Loneliness is on the rise and has been since the early 2000s. With ongoing concerns about students’ mental health during the pandemic, it’s more important than ever to address the root of the problem: the lack of interpersonal communication.  Why are students more lonely and unhappy than ever? Research from psychologist and Macmillan Learning author David Myers found that while some factors like religion, volunteering and fitness have a slight impact on happiness, the thing that makes the most impact is having satisfying relationships. Not just romantic relationships, but also connections with friends, family, co-workers, and fellow students. The way to develop these meaningful, and sustaining relationships is  interpersonal communication. It’s challenging to address lack of interpersonal communication when students are more dependent than ever on technology in many aspects of their lives -- from their regular access to social media to their remote classes while they were confined during the pandemic. The screen that has allowed them to connect with people is simultaneously isolating them as well as becoming a scale for self esteem (which is a concept worthy of an entire blog.) But there are steps instructors can take to help students to establish and enhance interpersonal communications in and  beyond the classroom. According to Steven McCornack, Professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham, “Sustaining relationships is a mental health imperative and interpersonal comms is a way to address it.” Last week’s webinar about interpersonal relationships in a post-COVID world with professors and authors Steven McCorkack and Kelly Morrison, Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham hosted by Macmillan Learning introduced some steps that instructors can take both in and out of the classroom to help develop these skills in students. While some tips are specific to Communication classes, others can be used in just about any class. Here are eight tips: Don’t start the semester with a “syllabus day.” Steven and Kelly start out class with a question:  “What is the most important thing that drives your life’s happiness.” This helps develop community within the class and gets the students to start talking. And, for their class in particular, it’s helpful to lead into the content as to why their course on interpersonal communication is important. Use name tags in class for in-person classes. While many students can identify the faces of the other students in their class, not as many are familiar with their names. Having name tags is like opening a door to say hello, and continues throughout the semester to create community. Have music on before class . Having music creates an environment that encourages conversations. Steven consults his son on a playlist so that he has the most current music on, whereas Kelly prefers more upbeat music. No matter the kind, music is a great conversation starter. Gently push students not to use devices. While the screen enables students to connect with each other in the digital space, it is also very isolating -- and not just because students are looking down at their devices instead of engaging with their surroundings hindering conversations. Research correlates social media consumption and social isolation; it’s possible to plot someone's feelings of isolation by monitoring the amount of time per day they spend on social media, in large part because they’re doing social comparisons and feeling worse about themselves. Use the “introduce yourself to a stranger” assignment. This assignment asks students to introduce themselves to a specified number of people they hadn’t met before either every day or every week. The assignment aspect of it gives students a valid excuse for approaching someone they didn’t know and starting a conversation, helping to remove some of the shyness and intimidation some students may feel. This has led to many students finding common interests or even making new friends, helping them to feel less lonely. Advise students about Self-Discrepancy Theory. The theory purports that self esteem, in large part, derives from how we compare ourselves to two standards -- who we believe we should be and what we believe the ideal is. Students’ own self concept will benefit when they are mindful of their inputs, and understand that social media should not function as a scale for self esteem because many things being posted are fictional and non-attainable. Empower students to know that they alone have the power to change the comparisons, as they reside in their own thoughts. Help get conversations started . Students can engage with each other in discussion boards or in breakout rooms, giving them the ability to connect with and learn from each other. Instructors can use ice-breaker questions like “what would the title of your life’s story be, and why” to allow students to better get to know each other. Use video. In addition to being more efficient than sending emails back and forth for hours on end, video conferencing with students helps to build connections with instructors and each other. Instructors can meet with students individually or in small groups. In asynchronous classes, video introductions can be used to allow students to get to know each other and discover common interests.  As an Interpersonal Communications instructor, Kelly opens her classes by underscoring the importance of having sustaining relationships, and the steps outlined above are some ways to nurture their development, but that’s just one of many options. These eight ideas are some of many designed to help support the development of interpersonal communications -- leading to happier and more successful students. The close relationships that students develop, more than money or fame, are what keep people them throughout their lives. “The way that students can get there is through interpersonal communication,” she noted. To watch the full webinar and access the slide deck, click here . To learn more about Steve and Kelly’s new edition of Reflect and Relate: An Introduction to Interpersonal ... View more

