Real Success with a Virtual Exchange: The German and American Politics Electronic Classroom

Abstract

As several recent articles in PS have noted, study abroad remains one of the most important and vital ways to make the international relations and comparative politics classroom more active, participatory, and experiential (Thies 2005; Bowman and Jennings 2005). Along with various pedagogical techniques (such as simulations, film, and Internet and web-based technologies) increasingly used by political science instructors to enhance the learning environment, the study abroad experience helps bring the world into the classroom because it can connect directly and experientially with students. Studies have shown that studying abroad increases students' cross-cultural abilities and global understanding, skills particularly relevant to comparative politics and international relations courses (Kitsantas 2004; Hopkins 1999). Indeed, because of study abroad's value as one component in active, student-centered learning, as early as 1991 the APSA Task Force on Political Science, in the so-called Wahlke Report, made the recommendation that political science departments should strive to increase the number of their students who participate in study abroad programs of some kind, a recommendation echoed again recently by several higher education panels (Wahlke 1991; Bollag 2003).