn how emotions influence perception and decision making. By the end of the course, you will also understand how emotions can be integrated strategically in message design to enhance persuasion outcomes.
Immersive Media Studio | Ben Randall | MW 5:00-6:30pm, DMC 3.204
This is a project-based course that encourages creative exploration within the space of Immersive Technology. Much like a hackathon, students will work on experimental projects over short periods of time and will learn through discovery and sharing their findings with other students. This course is open to all majors and there are no prerequisites. A curiosity about immersive technology is the only expectation of incoming students. This is a good introductory class for all UT students interested in applying to Texas Immersive.
Sustainability Communication Research | Lucy Atkinson | MWF 1:00-2:00pm
This class examines integrated communication in the context of sustainability and environmental issues. We will work with a corporate partner to develop and conduct applied communication research on a sustainability issue. Students will get exposure to all phases of research, from conceptualizing the problem and developing research questions to collecting data and presenting the findings.
Pop Star Activism | Dave Junker | Web-based, asynchronous
Pop star activism occurs at the intersection of marketing (commercial interests), issue advocacy (political interests) and art (individual and cultural interests), presenting fun and instructive case studies in strategic communications (an umbrella term for public relations, advertising, marketing, political campaigns and other organized efforts to persuade). This class engages with issues of diversity, political activism, public relations, and marketing communication through the lens of popular music.
Digital Social Media Analytics | Natalie Brown-Devlin | TTH 2:00-3:30pm, CMA 3.114
Digital and Social Media Analytics provides a hands-on opportunity for students to understand the importance of measurement and analytics in formulating effective communication strategies. Students will receive hands-on experience understanding how analytics and research aid in the planning, implementation, measurement and optimization of strategic digital campaigns. Most importantly, students will master data storytelling skills that allow them to effectively communicate the key insights they discover in a dataset to an audience.
Digital Social Media Production | Octavio Kano-Galvan | MWF 1:00-2:00PM, CMA 4.144
Digital social media mobile technology offers a creative and interesting new way to create visual content. Mobile video on social media production is a major asset for businesses to create brand awareness, share information, and engage targeted audiences. This class aims to provide students with the required skills to plan, capture, edit, and produce digital social media content. Students will learn how to use tools to create digital storytelling with mobile devices. Students will come out of the course with expanded knowledge of industry editing and motion graphics software for mobile devices. Students will produce high-quality video shorts in a variety of contexts, including advertising campaigns, interviews, site visits, events, products, restaurant reviews, and news stories.
360 Video Production | Octavio Kano-Galvan | MWF 12:00-1:00pm, CMA 4.144
360-video technology offers creative and interesting new ways to create immersive visual content. The goal of this class is to provide students with the required skills to plan, capture, edit, and produce 360 videos. The course centers on project-based learning; students will explore 360-Video technology to create visual-immersive content. The goal of this class is to provide students the required skills to plan, capture, edit, and produce 360-videos.
Fashion PR | Amber Hutchins | Web-based, asynchronous
Fashion is a multi-billion-dollar industry that plays a significant role in our daily lives, and career opportunities for professional communicators are on the rise. In this course, we will explore the skills needed for careers in fashion PR and media, as well as industry trends and issues. In addition, we will also analyze fashion's impact on communication and culture, including how individuals use fashion to communicate and create identity, and the role of fashion in TV and film.