A Complete Solution for Teaching American Government

What is included with the platform?

  • 3rd Edition Compatible While authoring the soon-to-be-released 3rd edition, author Glen Krutz designed a series of additional assessments exclusively for the Expert TA platform.
  • eBook Integration: As they are working a given problem students can click a link that will take them to the specific section in the book related to that topic.
  • Textbook Questions: Every question from both the second and third editions of the OpenStax American Government textbook
  • Additional Advanced Questions: In each chapter, 15 to 20 automatically-assessed engaging question types such as Drag-and-Drop Labeling, Sorting, Ranking, Arguments, etc.
  • Test Bank: OpenStax’s collection of additional questions that are not available publicly.
  • Cost: Free for instructors and just $35 per semester per student.
  • Problem Library: Table of Contents with problem counts


Webinar Recording

On July 27th, 2021 Expert TA and OpenStax offered an overview of the new 3rd edition of the text, as well as the online homework and testing platform that is now available to accompany the book.
Note: You can mouse-over the video and click the icon in the bottom right to watch the video full-screen.
Presenters
Dr. Glen Krutz: Lead Author
Courtney Raymond: OpenStax Marketing Manager
Dr. Jeremy Morton: Expert TA, CEO and Founder

Engaging Question Types

Example Problem: Use the interactive area below to drag and drop points of support into one of two sides of an argument. I would prefer that the private sector/government take the lead when deciding how to allocate scarce common goods such as water.
Studies show that students retain more information when concepts are brought to life with educational exercises that are more interactive. For example, when students actively construct arguments (shown left), they remember the experience more readily than if they simply selected a multiple choice answer.

Immediate Feedback helps students who are making mistakes get back on track. In the animation to the left, notice the provided feedback when an incorrect answer is submitted.

Traditional question types, such as Multiple Choice and True/False, still have an important role in assessment but are more effective when combined with more interactive materials.

Expert TA has designed our online homework platform to contain an appropriate combination of traditional and interactive questions.

Drag-and-Drop labeling, shown to the right, is one example of interactive questions that get students more involved in the learning process.
Ranking: Students actively order elements related to their order in history, relative significance, etc.
Sorting/Categorizing: Students group items based on specified criteria such as the question shown above.
Identify Feature: Students point-and-click on an area or areas of a given image to identify a specific element or feature.
Matching/Pairing: Items are moved to be paired with their corresponding relational “mate”.

About the Book

American Government 2e Cover

Senior Contributing Authors
Glen Krutz (Content Lead)
Sylvie Waskiewicz, PhD (Lead Editor)
OpenStax and lead author Glen Krutz have developed the third edition of the book, released in the Fall 2021 semester. Dr. Krutz has worked exclusively with Expert TA during the process to develop an online homework accompaniment that aligns with the book fully, in both scope and sequence.

American Government is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the single-semester American Government course. This title includes innovative features designed to enhance student learning, including Insider Perspective features and a Get Connected module that shows students how they can get engaged in the political process. The book provides an important opportunity for students to learn the core concepts of American Government and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them.

About the Author

Dr. Glen Krutz serves as dean of the Oklahoma State University College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). He is also a professor in the Department of Political Science and the Puterbaugh Foundation Chair. As dean of CAS, he leads OSU’s largest college, which provides instruction to all OSU students and includes well over 100 degree programs in the humanities, fine and performing arts, social sciences, and natural sciences and mathematics, as well as a variety of centers serving the entire university.

His teaching and research fields are political institutions, public policy and administration, and research methods. His books include Hitching a Ride: Omnibus Legislating in the U.S. Congress (The Ohio State University Press), Treaty Politics and the Rise of Executive Agreements: International Commitments in a System of Shared Powers (University of Michigan Press), and the popular and free open-source text American Government (OpenStax/Rice University). He has two book projects in the works—one on disengagement in the U.S. Congress and the other a history of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Indian Affairs. An award-winning instructor, Krutz continues to teach each semester in Stillwater.

Dr. Glen Krutz

A Stress-Free Semester

You and your students should be thinking about political science, not about course set-up and technological configurations. Expert TA knows this and has gone to great lengths to make the entire experience as smooth as possible.
  • Simple Registration: You share a registration link, students go through an easy three-step process, and they are enrolled and taking assignments.
  • LMS Integration: Instructors can synchronize grades with their LMS grade book. For students, single sign-on provides access to all the course materials from one location.
  • A Commitment to Customer Service: The company was created on the idea of building great educational solutions, but to the Account Managers at Expert TA we think of ourselves first as a customer service company.
student working