Sexual Communication in Personal Relationships
Welcome to your personalized online, open access “textbook” for the course Sexual Communication in Personal Relationships. This open access educational resource (OER) is made possible through an OpenHawks grant (funded by the Provost Investment Fund and the UI Office of the Provost).
I applied for the grant for three reasons: (1) no existing sexual communication textbook out there really floats my boat or aligns entirely with our course content so I though, I’ll just do it myself!; (2) I wanted to make educational materials accessible to students. Being able to afford the (often astronomical) costs of a textbook should not determine whether or not someone takes a course, so I wanted to eliminate that barrier (and save students money in the process); and (3) an OER is flexible and allows me to edit and update continuously so you, the student, are always learning from and about the most cutting edge research on sexual communication. As such, this textbook is a “living” document, meaning I can change it when new research comes out or when you all loop me in to the latest trend in emerging adult sexual behaviors and communication (versus traditional textbooks which cannot be edited in real time after they are published). What you are reading now is my first draft of this textbook and I am open to feedback, so let me know what you like, what you don’t like, and/or how I can change things to make this better for YOU, the student, because after all you are who this is for!
A few notes about the book:
1) This book is an integral part of the course. Reading it is a requirement to be able to fully appreciate lecture and do well on assignments and assessments.
2) The book is intended to facilitate an abridged “flipped class” design. That is, the chapters will contain fundamental material that will not necessarily be discussed in lecture. Instead, lecture material assumes students have read the chapter before class and have a basic understanding of fundamental concepts that will allow us then to dig deeper on that day or week’s concepts. As such, the chapters will be short and accessible to read with links to supplemental materials.
3) This book is not the only reading material for class, students will at times be expected to read academic research articles, pop culture articles, and view films (both inside and outside of class period).
4) The chapters in the book correspond with weekly lecture and discussion section content (see the syllabus) and it is best, as noted above, if students read material before attending lecture and discussion section.
I want to spotlight three incredible folks who were instrumental in this project. First, Lauren Peters, a former TA for the course, created some of the discussion questions and activities you will see in these pages and in discussion section. Second, Sara Siepker and Diego Ortiz, undergraduate research assistants, developed the supplemental materials and case studies you will see throughout the book. This endeavor would not be what it is without them!
Finally, this book (and the course) is intended to help you become competent and confident in your sexual communication. Read the material, ask questions, and try it out in your real life! I think you will find that although talking about sex can be anxiety producing, once you have the right tools in your sexual communication toolbox talking about sex is easy and fun and leads to more mutually enjoyable (and consensual) sex!
