Blogging, civic engagement, and coverage of political conflict in Nigeria: A study of  nairaland.com

Civic engagement is an essential part of a democratic society, though it has recently tended toward adversarial political conflict. Although many college administrators favor encouraging or requiring student civic engagement, little is known about whether students themselves would support this, and how student characteristics are related to acceptance. Past and present civic activities of 2,327 students at a large, very diverse urban community college were surveyed using the newly developed KCC Civic Engagement Scale. Results showed strong agreement that the college had a responsibility to develop civically engaged students, but that the term “civic engagement” is unclear to many. Principal components analysis revealed four distinct factors: general non-political civic engagement, and low-effort, high-effort, and unconventional political activities. Level of student participation in various activities is primarily determined by a student's time availability and secondarily by a complex assortment of personal characteristics, including residency status.

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Student Acceptance of a Civic Engagement Graduation Requirement in an Urban Community College

10.4018/978-1-6684-3706-3.ch059 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 1088-1110

Author(s):

Christopher Chapman

Keyword(s):

Community College ◽

Civic Engagement ◽

Urban Community ◽

Personal Characteristics ◽

Political Conflict ◽

Graduation Requirement ◽

Political Activities ◽

Residency Status ◽

Time Availability ◽

Urban Community College

Civic engagement is an essential part of a democratic society, though it has recently tended toward adversarial political conflict. Although many college administrators favor encouraging or requiring student civic engagement, little is known about whether students themselves would support this, and how student characteristics are related to acceptance. Past and present civic activities of 2,327 students at a large, very diverse urban community college were surveyed using the newly developed KCC Civic Engagement Scale. Results showed strong agreement that the college had a responsibility to develop civically engaged students, but that the term “civic engagement” is unclear to many. Principal components analysis revealed four distinct factors: general non-political civic engagement, and low-effort, high-effort, and unconventional political activities. Level of student participation in various activities is primarily determined by a student's time availability and secondarily by a complex assortment of personal characteristics, including residency status.

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

Designing Games for Ethics ◽

10.4018/978-1-60960-120-1.ch018 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 291-311 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sharman Siebenthal Adams ◽

Jeremiah Holden

Keyword(s):

Civic Engagement ◽

Game Design ◽

Serious Games ◽

Cognitive Learning ◽

Political Conflict ◽

Unintended Consequences ◽

Simulation Games ◽

Online Simulations ◽

The Relationship ◽

Support Research

This chapter examines ethical ambiguities confronted by the design and play of serious games focused on civic engagement. Our findings derive from our examination of two educational simulation games that focus on contemporary issues related to social and political conflict. We believe game simulations are complex in nature and offer particularly rich environments for cognitive learning. Within the following chapter we examine the relationship between games and learning, specific approaches to game design, and the ability of games to encourage civic engagement. While we found that game participants gained knowledge of curricular content and practiced democratic skills during their experiences with the online simulations, there also occurred unintended consequences. In turn, we believe it is critical to analyze deeper ethical ambiguities related to the consequences of civic-minded game design and gameplay and support research efforts to further recognize and expand upon the development and research of serious games involving civic-minded educational online simulations.

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