Daniel Encinas recently developed the undergraduate course POLI SCI 250: Comparative Politics, which features a map depicting a strange yet familiar landscape: the fictional continent of “Compol”, with nations like “Wildcatia” and “Evanstonia”. Yet while this fanciful representation of Northwestern University’s campuses may seem unusual, it challenges students with a real-world question: can they predict the formation, growth, and decline of countries?
“They didn’t know the final outcome of the states’ formation, so they needed to apply the theories we studied to predict what will happen,” said Encinas, currently in the seventh year of his PhD program. “It turned into a creative analytical challenge to make abstract concepts come to life in a way that felt grounded, visual, and even a little whimsical.”
Drawing upon his rich background in education – both as a student and a teacher – Encinas added innovative twists to classroom activities that draw upon the unique advantages of online, asynchronous learning. In one of the innovative exercises for Comparative Politics, students examined this map of fictional Compol and used basic information given to extrapolate the long-term futures of these developing states.
“I really appreciated Daniel’s creativity and student-centered approach throughout the course design process,” said Jackie Wickham Smith, a senior learning designer who collaborated with Encinas. “Daniel’s emphasis and consideration for his online students’ experience resulted in an excellent example of varying assessment strategies and engaging online students while maintaining academic rigor.”
Encinas also addressed an ongoing concern in modern teaching: AI assistance. He frequently uses ChatGPT as a research assistant, but he recognizes its limits, and that many students rely on it too heavily as a supplement rather than support. Therefore, he assigns students to ask ChatGPT about a fictional country to determine if it’s democratic or not. However, the prompt establishes that ChatGPT cannot confirm or deny being a democracy; students must use what they learn to reach their own conclusions.
“I really like this assignment because it accomplishes both of its goals,” he said. “First, it’s a way to show them how to use prompts effectively, which is a skill that we need to develop in the new AI era. Second, it demonstrated the most effective way to use these technological tools: not to replace your role as a researcher, or as a student, or as a human being, but actually complement your strengths and your final evaluation.”
Thanks to his versatile experience writing news stories for numerous media outlets, Encinas approaches his teaching as a form of narrative, helping to build stronger engagement throughout the course. He always thinks about how and when to best introduce a “shift” in the learning to re-spark interest.
“When we design these virtual classes, we’re kind of writing textbooks – virtual textbooks,” said Encinas. “I’ve learned that you need to keep the reader’s attention – and that, in great part, comes from developing storytelling skills. So I start with a hook to bring in my readers’ [students] attention. Then after a while, I need to renew their interest and do something that refreshes their attention – whether I change the tone of the topic, or shift to something new or different.”
Students enjoyed exploring Comparative Politics and its innovative assignments, so Encinas and SPS are working to further improve the experience, such as an updated, more detailed map of Compol. In addition, Encinas is currently developing another new political science course: POLI SCI 230: Law in the Political Arena, which will explore law as a social construct.
“For me, teaching has been quite a journey, one that has been interesting as a teacher, as a scholar, and as a human being,” Encinas said. “So I’m very grateful for the opportunity to keep teaching with SPS and design a new class, which is always an amazing journey.”
In addition to being a PhD candidate in the Comparative Politics PhD program at Northwestern, Encinas coordinates the Puente project to advance academic outreach across social media. Experienced in working for numerous media groups globally, he also works as a columnist for the Peruvian news outlet La República, giving him further insights into contemporary politics.