The editor Journal of Political Science Education We are pleased to announce that the 2024 Best Paper Award, published in Volume 19 (2023) of the journal, has been awarded to Mark Carl Rom, Jorge Abeledo, Randall Ellsworth, Noah Martin, and Lina Zuluaga for their paper, “Student Engagement in American Politics: Efforts and Achievements” (Vol. 19, Issue 4).
The awards jury considered the article innovative in that it questions the notion of critical components of grade assessment. The article focuses on how to assess learning outcomes through student effort and engagement, rather than only summative proof of knowledge. Findings suggest that engagement and effort are positively correlated with learning outcomes, and that engagement and effort can partially balance student readiness. The jury considered the article methodologically elegant. They also considered that the pedagogy analyzed in the article could be of interest to a wide audience and have a wide impact, as it can be applied to a variety of classes, methods, and educational settings.
We would like to thank the awards judging committee, Kerstin Hamann (chair), Mitchell Brown and Loan Le for their excellent work.
About the Award Winners
Mark Karl Rom He is committed to improving teaching and learning in higher education. His recent research focuses on assessing student engagement, improving grading accuracy, reducing grading bias, and improving data visualization. He also explores and critiques the field of political science through academic conferences, symposiums on ideology in the classroom, and ideology within the discipline. He is an Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy at Georgetown University.
Jorge Abeledo David is the Director of the Youth Ambassador Program at Georgetown University's Center for Intercultural Education and Development, a federally funded cultural exchange program designed to strengthen leadership skills among young people in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Human Development at the Sarmiento National University in Argentina, where he taught Media and Communication and researched the use of information technology in education. He holds a Master's in Learning, Design, and Technology from Georgetown University.
Randall Ellsworth Randal is a Senior Instructional Designer at AllenComm and previously worked as a graduate student at CNDLS supporting learning design, technology-enabled learning, and blended learning colloquiums. Randal holds an MA in Learning, Design, and Technology from Georgetown University.
Noah Martin Noah is a Senior Designer for Learning Ecosystems at Georgetown University's Red House, where he is responsible for designing new instructional transformation initiatives at the university as well as overseeing and growing existing projects. Noah is currently the project lead for Georgetown University's Core Pathway Imitative. Noah holds a Master's in Learning, Design, and Technology from Georgetown University.
Lina Zuluaga He co-authored the book AI in Latin America with the former ICT Ministers of Costa Rica and Mexico. He published a paper with Phil Long, professor at Georgetown University and former Vice President for Innovation at the University of Texas, on using AI and blockchain to fight fake news. He was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University's DataWise Project and served on the board of directors of Telefónica Movistar and Externado University in Colombia. He was recently invited to speak at an international scientific conference on fostering an AI research ecosystem.