October 4th | 1:00 PM ET   Even prior to the COVID pandemic, college students have struggled with mental health issues including loneliness, anxiety, and social isolation. Join Kelly and Steve to discuss the research on loneliness and social isolation, the connections to overall mental and physical health, and suggestions for using interpersonal communication to forge and fortify our connections with others to improve wellness in a post-pandemic world.   Watch today WATCH HERE ... View more

by Allison Cottrell, Summer 2021 Marketing Intern at Macmillan Learning In my senior year at Grinnell College this past fall, I finished my mathematics major with a course in Numerical Analysis. While I usually felt represented as a female mathematician in my time at the college, I encountered an image in that course’s textbook that made me reconsider how I’d been interacting with my math texts up to that point.  Now, almost a year later as Marketing Intern for Macmillan Learning, I still think about the image, its placement in that textbook, published in 2006, and its influence on my learning experience.  I encountered the image when I was almost done with the term. Our final project was to explore a chapter we didn’t cover in class, learn it ourselves, and write an essay telling that chapter’s story. For no particular reason, I chose the chapter on the Discrete Cosine Transform used in image compression.  I knew nothing about the transform beforehand, and I was proud of myself for being able to tackle the content relatively on my own. I think this was the point of the project--to show us that we now each had the skills to understand content on our own--and the project succeeded in that respect. But, this chapter also included the image “Lenna,” a photo widely used in image compression. At first glance to me, and I assume most others who encounter the image, it’s just a photo of a woman wearing a feathered hat.  But, this image has a more complex history. It only started as the image compression standard in 1973 when three men were looking around for a photo to use for a conference paper. So, they turned to a recent edition of Playboy , chose this “Lenna” image from a centerfold, and used it without another thought. (See the image here .) At the time of first reading the chapter, I didn’t know this. My head was swimming with image compression and matrices and proofs I didn’t quite understand. I took the image, as presented in a text I was told to trust, without question.  I was able in my paper to choose a different image to demonstrate the algorithm, so I picked an image of my dog. As a surprise to no one, it was not hard to choose an image outside of Playboy . Turns out, there are many other images one can compress, if they care enough to do so.  My professor sent out an email about the image towards the end of the semester with a reassuring note on inclusivity in science, but the image shouldn’t have been in my textbook. As a student, I could not have learned the needed material in the time and space of that class without encountering that image. Once I knew the history of the image, it changed the way that I experienced the chapter in a distinctly negative way.  I still learned the chapter, I still wrote my paper, and I was still proud of myself and the writing I produced. But, I could have produced it without this line of research into the Lenna image. Images in texts always matter, whatever the discipline. Context didn’t leave the room when I opened my Numerical Analysis textbook. As a female mathematician, I want the images of women in my math textbooks to be female mathematicians, not images from Playboy. ... View more

Watch as Speech Craft author Joshua Gunn discusses everything from teaching during a global pandemic, diversity and inclusion in the classroom, public speaking,  and even which superpower reigns supreme. Interested in requesting access to LaunchPad for Communication titles? Fill out the form here.  ... View more

February 26 | 2:00 PM ET In 2015 Joshua Gunn published  Speech Craft,  1st edition with the inclusion of a groundbreaking chapter on Speaking for Social Change. In this session, he will explore The history of the Speaking for Social Change chapter and the decision to include it in the printed text.  Discuss our cultural challenge through a lens of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Present ways to address this challenge through strategies of active listening.  Examine how the principles of Activism and Advocacy have changed during the pandemic and postulate on how this might look in the future.   View Recording Watch Recording HERE   ... View more

Macmillan is proud to offer not only world-class texts for students but a wealth of instructor resources to better teach Public Speaking. Come spend 45 minutes with Joshua Gunn and Laura Sells as they walk us through an activity that can be used to teach in the Zoom environment many of us find ourselves in.   Access Recording View Recording   ... View more

