The CRDM program aims to prepare highly qualified professionals to provide national leadership in teaching, research, policy, innovation, and development in higher education, industry, and the nonprofit and government sectors. To that end, students will prepare to become exemplary communicators, effective members of interdisciplinary work teams, and experienced researchers. There are many opportunities for such preparation, both inside the classroom and beyond. 

As part of their professional development, students will participate in three one-credit colloquia that will include faculty and students from across the program (CRD 809, Colloquium in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media). These colloquia will introduce students to the collaborative, interdisciplinary, and on-going nature of research and will serve as a forum where incoming students, advanced students, and faculty can explore together various issues of ethics and professionalism. 

Teaching opportunities

Institutions of higher education are transforming the processes of teaching and learning by incorporating new technologies into traditional classroom settings and creating alternatives to those settings through online instruction. Training programs in the workplace are being similarly transformed. Regardless of students’ career goals, a familiarity with the relationship between learning and technology will be valuable because of this centrality of technology-mediated practices in education, work, and everyday life.

One of the goals of the CRDM program is to prepare future faculty for positions in departments of English or Communication and in the increasing number of programs that combine instruction in writing and speaking with a focus on new technologies. Such programs include introductory courses, writing and speaking across the curriculum, electronic/digital portfolio development, media studies, technical communication, organizational communication, computers and composition, and online instruction.

To meet this goal, all CRDM students take CRD 704, Technologies and Pedagogies in the Communication Arts. This course provides a focus on theories, research, and practices connecting new technologies to the processes of teaching and learning in the communication arts.

Teaching Assistants will be assigned to work with teaching programs in the Department of Communication and the Department of English or with the Campus Writing and Speaking Program. Before they graduate, students should acquire experience in teaching both basic and advanced courses, in classroom and online environments, and, ideally, in both Communication and English programs. The main teaching programs are listed below.

For additional information regarding how teaching and research assignments are made, please consult this FAQ on the matter.

Department of Communication

• Basic Course
  Director, Dr. Deanna Dannels
• B.A. in Communication
  Director, Dr. Kenneth Zagacki

Department of English

• First-Year Writing Program
  Director, Dr. Susan Miller-Cochran
• Professional Writing Program
  Director, Dr. David Covington
• B.A. in English, Concentration in Language, Writing, and Rhetoric
  Director, Dr. Sharon Setzer

Campus Writing and Speaking Program
Director, Dr. Chris Anson

Research opportunities

The CRDM program aims to prepare students to pose and solve research problems pertaining to the uses and potentialities of new communication media and information technologies, especially as they are applied in emerging contexts in the 21st century. They should also gain experience with a variety of research and analytical methods, both quantitative and qualitative.

To meet these goals, the curriculum requires a minimum number of research methods courses, and the student’s dissertation committee will ensure that the student is qualified to carry out independent research.

Beyond the course requirements, students will find research opportunities in programs and initiatives across campus at NC State. Cross-disciplinary initiatives and sponsored research programs offer opportunities of particular interest. The following list includes examples of such programs that CRDM Program Faculty and Affiliated Faculty are involved with.

• PCOST (Public Communication of Science and Technology)
  Directed by David Berube, Professor of Communication
• LabWrite
  Directed by Michael Carter, Professor of English
• The Mobile Computing Initiative
  Directed by Dan McWhorter, College of Veterinary Medicine
• The Mobile Gaming Research Lab
  Directed by Adriana de Souza e Silva, College of Communications
• The North Carolina Language and Life Project
  Directed by Walt Wolfram, William C. Friday Professor of English and Linguistics
• The Center for Digital Entertainment
  Co-Directed by Michael Young, Computer Science, and Pat FitzGerald, Art and Design
• The Open Courseware Laboratory
  Directed by Professor Michael Rappa, Alan T. Dickson Professor of Technology Management
• The William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation
  Directed by Hiller Spires, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction

Other research opportunities both on campus and off campus in nearby technology industries or government agencies may become available. See information in the Resources section of this website.