The Times They Are A-Changin' – MOOCS and Teaching Innovations

Abstract

In recent times higher education has undergone massive transformations, under a variety of influences such as the Pisa-Reforms and those from political reformers. This has forced institutions and their staff to “reinvent” themselves on a regular basis. They have had to multiply the number of courses and to embed methods within preexisting ones. The demand for more methodological training at BA, MA and PhD curricula and even at staff levels is a huge challenge for political science departments. On the demand side, future political science graduates will need to cope with professional environments that are more demanding on more research skills, wether in journalism, consultancy, political organisations and unions, strategy units in private companies or third sector organisations. Rigour, creativity and the capacity to share and display complex knowledge in an efficient way are crucial in a world marked by abundant information but little capacity to make sense of it. In addition, technical developments have introduced new pedagogical opportunities and demands: Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs), Blended Learning, etc. As a result, teaching staff, especially junior scholars, who are often the ones in charge of methods courses, are under pressure. They struggle to have their innovative contribution recognised by senior colleagues or their department. Paradoxically, methods are sometimes presented as secondary courses, while at the same time they are what crucially differentiates reliable, empirically grounded knowledge from interesting, suggestive, but not proven ideas. This is connected with the necessity to make the technical aspects of methods more accessible and better embeded within other dimensions of political science (theory, results, practical applications...). This panel will focus on the one hand on research method training from a variety of Europe contexts, and on the other it will be a forum for exchange of experiences in methods teaching in politics. Papers may focus, among other angles, on a method, on a programme or on a piece of pedagogy.

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