Yesterday evening, a group of 12 OU postgraduate students and members of staff watched the second of Clegg-Farage 2014 Europe debate while they tested the first version of Democratic Reflection, a digital implementation of the audience feedback method we piloted with flashcards last year.
Democratic Reflection is available as a mobile web application, that participants could access from their laptops (below), and smartphones or tablets (right). The set of statement was chosen based on the democratic entitlements identified by the focus groups carried out by the Leeds early in 2014 (see also EDV Project Briefing 1).
Preliminary results of the exercise are encouraging, in line with the outcomes of the pilot – especially in terms of engagement with the tool and affordance of the choices. After the debate, we held a group discussion on the users’ views of the experience, the tool, the statements and so forth. Doubtlessly, these insights will be of utmost importance as we further develop Democratic Reflection in time for the pre-election debates later this year.