1. What is Educate?
Educate is a member-driven, online library for political science teaching and learning materials. This platform serves as a centralized space for faculty to submit, browse, and access political science teaching and learning tools. Educate also will also feature blog posts by faculty sharing their experience in the political science classroom.
2. What type of teaching and learning content is included on Educate?
Educate hosts a wide range of teaching and learning resource types and topic areas. Resources can include materials such as in-class activities (games, simulations, group presentations, etc.), writing assignments, syllabi, civic engagement activities, rubrics, videos, lecture slides, discussion questions, and reading lists.
If you have any questions, please email us at Educate@apsanet.org.
3. What are the content guidelines?
Content must be a resource for use in the political science classroom and meet the following standards:
- professional in tone, approach, and rigor
- written in English
- does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any person(s) or entity(ies)
- does not contain any libelous, otherwise unlawful statements, or content that seeks to maliciously target historically marginalized people
- does not contain inappropriate, confidential, or harmful statements or materials
- is the work of author or coauthor(s)
- falls within the broad scope of political science or is relevant to political science faculty
4. Is the content on Educate peer-reviewed?
No. While Educate may spotlight recent and forthcoming peer-reviewed research on political science education, Educate’s resources do not undergo traditional peer-review. Educate’s editor evaluates materials submitted to the online-platform to ensure that they adhere to the previously stated standards. Oversight is provided by the Teaching and Learning Website Advisory Board as necessary.
For those interested in sharing working papers on teaching, we recommend APSA Preprints, and for those interested in submitting work on teaching for peer review, we recommend APSA’s Journal of Political Science Education.
5. Is the content copyedited?
All content should be grammatically correct and free of errors and typos. The submission and moderation processes do not involve copyediting or typesetting; therefore, if approved, the version that is uploaded is the exact version that will appear publicly online. Be sure to review your content to ensure that all references are accurate.
6. Who can submit content to Educate?
Anyone with an APSA ID can submit content to Educate. You can register for a free APSA ID at https://www.apsanet.org/Registration.
7. Can I post Educate materials to other sources?
Yes. You are free to post Educate materials to other platforms of your choosing. We do recommend that you only upload your materials to Educate in order to provide for the most accurate and comprehensive view of download and interaction metrics. You may also link to your Educate resource page from your personal or professional website.
1. What does the upload process involve? Submitting content to Educate is quick and easy. To begin the process, click the "Submit Resource" button, log in using your APSA ID and password, and then complete the submission form. Full instructions are available here.
2. What file formats are accepted? Educate allows for submission of:
- Word
- JPEG
- PNG
- PowerPoint Files
- Excel Files
- Links to video or audio files hosted on external platforms, such as YouTube
3. May I include multiple files or resources in a single submission?
Yes. You may include multiple files or resources for a single course within one submission. For example, a submission might include a syllabus, lecture notes, and a group activity for a single course.
1. What are the content licensing options?
All content on the Educate site will be retained by the corresponding author or co-author(s). All work on the site will be nonexclusively licensed to APSA and completely free to read. All content on the site can be posted elsewhere on the Internet by the corresponding author or co-author(s) and published in formal publication venues, subject to their policies.
Corresponding authors are asked to select one of the following end-user licensing options, which determine whether and how the content can be reused by others:
- CC BY NC ND 4.0 license – Allows redistribution but no additions or revisions to content. Forbid commercial use.
This license will allow site users to copy and redistribute the content in any medium or format. However, the content may not be used for commercial purposes and the user may not remix, transform, or build upon the content. Reuse of the content requires attribution to the corresponding author or coauthor(s).
- CC BY NC SA 4.0 license – Allows revisions and additions but forbid commercial use.
This license will allow site users to copy and redistribute the content in any medium or format and remix, transform, or build upon the content for any noncommercial purpose, but the content may not be used for any commercial purpose. If the content is remixed, transformed, or built upon, it must be distributed under the same license. Reuse of the content requires attribution to the corresponding author or coauthor(s).
- CC BY 4.0 license – Allows all uses and revisions, including commercial use with attribution.
This license will allow site users to copy and redistribute the content in any medium or format and remix, transform, or build upon the content for any purpose, even commercially. Reuse of the content requires attribution to the corresponding author or coauthor(s).
- CC 0 license – Allows all uses including commercial use without a requirement of attribution.
This license will allow site users to copy and redistribute the content in any medium or format and remix, transform, or build upon the content for any purpose, even commercially. No requirement exists to attribute the corresponding author or coauthor(s) upon reuse since the CC 0 license effectively gives the content public-domain status and is most commonly used by US Government authors.
1. How does the approval process work?
Once the content is uploaded, the Educate editor will review the content. The content is evaluated against the following criteria to ensure all content meets a basic set of rigorous standards.
Content may be rejected on any of the following grounds:
- Content is not professional in tone, approach, and rigor
- Content is not written in English
- Content infringes the intellectual property rights of any person(s) or entity(ies)
- Content contains libelous, otherwise unlawful statements, or content that seeks to maliciously target historically marginalized people
- Content contains inappropriate, confidential, or harmful statements or materials
- Content is not the work of author or coauthor(s)
- Content does not substantively fall within the broad scope of political science or is relevant to political science faculty
2. How long does the approval process take?
We aim to approve submitted content within 3-5 business days.
3. How will I be notified of the decision?
You will receive an email notification your submission has been received, and a second e-mail notifying you of the status of your submission.
During Educate's beta phase, please contact Educate@apsanet.org to request revisions to or removal of your teaching resources.
All content on Educate is freely available and can be shared by the corresponding author or coauthor(s) without any need to request permission from APSA. The following sharing tools are available on the platform:
1. Under what conditions can my content be reused?
This depends on the license that you apply to your work during the upload process. See Intellectual Property Rights for more details.
2. How do I cite teaching resources?
Individual resources can be cited using the following format:
Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of Resource. Educate. Date Resource was published. Date Resource was accessed.
Example:
Doe, Jane. Reading Syllabus. Educate. 03.19.2020. 03.19.2020