Conceptualising communication: a survey of introduction to communication university units

Communication skills are essential to employment and to society’s smooth functioning. Universities are a prime environment for students to learn and hone these skills. However, communication within the academy has historically been conceptualised narrowly due to logocentric forces. When students experience different communication modes, it tends to be in a siloed fashion where they learn about one skill at a time, leading to a fragmented, uneven experience. As such, this study seeks to understand how communication is defined, assessed, and supported in Australian university introduction to communication classes. It does this first through reviewing relevant unit outlines to see how they define and position communication by mode (written, spoken, or visual). Second, using a national survey, academics who coordinate relevant units provided more concrete details about how their units are structured, supported, and about barriers that exist for equipping communication students to work in today’s multi-modal digital world.