Professor Domingo Morel designed his spring 2016 course, POL1 386: The Politics of Inequality in America, to help students understand the political causes and consequences of inequality in America, particularly within the American education system. He collaborated with LTS Staff to create a research assignment that gave students the opportunity to learn about inequality from a perspective that may not be covered in the course. Students worked in groups to produce podcast episodes based on original content and research. The podcast episode format allowed the students to share what they learned, both in terms of content and technologically, with their classmates throughout the semester, and with a broader audience once the episodes were completed.

The research project design allowed the students to use and center diverse voices, collaborate and critique each other’s research, and have an impact beyond the classroom, while maintaining the academic rigor of a traditional research project.

Collaborations with Research and Instructional Support (RIS) staff involved brainstorming to design the assignment and class visits. These visits included short sessions around research resources, storyboards, and podcast styles; a whole class session for technical instruction; and a series of workshop sessions in which groups presented their progress, ideas, and questions and received feedback from their classmates, RIS staff members Sarah Barbrow and Rebecca Darling, and Professor Morel. While all of the class sessions were helpful, the workshop critiques were especially effective. They provided project milestones and the opportunity for everyone to learn from comments and advice, not just for their own project, but for everyone’s.

Faculty:  Domingo Morel

LTS Staff:  Rebecca Darling, Sarah Barbrow

Keywords:  podcast, politics, inequality