Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/Texas State University/POSI 3318 (Fall 2013)/Course description

Course description
Personnel is the single largest expenditure in the operating budgets for most public agencies and many of the most visible and interesting (think political) controversies, such as affirmative action, employee ethics, sexual harassment, drug testing, and labor-management relations, are a part of personnel systems (Ingraham and Rubaii-Barett, 2007). The content of this class, therefore, will cover not only the historical development of public personnel systems in the United States, but also give special emphasis to understanding how the evolution of public personnel policies and practices reflect shifting societal values and environmental circumstances.

Assignment overview
Your assignment is to choose an underdeveloped public administration related subject to research and write about on Wikipedia. You will perform a literature search on that subject and work as a part of a group to create a new article or expand an existing one. During the active project phase, you will monitor and respond to feedback on your article, and assist other groups by reading and commenting on their work.

Learning objectives
Infeld & Adams (2013) summarize the valuable experience students can gain from contributing to Wikipedia: In particular, these authors hold that such benefits are particularly important for students in public administration. The effective practice of PA is increasingly dependent on the ability to work in teams. By participating in this assignment students are also developing critical democratic skills that PA graduates need.
 * 1) Collaborating in a diverse environment
 * 2) Fostering thinking about evidence
 * 3) Effectively communicating information to a broad public audience
 * 4) Appreciating the role of access to information in a democracy

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