Abstract
Project
Description
Project
Goals
Educational
Impact
The Classroom on Capitol Hill project is an innovative undergraduate course on Congress and the Policy Process that uses a variety of technology enhancements, including interactive video conferencing that links Washington policy makers to Ohio State University students. The course will move beyond the classroom into the community of scholars, citizens, and policy makers. By illustrating the impact of technological advances in education, the project will serve as a prototype to the broader community of educators. Below is a brief description of the project. After outlining the goals of the class, the research design is laid out, including the hypotheses and means of testing.
The project focuses on an undergraduate course on Congress and the Policy Process. The course will be divided into two groups, in order to experimentally test the educational and political impact of the interactive video sessions. The control group course will consist of: traditional lectures, computer labs using the Congressional Database (a multimedia package that would be used in the Political Science department’s classroom computer lab), E-mail, a chat group, and use of the web. The other group will include all of these technological enhancements and interactive video discussion sessions between legislative speakers and students in the class. The web site will be designed so that students, members of the community, and speakers will be able to have easy access to class materials. After the course is over, the video sessions will be available on the web.
Political science is an important field of study in a democratic society. Because citizens are affected by the decisions of policy makers, we must be aware of the political system in which policy is created. The goal of the project is to provide students (and other citizens via the website) a theoretical knowledge of the national policy process coupled with first hand contact with those involved in policy making. Information gleaned from this unique interaction will not only increase citizen knowledge of how the political system works but will also change attitudes and give them the knowledge to actively engage the political process. By using innovative technology in the classroom, democratic education will be greatly enhanced. In particular, the interactive video possibilities are exciting for linking Washington policy makers and students.
Importantly, the interactive video conferences will be supplemented by this web site. Students will be exposed to the world wide web and will be required through assignments to gather information using the web. The web site will include the syllabus, assignments, information about speakers, and links to Internet resources such as THOMAS (the web site of the U.S. Congress), Common Causes’ candidate campaign information, and the General Accounting Office’s congressional reports and FraudNET program. Before each class period, students will have access to material on the speaker and their organization through the web site. Students will then be required to submit questions for each speaker based on this information as well as material received from the classroom. These questions will be posted on the site so that speakers can have access to the material. This virtual interaction will serve two purposes. First, the speakers will be able to gear their presentations to the interests of the students. Second, and more importantly, the students will learn the importance of educating themselves on policy leaders so they can ask important, informed questions. The web site will also serve as an example to other educators seeking to incorporate technology with their classroom learning. The web site will be promoted through the American Political Science Association and H-Net as a resource and model for other political science and public policy courses.
The impact of technology enhancements on education is important as the potential and options for their use grows. Telecommunications, particularly interactive video conferencing, is a new method of education that has the potential to overcome the constraints of time, distance, and finances that too often restrict the access students have to public policy makers. I expect that the use of interactive video conferencing will have a statistically significant impact upon political science education.
The results, findings, and course materials will be distributed through the web site, presentations at national conferences, and publications in leading journals in political science, public policy, and teaching. For example, a goal would be to publish a description and evaluation in PS: Political Science and Politics, the American Political Science Association’s quarterly publication that focuses on teaching.
There is a tidal wave
of interest from educators and universities around the country regarding
the advantages and disadvantages of technology enhanced classes.
As costs drop and technology enhancements become more accessible, the use
of the interactive video seminars become more realistic. We should
systematically evaluate the impact of these technological advances and
this project brings statistical data to bear on the question of the impact
of interaction with policymakers. The benefits of this project will
not be reaped only once, but will be the foundation for future education
of professors, students, and citizens, will serve as a template for other
courses, and will provide research on the use of technology in the classroom.