The World Today – Course Syllabus and Global Politics Video Series

Recorded lectures are not the only tool that professors can use to deliver content to students in asynchronous online classes. Frankly, halfway through the semester in my class, I got bored recording mini lectures on the weekly topics. If I got bored, my students probably were also bored from listening to me drone on week after week. So I decided to mix it up! I invited colleagues to have short conversations with me on the weekly topic. I purposefully kept the conversations open-ended with just a couple of guiding questions agreed upon beforehand because I wanted the conversation to have the same feeling as the informal conversation that so many of us often have with our colleagues about pressing or interesting (or both!) issues in our fields. Sometimes the conversations centers on key concepts that students need to understand (colonialism), sometimes the conversation is about an interesting and novel way to look at a well-discussed issue (China and the Environment), and sometimes the conversations center on overlooked elements in a bigger area (foreign direct investment in the US). Whatever the topic of conversation, my hope is that students experience me in a more informal way, building a more personal connection to this “on screen professor” while also actively learning about the course content. I hope you’ll find the videos helpful and let me know if you have any requests for videos on other topics!

Dr. Malliga Och, Associate Professor of Global Studies at Idaho State University.

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Episode 1:

Guest: Dr. Arunima Datta, Assistant Professor of History, Idaho State University

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Episode 2:

Guest: Dr. Betsy Brunner, Research Associate, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, University of Copenhagen; Director of Communications and Engagement, South Yuba River Citizens League

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Episode 3:

Guest: Dr. Jane Lawrence Sumner, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota

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