Running a research marathon

In the current article, I describe a case of experiential learning that can be used to enhance learning, students' research skills and motivation in academic institutions. We used the already existing process of hackathons - intense computer programming events - and conducted a social science research marathon. Fifty-two graduate students participated in the event working in seven research teams for 12 straight hours. The teams designed and ran empirical experiments from scratch' under a specific challenge (the Israeli elections) and then collected data, analysed it and shared their results. Our main goals were: (a) to enhance participants' research skills and (b) to strengthen their intrinsic motivation through hands-on experiential learning, and finally, (c) to conduct high-quality empirical research that could be the basis of peer-reviewed scholarly articles if further developed. According to a post-event survey, all three goals were fulfilled successfully.