Active Political Engagement through Adaptive Learning Assignments

POLS 150 is a required General Education (GE) course for all students to graduate, and has proven to be a difficult course to pass for many students. In teaching this course, I have found that many students general are not intrinsically interested in the subject. The biggest challenge is getting them to accept the idea that government matters to them and belongs to them. Indeed, what goes on in Washington seems relatively abstract to them and I want to find ways for them to relate to what goes on there. I have, in the past, made efforts and tried to create assignments, that help them understand that this material is important not just for the exams, but also to increase their cultural and civic literacy. However, I do not feel that I have been as successful as I would like in these endeavors. A program that more actively engages students in contemporary discussions of the political could help them overcome their disinterest in government, which should help them relate better to the vocabulary of the course, and therefore increase their success rates.