Digital Commons Network^™

Item 4: Activity 1: The Relational Syllabus Gpt – A Faculty Tool For Inclusive Civic, Parakh Hoon

Parakh Hoon, United States Government

This faculty-facing GPT tool supports inclusive, equity-based course design by helping instructors create assignments and syllabi that engage students in civic learning, democratic reasoning, and ethical AI use. Drawing from Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT), and Action-Oriented Competency Didactics (AOCD), the GPT scaffolds syllabus revision, integration of civic learning outcomes, and multimodal assignment redesign. The tool includes templates for AI use and reflection, accessible tone adjustments, and civic-based learning progression. It is designed for faculty across general education, political science, and interdisciplinary humanities, and supports both AI-assisted and AI-free learning paths.

Item 5: Assignment 2: Integrated Final Assignment – Analyzing The 2024 Election Analysis Through A Civic Lens, Parakh Hoon

Parakh Hoon, United States Government

This assignment invites students to analyze the 2024 US election as a civic and political event. Students will use real-world data, media sources, and course concepts to evaluate election outcomes and their broader civic significance. The activity replaces a traditional final exam and centers evidence-based thinking, civic identity, and democratic reflection. It is designed for use in political science, civic engagement, or interdisciplinary general education courses.

Item 7: Activity 2: Civic Engagement Warm-Up Discussion: How Do You Show Up In Civic Life?, Parakh Hoon

Parakh Hoon, United States Government

This low-stakes discussion activity introduces students to the broad and inclusive concept of civic engagement. Before analyzing legal frameworks, case studies, or public policy, students begin with a personal lens. This activity helps them activate prior knowledge, identify with civic values, and recognize that engagement comes in many forms. It works well in the first 1–2 weeks of a course and is adaptable for online, hybrid, or in-person settings.

Item 8: Activity 3: Civic Engagement In The News – A Scaffolded, Multimodal Discussion Assignmen, Parakh Hoon

Parakh Hoon, United States Government

This civic inquiry activity invites students to select a recent news story and analyze how individuals or communities engaged civically in response. Students assess strategies, barriers, and power dynamics using a structured template. They may submit work in written, audio, or visual formats. Peer replies are scaffolded to support civic discourse and listening. Optional AI-supported paths allow students to brainstorm or organize their ideas using generative tools, followed by a required reflection on their AI use. Designed for asynchronous, hybrid, or in-person delivery, this assignment aligns with civic learning goals and general education outcomes.

Item 5: Activity 3: Incarceration, David Hubert

David Hubert, Introduction to U.S. Government & Politics

This is an activity that reinforces basic quantitative literacy in the context of politically-relevant data.

Item 6: Assignment 1: Book Review, David Hubert

David Hubert, Introduction to U.S. Government & Politics

This is a multi-step writing assignment designed to engage students with a substantive book about politics, political actors, or political issues. It helps them work with long-form writing and helps them practice their own formal writing.

Item 7: Assignment 2: Reactions To Constitution, David Hubert

David Hubert, Introduction to U.S. Government & Politics

This is a critical reading and reflection assignment designed to have students closely read politically-relevant documents, answer questions about arguments and evidence, and reflect on them.

Item 1: Syllabus: Civic Leadership: Theories And Action, Kara Dillard

Kara Dillard, Civic Leadership: Theories and Practice

Civic leadership involves students learning key skills to foster collaboration across differences, embracing complex decision-making in dialogue with others, and valuing pragmatic solutions that advance the common good. This class answers questions such as: “What are the essential traits, key skills and mindsets of a civic leader?” “How do history, legal frameworks, and socioeconomic theories shape the way civic leaders should approach solving wicked issues?” “How might civic leaders harness technology and design thinking to improve civic life?” “What are models of civic engagement that work and how can civic leaders implement them in real communities?” “How can James Madison’s …

Item 2: Activity 1: Creating Group Agreements For Classroom Discussions, Kara Dillard

Kara Dillard, Civic Leadership: Theories and Practice

Higher education classrooms are ideal for learning the skills of democratic civic discourse, but these spaces also need agreed upon norms for how students will engage each other. Over four sequential steps, this activity asks students to reflect on the times they’ve had a difficult discussion, what went well and what did not, and to use these reflections to generate a set of shared class values to guide their conversations about wicked issues.

