A paper presented by Dr. Rebecca Glazier, assistant professor of political science at UALR, generated much discussion this month at the American Political Science Association in Toronto. The paper examined the use of simulations in courses.

Some experts have promoted these simulations — in which students are assigned a role in some large global conflict on which they will then negotiate. But Glazier noted that these large simulations are very difficult for professors who don’t have armies of research assistants, since the students need assignments on their roles to play, coaching on key issues, and feedback.

Her solution is to use the simulation approach on a much smaller scale. She has a cast of five characters — rather than hundreds — and in a class of 25, she will have five simulations going on simultaneously. She can then give detailed “position papers” to the participants playing the various roles in a way she couldn’t with a larger simulation.

A recent simulation was based on the Juba round of negotiations over the Ugandan conflict, and each group of five students included one student representing the government, one the main rebel group, one the United Nations, one an international non-governmental organization, and one a local NGO.

Practicality was a major theme at teaching sessions at the annual meeting. Many professors expressed dissatisfaction with traditional teaching methods and also discussed the need to find alternatives that don’t take so much time that they can’t do their research.