About.The Deliberation Testbed was developed to help educators incorporate political discussion into classes where it would otherwise (because of class size and/or format) be difficult. It also serves as a testing ground for online deliberation, allowing researchers to field powerful experiments to better understand political deliberation.
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Established in 2020This project was conceived just prior to the Covid-19 crisis in the U.S. Many schools require students to take courses in American government and/or state government, but, because of class size and resources, are unable to facilitate small group discussions. This was made even more difficult as many classes were forced online. At the same time, researchers of deliberation often have difficulty finding enough participants for their experiments. The opportunity to solve both issues at the same time inspired this project.
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Our GoalThe ability to discuss political issues with others is a critical part of democratic citizenship, and tends to improve with practice. Opportunities for students to develop these skills in classes designed for civic education are, however, all too rare. The goal of the Deliberation Testbed is to provide a resource for instructors to have their students participate in high-quality, small group political deliberation with very low investment on their part. At the same time, students' participation facilitates powerful experiments by the research team to improve our understanding of political deliberation.
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Our Team
To have your class participate:If you are interested in having one of your classes participate in an online deliberation session as part of their class, please contact Dr. Ryan Kennedy ([email protected]).
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