Item 3: Activity 2: Practicing “Hot Takes” (Aka Hot Takes Speed Friending) File Name: Dillard_Activity2, Kara Dillard

Kara Dillard, Civic Leadership: Theories and Practice

This short activity gives students an opportunity to speak and listen to the views of their classmates about a variety of topics. In rotating pairs, students will give their take on a variety of issues ranging from easy to complex. By the end of the class, students will have experience sharing their views, listening to others, and meeting several classmates.

Item 4: Activity 3: Surfacing Values Through Moral Foundation Conversations, Kara Dillard

Kara Dillard, Civic Leadership: Theories and Practice

This activity explores the concept of motivated reasoning and the moral foundations people hold that make them believe wicked issues are “wicked.” Students will explore their own values and think about how their values change depending on the issue. Students will also practice talking with people who have different values than them on any given issue.

Item 5: Final Project: Civic Leadership: Theories And Practice, Kara Dillard

Kara Dillard, Civic Leadership: Theories and Practice

Understanding the experiences of real-life civic leaders can help students learn and become civic leaders themselves. This final group project will ask students to identify and interview a local civic leader about their work, challenges, opportunities, and threats. Students will use course material to thematically assess the interview answers and develop new insights about civic leadership.

Item 6: Assignment 1: Deliberating Across Divides To Find Common Ground, Kara Dillard

Kara Dillard, Civic Leadership: Theories and Practice

Many students struggle to engage in conversations with people who hold different views. Fear of saying the wrong thing—or being “canceled”—can discourage open dialogue, yet democratic societies rely on the ability to deliberate across divides. This assignment gives students the opportunity to practice deliberation, a structured way of discussing complex, “wicked” issues while fostering mutual understanding, respect, and hopefully finding common ground to act together. Following the deliberation, students will write a reflection analyzing their experience, exploring what they learned from listening to diverse perspectives, and how civic leaders can use deliberation to foster productive dialogue in divided communities.

Item 2: Identifying Local Nonprofit Organizations & Volunteer Opportunities Activity, Fatima Sattar

Fatima Sattar, Soc 1100 - Introduction to Sociology with a Civic Engagement Emphasis

In this small group/paired activity, students will use the internet to identify a local nonprofit organization, its mission, its work/services (what it does and why), volunteer opportunities, populations served, and the social issues/problems it seeks to address. They will use this information to create a visual about the nonprofit organization. Next, they will present their findings to the class by taking the position of the organization to discuss the significance of their work and try to recruit volunteers. Students will then vote on which organization they would like to (potentially) volunteer with as a class!

Item 5: Immigration Story Project, Fatima Sattar

Fatima Sattar, Soc 1100 - Introduction to Sociology with a Civic Engagement Emphasis

The United States has a long history of migration. Immigrants and refugees have experienced unique challenges throughout their migration trajectory from origin to settlement in a new society. The purpose of this assignment is an opportunity to practice civic engagement by learning about an immigrant’s challenges from an immigrant themself. Students will be interviewing an immigrant and creating an MS PowerPoint recorded audio presentation about their story. Presentations will be shared with classmates.

Item 6: Sociological Imagination And Civic Problems Essay Assignment, Fatima Sattar

Fatima Sattar, Soc 1100 - Introduction to Sociology with a Civic Engagement Emphasis

In this assignment, a short-written essay, students will be using the concept of the “sociological imagination” (introduced by sociologist C. Wright Mills) to examine a local civic problem reported in the news. Mills introduces this idea of “personal troubles” versus “public issues” by explaining that although individuals tend to perceive their problems as being “personal troubles,” these problems are “public issues,” stemming from the structures and culture of society. To effectively engage in civic engagement, we must understand how societal structures, culture, and practices impact our everyday lives and problems we experience. This can then help us work collectively on …

