20 Eye-Opening Open Courses for Election Season

Election day is the Olympics of politics. Every four years the American people become enamored with the compelling drama that is the race to the White House. And in the same way we always have to relearn the finer points of scoring in gymnastics floor routines, it’s likely we could all use some help understanding the issues facing the country this election cycle. It might not even hurt to take a guided trip down memory lane to get an idea of our political history in the interest of not dooming ourselves for a rerun. Consider these 20 free, open courses your instruction manual for exercising your suffrage this November.

1. Stanford’s Election 2012:Seeing as the founders of Udacity came from Stanford, it’s no surprise the school continues to lead the way in free education. This series is hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning history prof David Kennedy, assistant professor of political science Rob Reich, and James Steyer, the head of Common Sense Media. Watch the videos on iTunes or YouTube and sign up for the class to join the discussion on campaign strategy, the historical perspective of this election, and more.
2. America 2012:If you couldn’t make it to Colorado this summer, you can still get the benefit of leading thinkers’ and pundits’ insights on this presidential election that were shared at the eighth annual Aspen Ideas Festival. Over 20-plus hours, you’ll hear great talks on “the real Romney,” the Supreme Court’s health Obamacare ruling, media and the election, and more.
3. PLSI 276: Presidential Election:San Francisco State University launched this free series on Aug. 30, the day the Republican National Convention kicked off. Members of the local community were invited to hear live lectures from expert panels with election analysis, and the school has helpfully uploaded the videos to the Web so that voters across the country can get informed about health care, immigration, unemployment, and other hot-button issues.
4. Election 2012: Understanding the People’s Choice:Various faculty members from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater lead these talks investigating the extent this presidential election will affect ever-increasing public dissatisfaction with government in general. The intriguing titles that are already uploaded or are coming soon include “Social class rhetoric in congressional campaigns” and “Politicians for the planet? Searching for sustainability in the 2012 elections.”
5. Securing Digital Democracy:If you think problems with the mechanics of voting went out with hanging chads, think again. We are still in the early stages of e-voting and the potential for disastrous security failures remains high. Professor J. Halderman of the U of Michigan teaches this course to bring you up to speed on the future of this pivotal aspect of our democracy.
6. Future Energy:One of the most divisive issues between this year’s candidates is the question of energy. President Obama has thrown his support behind the development of green technology, while Mitt Romney backs the traditional sources of coal and oil. So which guy is right? This course from Open University will give you an idea of how long we have until all the earth’s fossil fuels are gone and help you decide where you stand on this debate.
7. PHSC 13400: Global Warming:The two remaining presidential candidates haven’t talked much about climate change, but it might just be the issue that decides the election. For a non-science-major intro to the ins and outs of global warming, check out this set of lectures by David Archer of the University of Chicago’s geophysical sciences department. By the end of the class you’ll want to know exactly what your candidate intends to do about the problem.
8. Election 2012 by UCTV:UCTV is the TV network for all 10 University of California campuses. This great course brings you up close and personal with several topics that don’t get much coverage, like the U.S. Farm Bill, how the Obama administration has handled Pakistan, and the prospect of becoming totally oil-independent.
9. Vote411.org:The League of Women Voters bills this site as a “one-stop-shop” for election info, which is another way of saying it’s a really practical course on understanding the election that’s tailored to a user by location. Just put in your address and feast your eyes on all kinds of helpful voting info, from eligibility requirements to how much time employers must give you off to vote to candidate issue comparisons.
10. Harvard Kennedy School’s PolicyCast:This collection out of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard’s public policy grad school, features under-30-minute discussions with political thinkers and policymakers about the election issues of both foreign and domestic policy. Topics have included the voter ID debate, political ads and super PACs, and recent events in Libya.
11. Defense and Security:Major players like Joe Lieberman, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and James A. Baker are just a few of the big names that pop up in the 100 audio files that make up this informative collection of discussions and speeches. With so many tracks the course is pretty dense, but there’s just too much helpful info here on the national debt, homeland security, tax reform, nuclear proliferation, and more that is too good to be missed.
12. Geography of U.S. Elections:News stories are a lot neater when issues cleanly separate into one-side-versus-the-other, which is basically how each presidential election is presented in the national media. However, in these videos from the last presidential election year, Stanford geography prof Martin Lewis takes us all the way back to 1789 and shines the light on the “red state/blue state” myth.
13. Israel: History, Politics, Culture, and Identity:The 2012 election may be the most critical one the State of Israel has ever faced. On the one hand, there’s President Obama, who has publicly clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Iran, and candidate Mitt Romney, who has left preemptive war fully on the table. This course from the legendary MIT OCW database will open your eyes to Israel’s cultural identity and what is at stake for their people.
14. America Decides, the World Watches:It may be a stretch to call these videos a course, but they are on iTunes U and they could be eye-opening as they bring a perspective of the 2012 election through the eyes of commentators 10,000 miles from D.C. Professor Nick Bisley of La Trobe University invites guests to help him break down major election news points like Mitt Romney’s damaging 47% comments and the first presidential debate.
15. The Moral Foundations of Politics:Yale’s Ian Shapiro takes you back all the way to John Locke and the Enlightenment in order to answer the question, “When do governments deserve our allegiance?” Skip ahead to the last four lectures if you want to focus on democracy and modern applications to politics today, but the entire course is worth checking out.
16. Institute of Politics — John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum:This forum has hosted over 1,000 educational and cultural events since the ’70s, and now you can make a course out of the political discussions hosted by the group over the last two years. In just the last two months, political experts have dropped by to dig into the future of voter ID laws, debate how the presidential election will affect health care in 2013, and take viewers behind the scenes of the presidential debates.
17. The Anatomy of an Election: A Series on U.S. Elections:As the title indicates (twice), this course from Washington College is about elections, hosted by two award-winning journalists. Only the first of four videos is available as of this writing, but the second lecture by the author of The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns promises to meet the high bar set by the first lecture, as should the next two on campaign finance and the media’s role in the election.
18. Election 2012: Professor Office Hours:Pretend you’re an Emory University student through these brief video interviews the school calls “Professor Office Hours.” Faculty members answer questions about the candidates, the election process in general, and more. Some of the questions are already dated but there is some great insight to be gleaned from these academics, and you don’t have to wade through 90 minutes of talk to get it.
19. Political Science 61A: Minority Politics:It might surprise you just how much power groups that have historically low voter turnout could potentially yield. UC Irvine offers this course that highlights the role of Latinos and African, Asian, and Native Americans in the political process, with PowerPoint slides, PDF lecture notes, and midterm and final exam questions for you overachievers.
20. Defense Politics:This course is from 2006, but fortunately our politicians seem just as set now as they were then on keeping America in a perpetual state of war (we’ll now step down from our soapbox). Mitt Romney says President Obama is trying to cut $1 trillion from the military budget. If true, is that the right call? Give this class a look-see to decide.