As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been writing about my Topics in International Politics for the Active Learning in Political Science site. My first posts examined the structure of the IRiA Simulation and how I evaluated its use in my course.
After the first round in Spring 2014, I reconfigured the assignments for the course based on student feedback. While they were enthusiastic about the course and sim, the students reported that there was a bit of a disconnect between the first half of the course – structured around lectures, discussion, and in-class activities – and the second half in which we played the game. As a result, I was motivated to restructure the course calendar and to redesign the research assignments for the Fall 2014 class. I also began thinking of how the new assignments might incorporate social media as a teaching tool.
One of the new assignments included developing and sharing a Twitter campaign around a game objective. I’ve written about my pedagogical approach for revising the course assignments, as well as a prep activity for the Twitter campaign assignment. Check them out!