About three years ago, my former institution was considering a book adoption of a standardized introductory human communication textbook. This practice is fairly standard with textbook publishers across the country—we vote, we adopt and our college students are required to use the book. Our voting cluster was comprised of all full-time Communications Faculty.   My institution, Palm Beach State College, had just retired a black male president and we were now getting acquainted with our first female college president. We were progressive, I thought. Our faculty was smart, innovative, resourceful and forward-thinking. They were the best colleagues, some I still call friends.   However, when reviewing this textbook, I started noticing these small slights. Out of our top three selections, Macmillan’s Choices & Connections stood out above the rest...for all the wrong reasons. For example, the chapter “Self & Perception” included a brilliant photo of Serena Williams, seemingly taken after she won a match. By itself, the image was grand, powerful and authentic—she was shining as she does best, on the court, a successful professional athlete.   But in relation to the other images in this chapter on perception, she appeared angry. Most of the other images in the chapter featured non-black people smiling, happy, and glamorous. The chapter’s copy spoke about Serena’s condescending taunts to her opponents and her childhood in Compton, “the area of Los Angeles made famous by rappers for its poverty and violence.” Thus, Serena stood out, in a full page spread on critical self-reflection, looking like an “angry black woman... from the ‘hood.” I’m sure that wasn’t the intent. But perception matters. I know that Serena Williams is Compton, but she’s also Palm Beach Gardens, fashion, travel and philanthropy.   And this is where my colleagues and I disagreed. It’s not just the content of the materials for me. As a former journalist, I know that words and images matter. Images are especially important for the black community. We know that the media can be our friend and/or enemy. We also now know that if we can see something, we can believe in its possibilities. For this reason, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates stands out.   For almost 20 years, I’ve been teaching at colleges and universities throughout Florida. Just last year, I moved north to Atlanta, GA, and started working as a Visiting Professor at Georgia State University. Often times, I go unnoticed. I’m the quiet one, bespectacled, always in the back of a faculty meeting, convocation or graduation. I’ve only somewhat enjoyed the administrative highs and lows, but I have always loved the students. They bring something so unique to the classroom that makes the early years, late nights on campus, and even long hours grading speeches worthwhile. For me, it has always been about bringing 100% of my best self to my classroom. My students deserve this. And they have actually paid for this academic experience.   It was five years ago that I actually started noticing things in the media that made me uncomfortable. As a journalism educator then, these small slights to black women made me uncomfortable. Such as, in late 2014, when The New York Times said the beloved Viola Davis, a remarkably talented Academy, Emmy and Tony award-winning actress who shines eloquently against Denzel Washington, was “ less classically beautiful. ” It hurt. She looks like my girlfriends and female relatives. That is, she is brown-skinned.   It wasn’t just about black women. I recall that in 2016, Asher Nash, an adorable baby boy with Downs Syndrome, was denied an opportunity to model children’s clothing for OshKosh B’Gosh because, it was alluded, of his disability. Also in 2016, April Reign began her social campaign for #OscarsSoWhite . The campaign focused on more representation and recognition in film for black actors. Today, similar efforts include all people of color.   Back then, I was also a Palm Beach County resident, and two of our most famous sisters, Venus and more so, Serena, were often picked apart and critiqued in the media on things like appearance, body image, and physicality. So, when I saw that photo, I had had enough. I just couldn’t sit idly by being comfortable. Because these were people that could have easily been my students or my future students. As an instructor, my job is to teach and reach as many students as I can—so we can’t afford to lose one. These students often come from a range of backgrounds—age, race, gender (and gender identity), and religion—as like the real world around us. As faculty, we (hopefully) leave our biases and prejudices behind. Our goal is to educate and prepare them for the future.   As a woman of color, the Serena image was the same, hurtful. I am a black woman, tenured Professor and mother of five brown-skinned children. If that’s how they see her, how do they see me? My black- and brown students? My kids?   By the time Macmillan’s sales rep Allen Cooper made it to my office, I was already vehemently advocating against Choices & Connections, for this reason and others. I also learned that no one had ever asked for feedback from a diverse group of educators about diversity and inclusivity in the making of the book. And, one bundled copy of The South Side wasn’t going to win me over.   As Allen, a young white man, sat across from me, a seasoned communications professor, I had one question in mind: “Do the people making decisions look like me, or do they look like you?” Because, in my classrooms, many of our South Florida students look more like me, various shades of black and brown faces. Palm Beach State is recognized as a Hispanic-Serving Institution. That only means, the institution has reached a 25% Hispanic student population.   Allen did his best in trying to understand, to reach out, and offer consultation with others at Macmillan. In the process, he wanted to learn too. Two years later, now an editor based in NYC, Allen reached out to me with a new idea, a concept for an editorial board of diverse faculty from around the county to review the previously mentioned college textbook.   From there, we took our weekly conversations and turned them into a learning experience. Today, about 10 unique and diverse faculty members from around the country consult and review college textbooks with Macmillan Learning staff. This editorial board for Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Culturally-Responsive Pedagogy, or the DICR board, crafted a mission statement: “To advance and evolve our understanding of diversity, inclusiveness, and culturally-responsive pedagogy and to promote their fundamental, not ancillary, place in the development of learning materials.”   Our recorded conversations on this experience reflects a first-of-its-kind undertaking in the publishing industry where we converse on diversity, inclusiveness and culturally responsive pedagogy. We know that change can happen slowly, but for all of us involved, the Choices & Connections review has resulted in one textbook that is richer, more accurate and inclusive. That’s a win-win for all of us. And yes, we did replace the photo of Serena, with a photo that better emphasized her beauty and her strength.     It’s important to know that our work is just beginning. This blog, my “Three Ps in a Pod” podcast, the Macmillan Learning video on diversity and inclusion, the DICR board and its review work, and this website are all a part of our efforts to educate and inspire action in colleges & universities for all of the students we serve. Join us on this journey.   S. Lizabeth Martin is a visiting professor of Communications at Georgia State University, Atlanta, and a member of Macmillan Learning's Editorial Board for Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Culturally-Responsive Pedagogy. For more information about , the DICR Board,  or  Choices & Connections, check  out  the Choices & Connections microsite here, or check out Lizabeth's video on the home page of this Community. ... View more