Dr. Summer Shelton incorporates Service Learning in her COMM 345: Content Production for Social Media, which examines the development of social media content creation and the use of current production techniques across social media platforms. Students will use social media content creation tools and gain an in-depth understanding of the content creation process.
Students in Dr. Shelton's course work with a number of community partners. Recent partners include the African American Museum of Evansville, the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Ohio Valley, Sweet Schmitt's Candy Shop, and with USI's The Shield newspaper.
Students in Content Production for Social Media worked to identify a client in the community that they could partner with who may be in need of assistance with their social media efforts. After agreeing to allow the students to take over their social media, students work to develop several different types of social media content that is covered in the course including audio content, video, graphics, and interactive content. Students also worked to develop other original content. Students manage the organization or business' social media for almost the entirety of the semester. Most student teams were working with Instagram and Facebook, and some work with TikTok and Twitter as well.