“[INSERT YOUR CITY HERE]”: Teaching Strategic Communication and ROPE in General Education

ABSTRACT

Institutional structures in higher education often create artificial boundaries between professional skills and liberal education that may hinder innovative course design. This paper introduces a course model that integrates strategic communication frameworks with autoethnographic methodology to serve both professional competency development and general education outcomes simultaneously. Students enrolled in this course operate as a digital media firm that produces promotional content for community partners while conducting systematic cultural analysis of intercultural experiences. The class utilizes the ROPE framework (Research, Objectives, Programming, Evaluation) to structure this engagement as community partners evaluate student work for potential publication on heavily trafficked websites. Then autoethnographic reflections, which function as official general education artifacts, create the frameworks to achieve both professional and liberal education learning outcomes. Analysis of professional accreditation standards alongside AAC&U VALUE rubrics reveals that perceived divisions between professional and liberal education stem primarily from institutional organization and entrenched mindsets rather than pedagogical necessity thereby suggesting that integrated approaches may yield stronger outcomes. The course design’s transferability across disciplines suggests that thoughtful integration can address multiple institutional needs while enhancing educational quality and the student experience. Moreover, such course designs may challenge pervasive notions that tend to devalue general education.