Communication Studies (CMNS) 450

Individual / Group Projects (Revision 2)

Status:

Open

Delivery mode:

Individualized study or Grouped study. Delivered via Brightspace.

Credits:

Area of study:

Applied Study

Prerequisites:

CMNS 301, CMNS 302, CMNS 401, ANTH 362 or INST 369 , and professor approval.

Course start date:

If you are a:

Self-funded student: register by the 10th of the month, start on the 1st of the next.
Funded student: please check the next enrolment deadline and course start date.

Precluded:

None

Challenge:

CMNS 450 is not available for challenge.

Faculty:

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Notes:

To request permission to register in this course, and to discuss topic ideas, please contact the course coordinator. If you are registering through the financial aid office, you must still contact the course coordinator to seek permission, even if your financial aid has been approved. Please allow plenty of time to discuss topic ideas before your registration deadline.

Overview

Communication Studies 450: Individual / Group Projects is a three-credit undergraduate course that provides you with an opportunity to extend your general knowledge of communications by finding solutions for more challenging scholarly problems.

Projects must be chosen in consultation with the program or course coordinator and intended for completion by an individual student interested in an area of Communication Studies. Students registering in CMNS 450 will have completed or be near completion of the majority of their degree coursework.

Objectives

CMNS 450 is designed to accomplish the following objectives:

Enable students to extend their knowledge of communication theory and history, and of a particular subject area to an application currently underrepresented in contemporary research.
Provide the opportunity for students to complete the outline, research, and execution of an applied project in a real world setting.
Encourage students to collaborate in a virtual environment.

Evaluation

Evaluation is established by means of a learning contract and will vary with each project; but students will be required to achieve a minimum mark of 50 percent on any assignment and obtain a course composite grade of at least "D (50 percent).

Activity	Weight
Assignment 1: The Learning Contract and Final Project Outline	20%
Assignment 2: Research Report	30%
Assignment 3: Final Project	50%
Total	100%

Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery modes may vary from their individualized study counterparts.

Opened in Revision 2, December 8, 2025

Updated December 8, 2025

View previous revision

Communication Studies (CMNS) 450

Overview

Outline

Objectives

Evaluation

Materials

Important links