Syllabus: Participación Cívica En/Para Puerto Rico, Leila Rodriguez

Leila Rodriguez, Participación Cívica en/para Puerto Rico

¡Bienvenidos al curso Participación Cívica en/para Puerto Rico! En esta clase, los estudiantes¡Bienvenidos al curso Participación Cívica en/para Puerto Rico! En esta clase, los estudiantesaprenderán sobre el estado sociocultural, político, económico y ambiental actual de PuertoRico, contextualizándolo dentro de su historia como colonia española primero y territorioestadounidense después. Se explorarán algunos momentos históricos clave que han moldeadoa Puerto Rico, y su impacto duradero. Los estudiantes aprenderán los mecanismos que lospuertorriqueños en las islas tienen para interactuar con el gobierno de los EE. UU., así como lasformas de participación cívica dentro de la isla. Al finalizar este curso, los estudiantes tendránuna …

Actividad En Clase 2: Vistas Públicas Como Mecanismo De Participación Cívica, Leila Rodriguez

Leila Rodriguez, Participación Cívica en/para Puerto Rico

En Puerto Rico, las vistas públicas son espacios importantes de diálogo y discusión entre la sociedad civil y los representantes del gobierno. Estos eventos están abiertos al público y representan una oportunidad para presentar diferentes perspectivas antes de que se tomen decisiones oficiales sobre temas importantes. Participar en vistas públicas es una parte fundamental del ejercicio democrático. Los organismos gubernamentales que celebran vistas públicas incluyen el Senado, la Cámara de Representantes y varios Departamentos. La Junta de Supervisión y Administración Financiera de Puerto Rico, creada bajo la Ley PROMESA en 2016, también realiza vistas públicas. La Junta está compuesta por …

Asignación Uno: La Vida En Puerto Rico Vs. Ee. Uu.: Comprasen El Supermercado, Leila Rodriguez

Leila Rodriguez, Participación Cívica en/para Puerto Rico

El propósito de esta asignación es que los estudiantes obtengan una perspectiva más profunda sobre cómo la vida cotidiana de los puertorriqueños se compara con la de los estadounidenses en el territorio continental mediante la comparación del costo de una compra en el supermercado. En esta actividad, los estudiantes ejercitarán el pensamiento crítico.

Item 1: Syllabus: English 3xx: Argumentation: “The Ballot Of The Bullet”, Sarah Rudewalker

Sarah RudeWalker, The Ballot or the Bullet

This syllabus for an upper-level undergraduate course in argumentation, rhetoric, or communication contains a course concept, assignment descriptions, and a detailed course schedule with readings centering Malcolm X’s provocative ultimatum of “the ballot or the bullet” as the way forward for African American liberation and a functioning American democracy. The first half of the course provides students with a foundation in core theories and concepts of argumentation, and the second half of the course asks them to apply them by participating in public address, deliberation, and debate in the class and out in the world.

Item 2: Assignment 1: Deliberation, Sarah Rudewalker

Sarah RudeWalker, The Ballot or the Bullet

This assignment gives students an opportunity to apply the concepts they are learning in a course on rhetoric and argumentation in the real world by organizing and facilitating a public deliberation event about an issue of their choice. Students choose the issue they would like to discuss with the community, compose an issue guide to overview and present approaches to the issue, and reflect after the event about their experience in a post-project report. The assignment can be adapted for courses in writing, communication, political science, civic education, and courses emphasizing social justice and practices of civic engagement.

