In an effort to bring a better understanding of America's political systems to students across the country, UCF has recently established an online resource meant to educate and enlighten.
Created by UCF's Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government, The Civics Connection: Conversations with Congress is a website directed toward teachers and students in American government classes at the Advanced Placement level.
The website, which was opened and made fully operational earlier this week, is composed of 16 modules, each containing a 15-minute video interview with former members of Congress. In addition to the video interviews, the modules contain information such as graphic tools, vocabulary and overviews.
"It is a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive learning resource for high school- and college-level American government classes," said Lou Frey Jr., a former Florida congressman who founded the institute along with The Civics Connection, in his introduction found on the website. "It is, in a sense, a living textbook on American government and politics."
In the filmed interviews, the congressmen and congresswomen offer their input and commentary on several topics, such as impeaching the president, overriding presidential vetoes, the war powers act and Congress's relationship with the public.
"It's a very thorough website and it covers a wide spectrum, which is a good thing," said Joseph La Russa, a freshman majoring in political science pre-law. "If you were taking any American government class and got to where you learned about Congress, this website would certainly be helpful because it's so thorough."
The website also goes out if its way to make sure that both Republican and Democratic members of Congress are heard, pairing members of both parties together for discussion in each video.
"I can see that the makers of the website wanted to focus on things that affected both parties equally," La Russa said. "Not necessarily on political and moral issues, but on things that all people who run for Congress have to face. They all have to run in elections and handle the media and how it portrays them."
The congressmen and congresswomen, who all volunteered to be a part of the project, include the likes of Thomas Downey, a Democrat who represented New York from 1975-1993; Nancy Boyda, a Democrat who represented Kansas from 2007-2009; and Lou Frey Jr. himself, a Republican who represented Florida from 1969-1979.
Dr. Terri Fine, an associate professor and director in UCF's political science department, went to Washington, D.C., earlier this year and conducted each interview with the congressmen and congresswomen.
"My hope is that people will develop an understanding of congress and that civic literacy will improve because of the use of this product," said Fine, who was also the project director of the video series.
Fine said that there were 244,000 students taking Advanced Placement American government classes last year, giving a rough idea of exactly how many students this will directly benefit.
Though the topics and content were selected to go along with Advanced Placement government and politics classes, they also go along with other history and government courses. Funded by the nonprofit organization College Board, the website is an example of using technology to bring a deeper understanding of a topic to students, said Doug Dobson, the executive director of the Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government, in an article in UCF Today.
La Russa also said that the website is useful not only for those studying American government, but to the common person as well.
"I feel the website teaches the common person that there are advertisements and strategies for winning a vote, whether it's by earning it or by demonizing your opponent," La Russa said.
Fine said that the institute plans on adding more interviews and content in the next six months and hopes that the resource will also be used for classes at UCF in the future.
For more information about The Civics Connection, visit the website at http://loufreyinstitute.org/civicsconnection.
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