War is of vital importance to any nation; it is a matter of life and death. It is a clash of wills and the human struggle for victory, power, and wealth. In the upcoming semester, you will discover the murky world behind strategy formation and conduct of military operations. You will find out that everything in a war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. You will face difficult questions: Is it moral to evaporate the entire population through nuclear weapons? What is the future of war? How to operationalize culture? What are the methods of gathering intelligence?
The strategic studies course is designed primarily to provide a broad overview of major theoretical approaches to studying strategy and applying these approaches and theories in strategic reality. The landscape will spread across Western and Eastern civilizations by looking at the writings of Carl von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, orthodox nuclear deterrence strategies, unorthodox strategies utilized by small and weaker states and non-state actors, and various dimensions of warfare, including naval and air power. Every class brings activities that allow you to apply what you have read before the class and exchange the experience with your peers.
The strategic studies course is designed primarily to provide a broad overview of major theoretical approaches to studying strategy and applying these approaches and theories in strategic reality. The landscape will spread across Western and Eastern civilizations by looking at the writings of Carl von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, orthodox nuclear deterrence strategies, unorthodox strategies utilized by small and weaker states and non-state actors, and various dimensions of warfare, including naval and air power. Every class brings activities that allow you to apply what you have read before the class and exchange the experience with your peers.
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 The in-class hands-on experience
The Strategic Studies course follows Self-Determination Theory principles with a particular focus on competence development and autonomy via practical build-in exercises based on the pre-class readings and supplemented with in-class activities.
For example, in a class that focused on the evolution and role of Air Power in conflict environments, I used the Kialo platform to promote critical thinking and debate among the students. As illustrated in the attached video below, after a short reiteration of instructions (which are also available in the relevant LMS folder before the class), eight (8) students were randomly separated via Zoom breakup rooms into two groups. They had around 20 minutes to provide pros/cons of air power and were guided by the question: "Is Air Power a perfect solution or a conventional indiscriminate tool in modern conflicts?". They were asked to find the external sources supporting each pro/con argument. During the breakup session, both groups could see the arguments synchronously posted by each other. This method stimulated critical thinking because groups could consider counterarguments while working on their pros/cons. It also promoted equal division of work within the group as it required simultaneously writing/posting on Kialo, thinking about pros/cons, developing counterarguments, and finding external sources to support the pros/cons.
For example, in a class that focused on the evolution and role of Air Power in conflict environments, I used the Kialo platform to promote critical thinking and debate among the students. As illustrated in the attached video below, after a short reiteration of instructions (which are also available in the relevant LMS folder before the class), eight (8) students were randomly separated via Zoom breakup rooms into two groups. They had around 20 minutes to provide pros/cons of air power and were guided by the question: "Is Air Power a perfect solution or a conventional indiscriminate tool in modern conflicts?". They were asked to find the external sources supporting each pro/con argument. During the breakup session, both groups could see the arguments synchronously posted by each other. This method stimulated critical thinking because groups could consider counterarguments while working on their pros/cons. It also promoted equal division of work within the group as it required simultaneously writing/posting on Kialo, thinking about pros/cons, developing counterarguments, and finding external sources to support the pros/cons.
It is important to note that the students have taken complete control of the activity. A select leader in each group asked the group members to contribute whenever necessary and gave time for feedback from members of another group. My role was limited to discussion stimulation whenever no critical/alternative views were expressed by opposing group members. The entire activity took around 40 minutes. As explained in the course evaluation feedback, the students appreciated having enough time to prepare and present their work activity.
The Kialo platform is used twice in the semester to discuss air power and nuclear weapons. There is a variety of platforms that I am using depending on the needs of the in-class activity. For instance, in a class covering Intelligence Analysis, probability bias activity aims to illustrate the difficulties in expressing national threats probabilities by the analysis. The tool used for this activity is a Google Drive Excel file.
The Kialo platform is used twice in the semester to discuss air power and nuclear weapons. There is a variety of platforms that I am using depending on the needs of the in-class activity. For instance, in a class covering Intelligence Analysis, probability bias activity aims to illustrate the difficulties in expressing national threats probabilities by the analysis. The tool used for this activity is a Google Drive Excel file.
An Excel file with several probability phrases is created. The students are asked to allocate a circle for each phrase based on their understanding of the probability scale (0% to 100%). This is an individual task, although done synchronously, by allocating the circles on the scale. The activity takes around 20 minutes to complete. After the completion, the students are asked to analyze the patterns and discuss the spread of the circles. They usually conclude that the spread can be, at times, very significant (e.g., the phrase 'likely' can have a probability of 55% to 80%). The students are asked to imagine being a part of an intelligence analyst group and to think about mitigating measures against probability bias when generating a threat report for their country. The discussion can take another 20 minutes. The students learn to identify the role of cognitive biases in their future work as analysts.
The Google Drive files are used three times in other activities requiring synchronous, group-based exercises. To mix Kialo and Google Drive, I also use the Padlet platform for comparative in-class activities. All-in-all, the Strategic Studies course utilizes various tools that stimulate critical thinking, group and individual activities, and discussions by the students in a way that promotes their competence, autonomy, and relatedness.
