Wikipedia has become one of the most used reference works, by students, educators, academics, and the general public, and there is a growing body of research exploring when and how students use the online encyclopedia. A smaller body of work examines the role of Wikipedia as a pedagogical tool for teaching information literacy and subject-matter…

Much of the research on Open Educational Resources (OER) focuses on student perceptions of materials and their impact on student learning outcomes. However, in the case of large, general education courses, student interaction with course material may be predicated on their interest in the subject matter, a factor unaccounted for in the current…

Despite the known benefits of long-term, game-based simulations they remain underutilized in Political Science classrooms. Simulations used are typically designed to reinforce a concept and are short-lived, lasting one or two class sessions; rarely are entire courses designed around a single simulation. Creating real-world conditions in which…

Much of the research on the use of simulations in the political science classroom focuses on how simulations model different events in the real world, including political campaigns, international diplomacy, and legislative bargaining. In the case of American Politics, many simulations focus on the behavior of Congress and the legislative process,…

This article offers insights into the overall program development process and--institutional obstacles and constraints notwithstanding--successful introduction of a new national security program at a small liberal arts university at a time of growing institutional prioritization of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs.…

In an effort to help students better understand the complexity of making environmental policy and the role of policy actors in this process, we developed a mock congressional hearing simulation. In this congressional hearing, students in two environmental policy courses take on the roles of members of Congress and various interest groups to…

This study assesses the pedagogical value of film as case material, and whether that value is affected by the different national and institutional contexts of the students engaging that text. We test whether students in two different Theories of International Relations (IR) classrooms--one in Brazil and one in the United States--demonstrated a…

This article describes a four-week congressional committee simulation implemented in upper level courses on Congress and the Legislative process at two liberal arts colleges. We find that the students participating in the simulation possessed high levels of political knowledge and confidence in their political skills prior to the simulation. An…