Making International Relations theory accessible, three minutes at a time
Precious Chatterje-Doody discusses how words and visuals can be used in tandem to consolidate and build on learning, and introduces a new free OpenLearn course on Concepts and theories in International Relations.
The start of a new academic year brings a new cohort of students who might not only be encountering International Relations for the first time, but also getting to grips with a whole new way of learning. For students used to accessing information through short videos and other bite-sized online content, the jump to lectures, seminars and journal articles can feel particularly daunting.
A new, free OpenLearn course from the Open University, Concepts and theories in International Relations, tries to work with these habits rather than against them. Aimed at anyone new to IR, and particularly Level 1 students, it uses a series of narrated mind-map animations of around three minutes each to introduce some of the ideas that shape the discipline.
Beginning with what we actually mean by a ‘concept’ or ‘theory’, it goes on to explore realism, Marxism, constructivism, postcolonialism, liberalism, ecofeminism and poststructuralism. Instead of treating ‘mainstream’ theories as the obvious starting point and ‘critical’ approaches as something to encounter later, the course puts a diverse range of perspectives alongside one another from the outset.
The aim is to give newcomers an accessible way into IR theory while also being upfront from the start, that there are many contrasting ways of understanding international politics. Short interactive activities are included at each stage of the course to enable learners to check their understanding and consolidate what they have learned.
There are good pedagogical reasons for taking this kind of approach. Research on multimedia learning highlights the value of pre-training in the basics before progressing to more complex issues, as well as how breaking complex topics into short sections enables learners to consolidate and build on what they have learned so far. Learners can often process and integrate new information better when words and visuals are used to complement, rather than duplicate, one another. When it comes to IR theory, animated mind maps can be particularly useful because they make relationships between abstract ideas visible: students can see concepts being connected as they hear them explained.
None of this means replacing lectures, seminars or, importantly, reading. Instead, short multimedia resources can provide an accessible way into a difficult topic, help students revisit something they did not quite grasp the first time, or give them a starting point before tackling a more challenging text.
Colleagues are welcome to incorporate the individual animations from Concepts and theories in International Relations into core teaching as introductory content, or to direct students to the OpenLearn course as an additional independent learning resource. If you’d like to discuss the course in more detail, you can contact one of the authors directly: precious.chatterje-doody@open.ac.uk and simon.usherwood@open.ac.uk
Photo by Julio Lopez on Unsplash
