Adapting Experiential Learning Opportunities: A Political Science Research Methods Course Case Study

Abstract

This paper addresses some of the implications of courses with an experiential learning component for students with disabilities. We describe the adaptation of an original survey project, fielded using computer-assisted telephone-interviewing (CATI) software, in two political science classes. The software was not compatible with technology currently used by persons with visual impairments. Rather than providing an alternative assignment to a blind student enrolled in both courses, the instructor worked with the student and the university’s Accessible Education Center and several adaptations to the survey project were made to allow the student to participate more fully in the survey project. We describe these modifications, analyze the student’s learning experience, and conclude with recommendations for faculty incorporating an active learning component in their courses and to students with disabilities taking or considering taking these courses.

Keywords:

• Active learning
• diversity
• accessible education
• research methods

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the San Jose State University Accessible Education Center, especially Ryan Brady, for assistance with this project. We also thank Garrick Percival and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript. We thank Lucero Jaimes for her participation and assistance.

Notes

1 The authors are the instructor and the blind student enrolled in both classes.

2 These sort “respondents into subgroups and directs these subgroups to different parts of the questionnaire” (Johnson, Reynolds, and Mycoff 2016, 336). For example, only those who respond to “Politically, are you conservative, moderate, or liberal?” with “conservative” would be directed to the question “Would you say you are conservative or very conservative?”

3 The instructor also held a staff position at the CATI lab and had conducted several previous surveys in the lab.

4 The lab also maintained a small staff of paid telephone interviewers for the community survey and for other commissioned survey projects.

5 The CATI software retrieves phone numbers from the survey sample. In the spring 2015 survey, up to six callbacks were made before final call disposition was assigned (see American Association for Public Opinion Research 2016).

6 The phone number was read aloud to the student by her colleague as she entered it in to the dialer and placed the call. There was no set formula for deciding which numbers would be manually dialed and which were allowed to be contacted via the autodialer function. The blind student felt more in control of making the call when dialing manually, but experiencing the autodialer function was also important to the project.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary Currin-Percival

Mary Currin-Percival is Assistant Professor of Political Science at San Jose State University. She is interested in the scholarship of teaching and learning, especially on undergraduate research methods training and civic engagement. She is also interested in how public opinion polls and other representations of public opinion are perceived and reported. Her work has appeared in PS: Political Science and Politics, Digital Journalism, State and Local Government Review, International Migration Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, and other journals.

Sonnia Gulahmad

Sonnia Gulahmad is a graduate of San Jose State University, earning a B.A. in Political Science in 2016 (magna cum laude; Department Honors). She plans to pursue a graduate degree in research and experimental psychology. Currently, she is working on research she began as an undergraduate student.