POLI-LIT

POLI LIT: Political Science Data Literacy Module

Project Leads: Edwina Chih-Yu Chen & Insu Hwang

Supported by the Center for Teaching Excellence  GTA/TA Teaching Innovation Grant (USC)

POLI LIT is an ongoing teaching innovation project designed to integrate data literacy, research methods, and AI-assisted learning into political science education. I am currently piloting this module in my 100-level Introduction to Global Politics course (USC, Fall 2025).

The module combines one in-person lecture with three online units, each completion-based. It introduces students to data commonly used in political science research and develops their ability to interpret and visualize information responsibly with the support of generative AI tools.

Module Overview:

• Lecture: Introduction to political research methods and how political scientists use data and indices.

• Unit 1 – Data Literacy: Understanding datasets and codebooks, ethical data use, and basic statistical concepts such as distributions.

• Unit 2 – R Basics: Getting started with R  (Posit Cloud), completing simple data tasks, and creating basic visualizations.

• Unit 3 – Data Project: Guiding students to work on a small data project and use AI tools for coding, visualization, and interpretation support.

All datasets, readings, and materials are created for teaching purposes and remain under development.

Please do not reuse or distribute module materials without prior permission.

For collaboration, feedback, or teaching adaptation requests, please contact chihyu@email.sc.edu.

Explore the Module through link below: