Editorial Record: Submitted September 19, 2025. Accepted March 9, 2026.

Authors

ABSTRACT

The 2023 report of the Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE) identified key areas of focus for PR educators to enhance students’ learning and preparation for successful public relations careers. Their research found both educators and PR practitioners desired strong problem solving, creative thinking, analytic thinking and strategic planning abilities, but scores were lower when asked if students delivered those in the workplace. This in-class exercise, administered in two upper-level courses, included a pre-test to assess students’ confidence in creativity and collaboration, small-group work to develop measurable objectives and creative activations for a select “Audience” and “Action” (see worksheet in Appendix C). The session ended with a post-test to reassess the same factors listed above, as well as a whole-class discussion about creativity and critical strategic thinking in public relations (see Appendix A for a step-by-step guide and discussion prompts). This exercise reinforced the CPRE recommendations noted above, as well as their call to “Encourage curiosity” and “…Teach students to align…with measurable organizational outcomes and public relations objectives rather than low-level outputs.”