Cultivating Campaign Managers: A Discussion Regarding the Creation and Implementation of a Campaign Management Course

ABSTRACT

When approached about working with colleagues to develop a new course revolving around the inner-workings of a political campaign, one thing was obvious to me: We had to give the course the unique element of making it as closely mimic real-world campaign activities as possible. If we were going to attempt to actually prepare students for work on a political campaign, they would have to participate in activities focusing on the practical application of theoretical information. As such, I designed a section of this course where students were matched with a partner and given the task of running a mock political campaign. Students were presented with a series of activities to complete in their role as campaign managers. This article outlines the way the course was set up, explains the activities used in the course, discusses the success of the course based on observation and survey data, and suggests improvements for the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Active learning
• role playing
• small groups

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amber R. Dickinson

Amber R. Dickinson received her PhD from the University of Kansas and currently lives in her home state of Oklahoma where she serves as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma State University. Her research interests include topics in teaching and learning, and campaign communication with an emphasis on negative advertising. In her free time Amber enjoys going on adventures with her son, refurbishing old furniture with her husband, and reading fiction by authors like Neil Gaiman.