NEWS

Caucus 101: Educating the world about Iowa caucuses

Jeff Charis-Carlson
jcharisc@press-citizen.com
Steffen Schmidt

Steffen Schmidt has a voracious educational appetite.

The Iowa State University political science professor, who answers to the nickname "Dr. Politics," says he often finds himself digging into two or three MOOCs — massive open online courses — at a time. But he usually treats such online educational opportunities as scholastic snacks rather than full intellectual meals.

"I go in and snack around, get what I want out of it, and then I'm gone," Schmidt said.

Schmidt is working to make that user-friendliness a key component of the MOOC he is developing about the subject he knows best: the role of the Iowa caucuses in the presidential nomination process.

When the course goes live in September, the Iowa caucuses MOOC will be ISU's first official massive online offering. To create the course, Schmidt has been working for more than a year with ISU Web designers, technicians, videographers, online curriculum writers and other experts.

He touts it as a "short, fun and free" discussion on the past, present and future of Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential contest.

Revolutionary potential

To their early supporters, MOOCs represent a grand, democratic breakthrough in higher education. By making lectures and other course material available online for free, MOOCs were designed to make higher education affordable and accessible to anyone with an Internet connection and a drive to learn.

Some colleges and universities, so enamored with the revolutionary potential of such a grand experiment, embraced the forum as the inevitable evolution of the large, introductory, lecture hall class. The idea was that students no longer would have to travel to a specific place, at a specific time, to hear a specific lecture from a specific person.

Iowa universities, however, have been more cautious in their adoption of this educational opportunity. Rather than make elaborate plans for replacing the good work already being done by their continuing education and other departments, officials at Iowa universities have decided to move in a much more deliberative way.

Last year, the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program offered a series of massive open online courses focusing on “How Writers Write.”

Last year, the University of Iowa — which has long boasted the No. 1 creative writing graduate program in the nation — built on the strength of its literary reputation to offer its first official MOOC, "Every Atom: Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself.' " UI's International Writing Program followed up on that six-week course with a series of MOOCs focusing on "How Writers Write."

Like their counterparts at UI, ISU officials said they weren't interested in offering general studies or "commodity MOOCs" that could be offered by any university anywhere.

"We did not jump on the MOOC bandwagon a few years ago," said Jonathan Wickert, ISU's senior vice president and provost. "We really wanted to think about how MOOCs would fit into what we do here at Iowa State."

Wickert said ISU officials have some other ideas of MOOCs in the pipeline, but there is no schedule yet for when more announcements will be made.

"The timing for this one is very good," said Wickert. "How the caucuses work — and their importance and history — is not really really understood well. ... We feel like it's a great opportunity to help voters across the country ... and journalists around the world."

Teach what you know

When designing his course, Schmidt said, he combined the lessons learned from his MOOC snacking with his decades' worth of experience trying to make sense of the caucuses and their ancillary events.

Having participated as at least an observer in every caucus for the past four decades, Schmidt can remember clearly when the majority of Iowans reacted with "Jimmy who?" upon first meeting Jimmy Carter, then Georgia's governor. Carter went on to win the 1976 Democratic caucus, the party's nomination and, finally, the presidency. And given how he has made a point of trying to meet with every candidate for president who visited the state ever since, Schmidt is able to pepper his online course with jokes and personal anecdotes in between all the historical details and academic theory.

The Iowa caucuses will be the subject of Iowa State University’s first official massive open online course, or MOOC.

The course will be divided into four sections:

  • The history of the Iowa presidential caucuses.
  • The essential elements of a caucus.
  • The role of the news media, paid media and technology.
  • Going forward — Iowa Caucus 2016.

"There is no limit on who can go in and enroll in it," Schmidt said. "It may excite some students to go on and take some additional courses in political science or history."

And Schmidt said he won't be offended by people who move through the course at their own pace or who only stay around for one or two sessions.

"People can binge them. They can do all four in a row and then leave. It's going to be open to everyone," Schmidt said.

More than just caucus night

Four decades of observation have taught Schmidt that the phrase "Iowa caucuses" means much more than a single-night event every four years. It also refers to a years-long process in which Iowa voters have ample opportunity to scrutinize presidential hopefuls and test their ready-for-prime-time caliber.

"It produces a ripple effect, like throwing a rock into a nice little pond," Schmidt said.

Although such events haven't always proved to be good indicators of which candidate is likely to attract the most voters on caucus night, Schmidt said they — like the actual caucuses themselves — do serve to "measure the grass-roots participation by people who are highly motivated and who have really informed themselves."

The looming question, however, is: How will social media and new technologies — including the development of online communities and forums like MOOCs — affect the caucuses in the future? Will they allow the caucuses to become more important than ever? Or will they undermine the need for the caucuses?

"Can the caucuses be improved?" Schmidt asked. "Absolutely. And something else eventually will replace them."

As to exactly when that inevitable replacement will arrive on the scene, Schmidt said that's one thing his course won't be able to predict.

"The caucuses have been very successful, but I have no idea whether the caucuses will outlive this next year or if something will happen that will make us all want to move on to a different process," Schmidt said.

Other Caucus 101 opportunities

In addition to the Iowa Caucuses MOOC being developed by Iowa State University's Steffen Schmidt, other Iowa colleges and universities are making plans to offer introductory courses on the caucuses to out-of-state journalists and likely caucusgoers alike.

The University of Iowa's Public Policy Center is organizing "Run-up to the 2016 Caucuses," a series of events examining the politics and policies relevant to the Iowa caucus. As part of that series, the center is sponsoring a daylong symposium about "The Politics of Immigration" on April 24 at Old Brick Church and Community Center in Iowa City.

UI is offering several caucus-themed classes in the fall and winter semesters, including "Caucus Campaign Coverage" in journalism, "Building and Managing Winning Political Campaigns" in history, "Political Communication" in communication studies, and "Observing the Iowa Caucuses and Their Role in Presidential Nominating Politics" in political science.

• This summer, Drake University in Des Moines is working with the Harkin Institute, the McCormick Foundation and The Poynter Institute to host an intensive three-day workshop designed for reporters who have little or no experience covering politics and have been assigned to cover the campaigns leading to the 2016 Iowa caucuses.

"It may be hard for us for those of us from Iowa to realize, but other people from other places don't always understand what is involved with the caucuses," said Kathleen Richardson, dean and associate professor in Drake's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

By helping to provide reporters with fuller understanding of the Iowa caucuses, Richardson said the workshop is designed to foster a more substantive discussion of the presidential race in general.

The workshop will be held June 21-23. More information is available at http://about.poynter.org/training/in-person/sriiowa-15.

How to participate in the Caucus MOOC

The course will be offered online at four various four-week sessions: Sept. 1 to Sept. 29; Oct. 13 to Nov. 10; Nov. 17 to Dec. 15; and Jan. 1 to Feb. 2, 2016. Each four-week session will be updated with any breaking news about the buildup to (and likely aftermath of) the 2016 caucuses. Find out more at www.iowacaucusesmooc.org.

Reach Jeff Charis-Carlson at 319-887-5435 or jcharisc@press-citizen.com. Follow him at @jeffcharis.