For the third year, ICNC offered our popular participant-led online course: “Civil Resistance Struggles: How Ordinary People Win Rights, Freedom, and Justice” from February 13 to April 20, 2020.

Read more about the 2020 course and review the assessments below.

You can also view assessments from previous courses in 2019, 2018 and 2016-17.

ICNC received 74 applications for the participant-led online course. The quality of applications was high and it took several rounds of reviews to select the 53 participants who were invited to take part in the online course.

Before the course began, ICNC hosted two orientation webinars for course participants. Each orientation webinar contained survey questions asking participants what they hoped to gain from the course.

In summary, participants indicated that they wanted to:

• gain practical knowledge on how to organize civil resistance campaigns more effectively,
• learn about general dynamics, concepts and cases of civil resistance, and
• share their own personal experiences with others in the course.

Due the nature of the participant-led course, ICNC did not provide live moderation. However, ICNC staff provided:

• Comprehensive curriculum on civil resistance, meaningful videos and readings, discussion forums, group exercises, and resources for further learning
• Technical support
• Course announcements & updates

One of the unique features in the participant-led course was a self-learning community. Participants in the course built this community based on the following four principles:

• Active participation via careful content review & engagement in the forums and small group work
• Respect for different views and collaborative dialog
• Educating each other via constructive feedback, sharing relevant information, stories, and ideas
• Mutual assistance: checking on your colleagues that lag behind and are silent, offering help where needed

Course participants also had access to the ICNC Mobile App, which is available on iOS and Android. By using the app, participants could download the course content and access it offline when they were travelling or if they were in areas with low internet access.

Module 1. Introduction to the Course 

In the welcome module, we laid out the objectives of the course. We discussed course activities, including forum posts, recorded webinars, readings, videos, webinar meetings and online discussions. We provided online learning tips to help participants make the most of the online learning experience. Finally, we introduced participants to the People Power Game: A Strategic Game About Civil Resistance, a video simulation that participants play throughout the course, during which the player takes on the role of a strategic planner for a nonviolent movement.

Module 2. Foundations of Civil Resistance

In this session we laid the theoretical groundwork out of which this field has grown, digging into both data and the big picture. Virtually every day, somewhere in the world, there are people engaging in civil resistance. But what do we mean by this term? Do we all understand it the same way? How is civil resistance defined and spoken about in participants’ towns, communities, regions or countries? In this session we clarified the concept of civil resistance, looking into power that underlies people’s actions and considering the track record of civil resistance over the past 110 years, including the reasons behind its effectiveness. This module aimed to equip participants with data to share with others in their networks about the effectiveness of civil resistance, and to enable them to articulate what civil resistance is in a clear and concise manner.

Module 3. Strategies and Tactics of Civil Resistance

In this session, participants looked at what strategy in civil resistance is, and how it relates to tactics. We examined examples of different tactics, including cultural resistance tactics, and discuss tactical innovation, including strategic sequencing of tactics that enhance the effectiveness of nonviolent methods and campaigns. Finally, we explored different conflict analysis tools that help movements systematically assess and analyze the battlefield in which they are engaging nonviolently.

Module 4. Repression, Backfire, and Defections

In this session, we started with a discussion about repressive contexts in which nonviolent resistance movements take place, and the phenomenon of backfire when violence against unarmed activists boomerangs back to those who carried out the repression. We explored how civil resistance movements can optimize the impact of backfire and use it to their advantage. How does the side that uses repression aim to hinder potential backfire? We then discussed defections that often, though not always, occur as a result of the backfire effect. This module focused on understanding defections from one group — security forces — and explores conditions under which the defections might happen. It also explored how regimes often try to mitigate the likelihood of security defections, and strategies that movements might deploy to increase chances of loyalty shifts among security forces.

Module 5. Small Group Project: Cases of Civil Resistance Around the World

This module was the group work module. Participants were given case studies all around the world with different goals, tactics, and strategies. Individually, and as a group, participants analyzed these civil resistance case studies and responded to hypothetical scenarios regarding key moments in the case study.

Module 6. Other Key Topics in Civil Resistance

In this session, we focused on a variety of important topics in the study and practice of civil resistance that have been selected for their emergence as key topics in the current field of study. By including such topics as challenging abuses by corporations, political democratization after civil resistance campaigns succeed against authoritarian rule, the role of faith communities in civil resistance, and the impacts of women’s leadership and participation in civil resistance campaigns, we aim to improve knowledge about these often lesser-recognized, yet incredibly important aspects of civil resistance.

Module 7. Finishing the Course

In the last two days of this online course we solicited participants’ views about the course and their learning experience. We asked about their learning progress, overall educational experience, assessment of the course content, interactions in the forums, and their personal engagement during the six-week period. This feedback has allowed us to improve our future online courses and make our teaching pedagogy on civil resistance more effective and more impactful on all learners involved.

