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SPCOM 100Interpersonal Communication

Faculty
Arts
Last listed
Spring 2023

No longer offered. It was in Waterloo’s course catalog since at least Winter 2020 (as far back as Open Data goes) to Spring 2023 and last ran in Spring 2023. It isn’t in the 2024–25 or later calendars.

When it ran

  1. W20
  2. S20
  3. F20
  4. W21
  5. S21
  6. F21
  7. W22
  8. S22
  9. F22
  10. W23
  11. S23

Ran in 11 terms, Winter 2020 to Spring 2023.

Focuses on the one-to-one, face-to-face communication in both the personal and professional realms. Such topics as verbal and non-verbal interactions, listening, and the better management of interpersonal communication will be studied.

Reviewed on UW Flow

48% liked it73% easy42% useful

From 255 ratings and 61 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

  • This course feels like therapy. Very easy if you are good at writing bs. Grading consists of weekly 600 word journals and two group presentations. The content can be boring but it will be really enjoyable with Jeff Stacey.

    Nov 2022 · liked it · 2 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • I took this course only because I had to. Honestly, though, courses like this depend completely on the prof you get. I got a very chill prof so I had the course easy. But hearing from friends who had different profs tho...it's a different story.
    The discussions that happen in this course are sometimes very interesting; if you're someone who likes psychology, you won't be one of the students that sleep in class. Although the long lecture tends to lose my focus occasionally.

    Apr 2017 · didn’t like it · 2 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • Boring, but if you put in like.. 1 hour a week, you can get a 90%. Except for the group projects. If you have group members that don't want to do work, you're fucked, so pick a good group at the start. Weekly journals (of which we only had to do 5 out of the 10 or so) were fine, but feedback comes back slowly, so by the time I hand in my 5th I've only gotten feedback for 2. Only took this course because it was required. If its not required for you, there are plenty of bird courses that are 2000x more interesting than this.

    Nov 2022 · didn’t like it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • Everything was terrible. Balaisis would schedule office hours and make you wait an hour, then cancel because "he forgot". He gives terrible marks, and then says there's nothing you can improve. SPCOM is such a subjective course, and Balaisis is the worst instructor ever. Everyone I knew got 70s avgs, no matter how hard you tried or what you did, unless you went above and beyond in your creativity (which is near-impossible). Had 3 assignments, each of which was an essay and a video, and weekly discussion topics (out of 3 marks each, near impossible to not get 2/3). If you want a 75% final grade for 5 hours of work in total in the course, take him. If you want a better grade for spending 10x…

    Nov 2020 · didn’t like it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • Compared to the other Math courses I had to take, this course was certainly much easier to handle. The main source of work for this course is the weekly journals and the presentation you are asked to prepare on one of the topics about communication. I generally like the idea behind the course; it demystifies communication and clarifies different topics related to communication that most Math students tend to abstract out, or not think about often. Overall, I enjoyed the course, and would recommend it to anyone who wants a fairly light course that can be interesting if you are willing to put a little bit of effort into it.

    Apr 2017 · liked it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

Discussed on r/uwaterloo

254 posts and comments in 175 threads mention SPCOM 100, July 2012 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.

Spring 2024

First-year math courses selection 1 point, 8 comments

“I was not sure how to select courses for my first term, and I missed all the webinars because I was working all summer. …”

u/Disastrous_Quail9511: “… So for now, you should stick with cs135, math135 and math137 (since you’re still a math student) and electives or communications course like spcom 100/223, engl109 etc Just a heads up, you’ll probably need a 80-90% or higher to get a transfer from math to cs, which is, as you …”

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Winter 2024

Fall 2023

who tf is faraan hadi? 1 point, 24 comments

“there’s a guy in the wusa reform discord who actually won’t stop talking about how mathsoc is as corrupt as wusa???? he even related them to ww2 leaders (the bad guys obviously). …”

u/Small_Win_2596: “That dude’s a psychopath. He took SPCOM 100 with me. He was convinced and trued to convince everyone else that assertive communication is the best. 💀”

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Spring 2023

Math - First year electives 3 points, 7 comments

“Hello! I have to select courses for my first year - I will be studying mathematics with co-op and looking forward to major in statistics in second year - and I need some advice from upper year …”

u/IntrovertNeptune: “I took SPCOM 100 (now called COMMST 100) and it was an extremely easy class. A good chunk of your mark is participation. …”

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SPCOM 223 or 100 2 points, 2 comments

u/fifthfreakingaccount: “Which is a better communications course? On one hand, having to speak in front of a large audience doesn't seem like it'll happen a lot for a math student, but it's definitely an essential skill that should be honed at this stage. …”

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Internal Transfer from Math Coop to CS Coop 12 points, 17 comments

“Hey Everyone, I wanted to ask those of you who successfully transferred from the Math Coop to the CS Coop program, what were your courses, grades, and how the process worked out for you. …”

u/Many-Two-2507: “Could those of you who made the transfer successfully list your Term 1A and Term 1B courses?”

u/GiantAnorith: “1A: math145,math147,cs145,psych101,spcom 100 average: 84 1B: math146,math148,cs146,phys121 average: 89 my experience: i was one the verge of tears while taking cs146 because the course was great and i could not stand not being in cs. …”

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Winter 2023

Every Math Major Ever 46 points, 14 comments

“&x200B; https://preview.redd.it/pnu30jy9hvka1.png?width=626&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=78451d45edd5916255c99d1dae7632ad1870b43a”

u/daxxie9: “spcom 100 with Jeff Stacey is the most fun I've ever had in a uni course”

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