Get Out of the Way! How a Simulation Changed How I Think About Teaching, Turned on My Students, and Ruined My Other Classes
18 Pages Posted: 16 Feb 2012
Date Written: February, 14 2012
Abstract
The paper reflects on ten years of developing and using a web-based Congress simulation. LegSim is a server-based virtual legislature that instructors and students access via the internet (www.legsim.org). Each class receives it own dedicated legislature. The instructor then customizes it based on considerations such as class size (how many committees can be supported), available time, and desired complexity. Students populate and organize their legislature, before attempting to advance legislative agendas that reflect their personal priorities and the legislative districts they represent. LegSim was originally designed to be used as a capstone activity in a didactic, college-level political science course. It has now become the central activity of my course, although different instructors use it differently. LegSim has been an interesting and rewarding project by many measures. I describe its evolution, pedagogy and how I integrate LegSim into my upper division course. I then present some recent findings suggesting the learning benefits of project-based curricula that include simulations such as LegSim. Finally, I conclude by asking (but not answering!) how I can apply these lessons to other classes, and also sound a cautionary note about the future of the project for anyone interested in educational simulation development.
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