At the beginning and end of course, participants were asked to take a survey measuring their knowledge about civil resistance. These surveys contained the same questions, in order to demonstrate the extent of the knowledge that they gained during the course.

10 participants completed both the pre course and post course survey and selected graphs from their comparative results are shown below.

You can use the links below to navigate directly to each graph.

• How actively involved are you in a civil resistance campaign?/How likely are you to join a civil resistance campaign because of what you learned in this online course?
• How actively involved are you in writing, researching, speaking or teaching about civil resistance?/After having completed the online course, how much more likely are you to engage in writing, researching, speaking, or teaching about civil resistance?
• How skilled do you think you are in planning or implementing a civil resistance campaign?
• What are the three most important outcomes you hope to gain from this course/gained from this course? (Participants could choose multiple answers)
• On the scale below, select the number that best represents your current knowledge of civil resistance or nonviolent movements
• On the scale below, select the number that best represents your view about how important you think strategic planning is in a successful civil resistance movement
• On the scale below, select the number that best represents your view on how successful you think civil resistance campaigns against repressive states have been in the past

Selected Graphs

1. How actively involved are you in a civil resistance campaign?/How likely are you to join a civil resistance campaign because of what you learned in this online course?

Pre course survey:
50% of respondents selected “2” or “3”, showing that they were not very active in civil resistance campaigns.

Post course survey:
90% of respondents said that they were more likely to join a civil resistance campaign, showing that their interest and desire to be more involved had increased as a result of the course.

2. How actively involved are you in writing, researching, speaking or teaching about civil resistance?/After having completed the online course, how much more likely are you to engage in writing, researching, speaking, or teaching about civil resistance?

Pre course survey:
50% of respondents selected “2” or “3”, showing that they were not very involved in writing, researching, speaking or teaching about civil resistance prior to taking the online course.

Post course survey:
95% of respondents said they were more likely to write, research, speak or teach about civil resistance than before the course. 

4. How skilled do you think you are in planning or implementing a civil resistance campaign?

Pre course survey:
10% of respondents selected “4” or “5” and 30% of respondents selected “1” or “2”, showing that they thought they weren’t very skilled in planning/implementing a civil resistance campaign. 

Post course survey:
65% of respondents selected “4” or “5” and 10% of respondents selected “1” or “2”,  showing that after taking the online course, respondents thought they would be very skilled in planning/implementing a civil resistance campaign. None of the post course respondents selected “1”.

13. What are the three most important outcomes you hope to gain from this course/gained from this course? (Participants could choose multiple answers)

Pre course survey:
 80% of respondents wanted to gain practical skills, 80% wanted more knowledge about civil resistance concepts and theories, and 70% wanted to expand their professional networks.

Post course survey:
90% said that they had more knowledge about civil resistance concepts and theories, and 70% said they had more knowledge about specific case studies and more practical skills. 

15. On the scale below, select the number that best represents your current knowledge of civil resistance or nonviolent movements

Pre course survey:
10% of respondents selected “4” or “5” and 50% selected “1” or 2″, showing that they had limited knowledge about civil resistance or nonviolent movements before the course.

Post course survey:
 90% of respondents selected “4” or “5” and none of the respondents selected “1” or “2”, showing that, after the course, they knew substantially more about civil resistance or nonviolent movements.

24. On the scale below, select the number that best represents your view on how successful you think civil resistance campaigns against repressive states have been in the past

Pre course survey:
60% of respondents selected “4” and “5”, showing that they thought civil resistance campaigns had been successful against repressive states. 

Post course survey:
80% of respondents selected “4” and “5”, showing that even more respondents now strongly agreed that civil resistance campaigns had been successful against repressive states. 

25. On the scale below, select the number that best represents your view about how important you think strategic planning is in a successful civil resistance movement

Pre course survey:
60% of respondents selected “5”, showing that they thought strategic planning was very important in a successful civil resistance movement.

Post course survey:
80% of respondents selected “5”, showing that, after the course, even more respondents considered strategic planning to be very important.

27. On the scale below, select the number that best represents your view about how important you think nonviolent discipline is in a successful civil resistance movement

Pre course survey:
60% of respondents selected “5”, showing that they thought nonviolent discipline was very important in a successful civil resistance movement.

Post course survey:
80% of respondents selected “5”, showing that, after the course, even more respondents considered nonviolent discipline to be very important.

The participant-led course also included a final course evaluation, in order for participants to provide feedback on the course content,  self-learning community, course platform, and more.

As participation was disrupted by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, 6 participants completed the final course evaluation. Click on the links below to see the selected graphs for each section.

I. Course Content
II. Group Work
III. General Impression of the Course
IV. Knowledge Gained
V. Self-Learning Community
VI. Applicability
VII. Self-Assessment
VIII. Technology

Selected Graphs

I. Course Content

1. The goals of the course and its modules were clear.

100% of respondents strongly agreed that the goals of the course were clear. 

