DISCIPLINE
Political Science

DURATION
The learning design spans over five weeks (usually during a 13-week semester). Students are introduced to the exercise and assigned roles in the first week with the activity conducted over the remaining period. It is usually best to position the activity during the middle of the semester as the beginning of the semester sees administrative issues such as changing enrolments causing problems.

ICT USED
The learning design requires computer-mediated communication and is most effective using a bulletin board that supports identification by role. Simulation Builder has been developed by the Arts Multimedia Centre, which is based in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at UWA, specifically to support this and other role-play simulations.

Work is underway to further develop Simulation Builder so that it can easily integrate with Learning Management Systems such as WebCT and Blackboard.

DELIVERY CONTEXT
The role-play uses a mix of face-to-face and online modes. The learning design can be adapted to emphasise online or face-to-face, depending on the learning context. Totally online is possible and would require a synchronous communication tool as a chat.

TARGET AUDIENCE

• First Year Political Science students (studying International Politics).
• Students may not have previously experienced such a learning design.
• Only limited web-browsing and web-research skills required.

COHORT
The exercise has been run in the past three years with student numbers ranging from 180 to 340. The learning design has been devised so that students are divided into groups of 12-15. This is best achieved by using existing tutorial group allocations. Each tutorial group forms a discrete instance of the UN Security Council and operates in isolation from other groups.

BROADER CONTEXT
The simulation exercise fits into a first year Political Science unit on International Politics. The unit focuses on issues relating to international relations; environmental problems, drug trafficking, nuclear proliferation, human rights, religion, ethnicity, terrorism, and the media relation at the local, regional and global levels. Lectures and tutorials provide opportunities for information presentation and discussion, while the simulation exercise provides students with an opportunity to experience first-hand an issue of international significance.

• To help students appreciate the context in which different international actors respond to international events by experiencing international politics at a personal level.
• To develop the ability to critically and objectively evaluate international developments by writing a reflective group report on the simulation exercise.
• To develop the ability to engage in teamwork.
• To give students experience in the use of computer-mediated communication and the Internet, as a valuable skill for further study and employment opportunities.

IMPLEMENTATION OF ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES
The learning activities account for 35% of the total assessment for the first-year political science unit:

• Position Paper, 10%, credited to each student individually.
• Participation, 15%, credited to each student individually (assessment is based on the quality of their participation in both secret and open diplomacy).
• Group report, 10%, assigned to each student in the tutorial group.

IMPORTANCE OF ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES USED
The critical component in the assessment is participation. It is critical as it clearly signals to students where the actual learning occurs, i.e. during the interaction phase. To be most effective during the interaction, students need to thoroughly research their role that relates to both the position paper and group report component of the assessment.

The participation component is also critical as requires tutors to actively monitor the interactions on the web site and in the face-to-face sessions. Tutors may find it useful to use a journal of some kind to assist in tracking student contributions.

While it has not been used for this learning design to date, it may be useful to consider negotiation of their own assessment for the participation component of the activity.

WHY ICT IS USED
This learning design was first implemented in 1998 without the use of ICT, relying purely on face-to-face methods. While it was felt the learning activity was successful, informal evaluation of the first implementation identified certain limitations, in particular difficulty in monitoring the interaction between students and therefore assessing student participation. Students also found it difficult to organise times to meet outside of regular tutorial times.

HOW ICT USE HELPS
The introduction of ICT provided a forum for students to interact asynchronously. Students can easily post their position papers at the beginning of the exercise, and subsequently gain access to those of other students. They can drop into the forum at any time to asynchronously interact with other students.

Simulation Builder provides students with an engaging interface that encourages students to take on their role. It facilitates easy interaction with other students (public or secret). Tutors can easily gain access to all messages so that they can monitor the interaction to assess the quality and quantity of participation. They can also intervene should it be required.

MOST IMPORTANT ICT CONTRIBUTION TO LEARNING DESIGN
The most significant advantage gained through using ICT for the defined learning design is the simplicity for students to interact with their peers in the way required for the learning activity. Of critical importance is that all communications can be monitored by the tutors.

While the defined learning design includes face-to-face interactions, should this not be used, anonymity can also be achieved through the use of ICT.