2018-2019 SPEAKER SERIES

Rebecca J. Dumlao, Ph.D.

Professor of Communication Studies at East Carolina University

Choice Points for Teaching Online Courses that Involve Community Engagement

February 22nd, 2019 at 11:30 am

EUC Alexander Room

Dr. Dumlao’s presentation will focus on considering different types of community engagement and partnership development along with specific choice points for online teaching to include:

Who are my online Students? (“Audience” Analysis- Access synchronous, asynchronous or both, locations, etc.)
Will the course be fully online or partially face-to-face?
What technology and teaching “features” (and help) are available on my campus?
What pedagogical goals guide my course/ the curricula?
What community-focused goals/issues will be addressed?
How can I/we choose community partners?
Will students do projects OR direct service (individuals/groups)?
What teaching materials/ assignments will be needed?
Other considerations for a DE teacher- on-the-spot problem solving, showing caring online, addressing communication differences, etc.

Dr. Dumlao will share practical examples from her online courses that focus on community engagement to include a graduate course called Community Engagement and Health Communication. Participants will take away ideas and resources to build their own community-engaged courses representing different disciplines of study using online or hybrid approaches.

Rebecca Dumlao, Professor, School of Communication at East Carolina University was an early adopter of service learning on the East Carolina University campus. For 12 years, she taught the Senior Capstone Communication course where 1600 students contributed in excess of 18,000 hours of public service working in partnership with community organizations. She collaborated with colleague Dr. Deborah Thomson to secure grants and subsequently team-teach the Honors seminar, Puppet Shows that Make a Difference. In 2018, Dr. Dumlao led a Global Service Learning course called Community, Conflict, and Engagement in Northern Ireland; her Honors students in that class participated in a Spring Break trip working with youth at centers in Belfast.

For more than a decade, Dr. Dumlao has also developed and taught 100% online courses in the School of Communication’s Distance Education (DE) programs. She has taught communication courses related to families, small groups, interpersonal relationships, organizational communication as well as the Capstone Communication course in the undergraduate DE program. In the master’s level program, she developed and taught Family Communication and Health, Intercultural Communication in Health Contexts, Interpersonal Health Communication DE. She also developed and taught an innovative online class called Health Communication and Community Engagement where graduate students develop a Community-Engaged project with nonprofit or government organization(s) to meet a community need.

Dr. Dumlao’s early scholarship emphasized family/relational communication, including conflict management. She has presented at public seminars and workshops, at academic conferences, as well on a radio talk show in Trinidad, West Indies. More recent scholarship focuses on communication, collaboration, and conflict management in community-campus partnerships. Dr. Dumlao’s work has been published in: Journal of Higher Education, Outreach and Engagement; Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship; Journal of Family Communication, Science Communication, and Health Communication. She serves on the Editorial Board for Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement.

Dr. Dumlao is a longstanding leader with ECU’s Service Learning Committee and a graduate of ECU’s Engagement and Outreach Scholar’s Academy (focused on developing Community Engaged Scholarship.) Her longstanding commitment to community-campus partnerships led to her selection for both the Robert L. Sigmon Service-Learning Award from North Carolina Campus Compact and ECU’s Scholarship of Engagement Award. During 2018-2019, she is one of two in selected as an Engaged Faculty Scholar by North Carolina Campus Compact. (See https://blogs.elon.edu/nccc/2018/07/06/faculty-members-from-duke-ecu-selected-as-2018-19-engaged-faculty-scholars/and related links.) Her book A Guide to Collaborative Communication for Service-Learning and Community Engagement Partners was published by Stylus Publishing in October 2018.

This event is sponsored by the Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement, the Institute for Community and Economic Engagement, and North Carolina Campus Compact.