Item 4: Activity 1: “My Vote Don’T Count”, Sarah Rudewalker

Sarah RudeWalker, The Ballot or the Bullet

This activity asks students to consider voter predispositions about whether or not voting “matters.” Students are given the choice to share one of two texts with a small group of friends or family outside the class: either a music video for hip-hop artist YelloPain’s song “My Vote Don’t Count” (2020) or an article reporting on current research about young voter disengagement. Students then record their subjects’ responses to the message and mode of the video, attending to convergences and differences about attitudes towards the efficacy of voting. The activity works well to introduce a course or unit about voter engagement …

Item 1: Shakespeare For Civic Action Course Syllabus (Upper-Level Undergraduate Course), Molly Slavin

Molly Slavin, Shakespeare for Civic Action Course Syllabus (upper-level undergraduate course)

This syllabus sets out a general overview for an upper-level literature class titled “Shakespeare for Civic Action.” The syllabus contains readings, a course schedule, and brief sketches of assignments. This syllabus would be useful for English or other literature professors who would like anywhere from a full-fledged syllabus to ideas and inspiration for how to incorporate civic education into a class on a canonical author. Five other deliverables (three activities and two assignments) are also submitted as part of this class/syllabus.

Item 5: Assignment 1: Shakespeare For Civic Action, Molly Slavin

Molly Slavin, Shakespeare for Civic Action Course Syllabus (upper-level undergraduate course)

This is the assignment sheet for the paper that follows from the archival research activity described in Activity 1. The paper asks students to discuss educational facilities as places for civic engagement and Shakespearean productions, and to draw on archival resources to explore how race and segregation affect Shakespearean production within those facilities. Students will have read and performed archival research on The Taming of the Shrew and will have watched 10 Things I Hate About You.

Item 6: Assignment 2: Shakespeare For Civic Action, Molly Slavin

Molly Slavin, Shakespeare for Civic Action Course Syllabus (upper-level undergraduate course)

This is an assignment sheet for a podcast assignment tied to Activity 2. The sheet gives further details on producing a podcast on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, including information on structure, questions for inspiration, and specifics on what to include in the podcast dialogue. Students are asked to discuss gender in the original play, and what it might mean for civic engagement in the world today, taking a Slate-sponsored podcast series (Lend Me Your Ears) as a starting point.

Keynoter, September/October 2025, Boise State University Association Of Office Professionals

Boise State University Association of Office Professionals - Keynoter

President's Message

Talent Show

Guest message: Prioritizing

Professional & Personal Development

Recipes

NAEOP

Enrichment Program

Treasurer's Report

Readership

PSP Certification

Membership

General AOP Info

Calendar

Utilizing Generative Ai To Counter Learner Groupthink By Introducing Controversy In Collaborative Problem-Based Learning Settings, Andrew Wiss, Mary Showstark, Kyle Dobbeck, Jennifer Pattershall-Geide, Elke Zschaebitz, Dawn Joosten-Hagye, Kirsten Potter, Erin Embry

Montclair State University Scholarship & Creative Works

This article highlights the foundational challenge of rapid interprofessional student team formation and the potential challenges that groupthink poses for newly-formed teams participating in collaborative problem-based learning activities. This article describes a mixed-methods study that addresses groupthink by introducing a generative artificial intelligence-based agent (genAI agent) into the small group processes of student teams engaging in a session of a well-established virtual interprofessional education methodology. The integration of this novel genAI tool into each student team was an intentional pedagogical technique, introduced in response to the challenges that newly-formed student teams may encounter as they rapidly come together and potentially …

Women Of Legend And Merit Awards October 14 2025, Tennessee State University

Women of Legend and Merit Awards Programs

No abstract provided.

Assignment 2: Looking At The New York State Constitution (Or Your State Constitution), John Shekitka

John Shekitka, Social Studies Curriculum and Methods in Secondary Education

This is an activity, one that I have piloted with my most recent cohort of secondary social studies methods MAT students, in which the students—alone, in small groups, and with the whole class—explore the New York State Constitution. This can rather readily be adapted for other states as well. In our experience, it proved very illuminating in that many of the things that make our state unique are enumerated in the state constitution.

Assignment 4: Childhood Methods For Social Studies And Civic Engagement, John Shekitka

John Shekitka, Social Studies Curriculum and Methods in Secondary Education

This course provides the methodology and content necessary to teach elementary school social studies. Emphasis is on the integration of elementary school social studies and fine arts in an interdisciplinary teaching context. Students are expected to refresh their content knowledge so that they are prepared to teach social studies to children in grades K-6.