Curriculum Design · Higher Education · Kennesaw State University
Gender, Race and Media — MENT 4425
Full course design for an undergraduate communication course at Kennesaw State University exploring the intersections of gender, race, and media representation — built with backward design and active learning principles throughout.
Context
Designing for critical thinking, not content delivery
MENT 4425 is an upper-division communication course addressing how race and gender are constructed, contested, and reinforced through media. The subject matter demands more than information transfer — it asks students to develop analytical frameworks they can apply independently to media they encounter in their daily lives.
That distinction shaped every design decision. The goal wasn't a course where students learned what the instructor thought about media representation. It was a course where students developed their own capacity to analyze it.
Design approach
Starting with the end in mind
Using Wiggins and McTighe's backward design framework, I began by defining the enduring understandings and essential questions for the course — the ideas and skills that would still matter to students five years after graduation. From there, I worked backward through assessment design before touching the content or weekly schedule.
The resulting assessment structure moved students progressively from analysis of existing media (structured annotation and short response) to synthesis (comparative analysis papers) to creation (a final project producing original media with a written rationale). Each level of the progression built on the last while reinforcing the core analytical vocabulary introduced early in the course.
Participation guidelines were co-constructed with students in the first week — a practice informed by research on psychological safety in courses engaging with sensitive identity topics. The resulting norms visibly shaped the quality of discussion throughout the semester.
Outcome
A course students cited as a turning point
End-of-semester evaluations consistently cited the course design — particularly the scaffolded progression from analysis to creation and the co-constructed participation norms — as key factors in what students described as one of the most engaging courses of their undergraduate experience.
The course materials, including the syllabus, participation guidelines, and final project framework, were subsequently shared with colleagues developing similar courses in the department.