Course Design Spotlight: Interactive Online Negotiation Simulation

In his Harvard College course, Professor of Government Dustin Tingley conducts an in-class negotiation simulation. Students are assigned key roles from the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer. They build coalitions, negotiate policies, draft and amend treaties, and vote on a final agreement to limit use and production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

In 2015, Prof. Tingley approached the Course Design team to develop an asynchronous, online version of the course for Harvard Extension School. Adapting the simulation posed challenges:

• Negotiation, drafting, amendments and voting: Asynchronous discussion takes time, and voting periods need to be long enough for students in any time zone to vote.
• Assigning roles: In the classroom, students were assigned in groups to one of sixteen official roles. Roles by asynchronous groups would make things needlessly complex.
• Balancing simulation needs with student needs: Voting roles need to be highly engaged throughout the simulation, but students expect each week’s work to be self-paced.

The Design

To address the challenges, we made major changes to the simulation:

• Duration: The online simulation spanned two weeks to allow for asynchronous discussion and voting.
• Drafting: Instead of proposing a draft and voting on amendments, members create draft treaties, voluntarily incorporating amendments to build coalitions of support. After a vote on those drafts, the winning draft becomes the base for final negotiations. The authors can amend it further to broaden its appeal, but there are no votes on amendments. The final draft is submitted for an up-or-down vote.
• Roles: Students take an availability/interest survey before the simulation. Students who can engage throughout the week get voting roles. Other students become members of news media or advocacy organizations; the simulation benefits if they participate, but it doesn’t fail if they don't.
• Grades: Students can’t be graded on participation, which depends on roles. All students are expected to follow the simulation when they can, and participate in a debriefing discussion and submit a private reflection. These two items are graded for participation.

“Negotiation is at the core of politics. And on campus, students crave the opportunity to engage with each other. But how to do this online, and with people spread across the world and timezones, was a challenge we wanted to solve. With smart instructional design, content, and technology, we are able to push the frontier of what is possible.” – Prof. Dustin Tingley  

The Partnership

In 2015, Prof. Tingley gave the course design team materials for the original simulation. We met several times, discussing challenges and solutions, and then iterated drafts in Canvas. We piloted the simulation in 2016, revised, and ran it for several years.

In 2021, Prof. Tingley discovered Viewpoint, a third-party simulation platform. Viewpoint streamlines and automates aspects that were managed by hand in Canvas. Students appear as their roles, not their names. Scheduling, documents, and voting are more intuitive. Press releases appear on the simulation home page, not buried in a discussion forum.

The basic structure of the simulation didn’t change in the transition from Canvas to Viewpoint. However, implementing the simulation did take time: Understanding the platform, adjusting to fit, setting up resources, writing extensive documentation for future use, and revising what didn’t work as expected.

“My interactions with engaged students during two terms show they really enjoy this Viewpoint simulation. Some of them prepared interventions well in advance of the simulation week. They proactively created PowerPoint decks to inform other delegates about time plan and critical steps of the Convention. They take delight in embracing their roles as delegates of a particular country—such as one UK delegate who ended a tough round of negotiations with the dry comment, “We expect this matter to be resolved by tea time today.” – Teaching Fellow Stefan Tschauko

Interested?

If you’re interested in a simulation for your course, book a consultation with a Course Designer. With their feedback, apply for a Design Partnership. If your application is accepted, you’ll work with a designer for several months before the term starts. You supply the content, and we will share ideas and feedback and get the materials online. We will also help evaluate and revise after the first simulation.