The Google Drive files are used three times in other activities requiring synchronous, group-based exercises. To mix Kialo and Google Drive, I also use the Padlet platform for comparative in-class activities. All-in-all, the Strategic Studies course utilizes various tools that stimulate critical thinking, group and individual activities, and discussions by the students in a way that promotes their competence, autonomy, and relatedness.
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The Briefs and Critical Peer-Review
A part of the summative assessment in the Strategic Studies course is the submission of five (5) self-selected Briefs from the topics covered throughout the semester (autonomy support). Each Brief is peer-reviewed by one or more peers according to five (5) criteria. The software used to conduct this activity is done via FeedbackFruits Tools Suit (for discussion of Peer-Review tool, click here)
The following are the five (5) criteria used by the students in the peer-review process:
- Are key concepts adequately defined and used consistently?
- Â Is the focus of the Brief clearly stated (for instance, the problem, issue, or object under investigation; or the research question)?
- Did the submitter express their ideas, opinions, comments, and views on the topic in a clear, coherent, and logical way?
- Â Are the recommendations realistic and applicable?
- Â Are there any omissions; concepts that should be included; views that should be considered; or alternative explanations of the phenomena?
During the peer-review, the students receive random pop-up notifications reminding them about the quality of the peer-review, for instance:
- Â Be sure to make your feedback actionable (concrete suggestions for improvement);
- Â Try to balance your review; recognize both strong and weak points;
- Â Remember to critique the writing, not the writer;
-  Try to use a tone of feedback that you’d also like to receive.
Once the peer-review period is finished, the students who received the review are asked to provide feedback on the peer-review quality. In this way, students take full responsibility for improving the quality of the Briefs and the peer-review quality. It is worthy of note that students who are weaker in writing the Briefs have the opportunity to peer-review those students who are showing a better writing skills, hence learning by reading and reviewing simultaneously. Although the allocation of peer reviewers is automatic and the entire process is anonymous (the students will never know who gave them the feedback), I can manually allot weaker students to read a Brief written by the stronger student.
The additional perk for students to provide a quality peer-review and feedback to peer-reviewers is their ability to influence the final grade of each Brief and peer-review. The students are grading their contributions on a scale from 1 to 10. I take the average grade and include it in the grading sheet. The average grade constitutes 25% of the grade for the Brief and peer-review, while my grade constitutes 75%. To avoid any negative bias in grading, the maximum discrepancy between the average student grade and my grade cannot go beyond 20%. If it is beyond this %, the average student grade is adjusted accordingly. The 25/75% allocation further strengthens students' autonomy in taking responsibility for their learning and grades.
The additional perk for students to provide a quality peer-review and feedback to peer-reviewers is their ability to influence the final grade of each Brief and peer-review. The students are grading their contributions on a scale from 1 to 10. I take the average grade and include it in the grading sheet. The average grade constitutes 25% of the grade for the Brief and peer-review, while my grade constitutes 75%. To avoid any negative bias in grading, the maximum discrepancy between the average student grade and my grade cannot go beyond 20%. If it is beyond this %, the average student grade is adjusted accordingly. The 25/75% allocation further strengthens students' autonomy in taking responsibility for their learning and grades.
As explained, the students receive improvement feedback from a variety of directions. Hence, based on the course learning outcomes, the students are expected to progress through the semester. Based on data collected from 2021 to 2024, there is a clear improvement in the quality of the Briefs, with the average grade for Brief #1 being 7.03 and continuing to increase to 7.89. This constitutes an 11.5% increase in the quality of the assignment and illustrates the effectiveness of the selected teaching and learning method.
A similar trend can be observed in the case of peer review. It shows that feedback on the quality of the peer review, together with mutual responsibility for grading each other, results in a 16.9% increase in grade from Peer-Review #1 to Peer-Review #5. It is difficult to determine the exact cause of the sudden drop in quality for Peer-Review #4. Perhaps it corresponds with increased stress and burnout of the students during the mid-term exams.
Overall, the implemented teaching and learning methods, assisted via FeedbackFruits, resulted in the successful achievement of learning objectives and the improvement of the student's writing.
A similar trend can be observed in the case of peer review. It shows that feedback on the quality of the peer review, together with mutual responsibility for grading each other, results in a 16.9% increase in grade from Peer-Review #1 to Peer-Review #5. It is difficult to determine the exact cause of the sudden drop in quality for Peer-Review #4. Perhaps it corresponds with increased stress and burnout of the students during the mid-term exams.
Overall, the implemented teaching and learning methods, assisted via FeedbackFruits, resulted in the successful achievement of learning objectives and the improvement of the student's writing.
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The Feedback
The students appreciate the chance to practice their skills and satisfy competence development via in-class activities. For example:
The best part of this course was the class engagement and activities which enhanced understanding of the topics discussed.I like that we were able to be participate each week, where via breakout rooms, using new applications, contest views with other classmates.The interactive sessions.I liked the nature of the course delivery. Every week we engaged in class tasks based on our individual readings, which made learning a hands-on experience.
The students also pointed out the importance of relatedness with the lecturer as a component improving the learning and teaching experience:
The lecturer was accommodating to all students even outside of the classroom and we were able to communicate on assignments if something was unclear.The Professor was able to clearly explain course content. He was patient and made the class enjoyable through comedic inclusion and real life scenarios.The lecturer was very passionate about the material and that make the course easier to follow.