2. Course content was comprehensive and balanced, and topics were well selected

84% of respondents selected “4” or “5”, showing that almost all of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that the course was comprehensive and well balanced. 

II. Group Work

10. Please describe your overall experience with the group work. Were there any particular parts of the group exercise that you found especially helpful for engagement & learning or/and challenging and why?

• “I enjoyed the group work and engaging with other course participants! One suggestion would be to revisit the instructions for the group work module. I noticed there was some confusion among my group initially, as well as in other groups. After thoroughly reading the instructions, we were able to complete the assignment correctly, however it may be worthwhile to review the instructions to see if they can be clarified. Otherwise it was a great experience!”
• “The experience was very good. However, we couldn’t contact some members of the group and that created a bit of confusion at the beginning. I think that writing and thinking together was very enriching.”
• “My classmates had a lot to share and I much to learn.”
• “Our group eventually only had three participants, even though six or seven were listed. Presumably people dropped out, but it would have been nice to receive a notification about this. Challenging was also to gain equal input from all; I completed the lionshare of our group work, because the others were slacking. That’s not very pleasant. ”

III. General Impression of the Course

13. I now have more knowledge about civil resistance and its various topics than I had before taking the course.

100% of respondents selected “4” or “5”, showing that they agreed or strongly agreed that they would recommend the course to other people. None of the respondents selected “1” ,”2″, or “3”.

IV. Knowledge Gained

14. I learned a considerable amount of new information about civil resistance

83% of respondents selected “5”, showing that they strongly agreed that they had learned a considerable amount during the course. None of the respondents selected “1”, “2”, or “3”.

V. Self-Learning Community 

18. What did other course participants do that was helpful to your learning and engagement with the course content? What advice would you give other course participants?

• “Reading participants’ ideas in the forums was a significant part of the learning process for this course. Seeing how others had understood and reflected on the course content, as well as how this applied to their own experiences and examples of civil resistance, was really valuable!”
• “I enjoyed reading the comments of my classmates, posing some questions and then getting a response. If someone made a comment or question for me, I tried to follow up. Sadly, such interactions were not common for me at least. I know the pandemic took away my focus and I image it might have had greater affects on my classmates. Advice – engage with at least one classmate each week if not for each discussion. Ask a simple question or two. As for your own writing, don’t write too much. That can scare others off.”
• “A member of my group communicated with me by calling me on the phone. We stayed in contact through the process. She created a sense of community.”
• “I actually felt that the discussion forums were mainly used by people to post their own input rather than responding to others. Next to none of my posts received any comments, although I saw other participants later posting on much the same topic. We didn’t really talk TO each other but actually past each other. There’s a real missed opportunity there. ”

VI. Applicability 

21. The knowledge I gained from the course will be relevant in my current and future study/work/activities

100% of respondents selected “4” or “5”, showing that all of them agreed or strongly agreed that the knowledge from the course would be relevant in their current and future educational or professional activities.

VII. Self-Assessment 

23b) If you kept up with the pace of work and your participation met your course commitment, what tips would you share with future participants about how you managed the course load, engagement with the material, and participation in the course forums?

• “At the beginning of the course I was reading extra material and this made me fall a bit behind with the schedule. However, I’ve been able to catch up and I’ve enjoyed it a lot”
• “I was able to satisfy the course requirements, engage with the material and in my group assignment, and post in the forums. However, at times I was not able to spend as much time as hoped from Monday-Friday due to work obligations. However, I found it was still possible to have a positive experience in this course through participation on the weekends and a couple times per work week (Mon-Fri), as opposed to daily.”
• “Pandemic. It didn’t really affect me personally during this time, meaning no sick family, loss of employment, etc. However, it took my focus at times.”

VIII. Technology 

25. What was your overall experience with the online course web platform and the ICNC mobile app?

• “It worked perfectly. I only had some problems with accessing the course but it was solved. I didn’t use the mobile app”
• “I did not use the mobile app. However, I found the web platform extremely easy to navigate and did not encounter any difficulties.”
• “A very enriching experience.”
• “The technical support needs to be improved. Participants should be able to receive a response the same day if there are technical issues.”

• “Excellent, motivating and inspiring course on civil resistance. The course offers the opportunity to engage with experts on the field and exchange experiences with course participants from all over the world, all of them with broad knowledge on that issue.” – Núria Suero Comellas
• “This course was very comprehensive and greatly strengthened my knowledge and skills in the civil resistance.“- María Fernanda Noboa
• “The course modules cover a broad range of topics related to civil resistance, and have really enabled me to gain an in-depth understanding of its theory and practice” – Anonymous
• “In particular, my knowledge increased through the diverse case studies we were exposed to. Previously, I had read the CANVAS core curriculum and had a basic understanding of nonviolent theory and campaign planning. However, the course complemented and cemented this understanding through additional texts/videos, as well as by added case studies to demonstrate what nonviolence strategy looks like in action”. – Anonymous