JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS EDUCATION - naspaa

Badgers & Hoosiers: An Interstate Collaborative Learning Experience Connecting
MPA Students in Wisconsin and Indiana
IUN students were equally intrigued by the interview component of the project
and, for the most part, embraced it enthusiastically. Three of the IUN students
reported that a real rapport was established during the interview with their UWO
partner, which resulted in a wider discussion than would have been possible by
merely adhering strictly to the interview guide. Several commented that analyzing
their own organizing behaviors helped to clarify course concepts in organization
theory. In summarizing the general consensus of the IUN students on this
collaborative learning project, one student commented, “I thought this project
was extremely helpful in understanding not only the material but how other
students viewed how the applications could impact their work or environment.”
RECOMMENDATIONS
This project began as a casual conversation, was followed by a sharing of ideas
for in-class activities, and eventually morphed into a full-blown collaborative
learning experiment that was implemented twice. Fortunately, our students were
willing and enthusiastic participants. Yet, because of our unfamiliarity with this
unique approach to collaborative learning across programs, we deliberately
“under-tasked” the associated assignments, so that the students would not be
penalized because their instructors were learning as they went along.
From this experience we have learned much:
1. Plan to do this activity with someone whose opinion you trust and with
whom you feel comfortable. When unanticipated problems arise, it
helps to have a collaborator with whom you can laugh.
2. Give each class the same assignment. Because the interactive portion of
the assignment was incorporated differently for each class, students had
difficulty understanding what their counterparts were trying to do.
3. Keep in mind that some students in the class may not be in the MPA
program, and adjust expectations accordingly.
4. Develop standardized response tools and establish e-mail protocols.
With files going back and forth between instructors, students in the
same class, and students in the other class, at times it was difficult to
sort them out.
5. Use a telephone interview format. Although they hesitated at first,
students in both classes confirmed the value of phone conversations over
e-mail contact.
6. Have students provide written autobiographies before initiating their
interviews. Some students were intimidated by the notion of a cold call
to someone they didn’t know anything about.
7. Let students devise their own questions, if possible. While we developed
a survey instrument that we thought would spur productive class
discussions and contribute to overall learning of organizational theory, it
turned out that several of the students commented on the difficulty of
Journal of Public Affairs Education 357