Course Reflection

My overall impression for the course is quite positive. Though this course is designed for undergraduate students, I still enjoy the class a lot. There are three parts that I want to talk about: assignments, class contents, and interactions.

Firstly, assignments of this class are more than I expected, which is still fine for me. Blog posts every week are the most beneficial assignment in my opinion, which help me to digest what I learned from the class. Though writing blog is time consuming, since I have to think through the contents what I am going to discuss and which parts I want to focus on, I believe that is a good way for students to connect the new class contents to their old knowledge. Another gain for me is that I get a lot more chance to write essays and have feedback from Professor, which is a precious opportunity that I wouldn’t have from most graduate-degree courses. About the Excel homework, the difficulty is quite reasonable for me. Detailed instructions are provided by Professor and they are really helpful for students to finish homework.

A drawback of the Excel homework that I can think of is that long descriptions make students want to skip the reading part and jump right into the calculation part. Be honestly, I did skip the description part few times and doing that did not stop me from finishing homework. Thus, there might be some better ways can prevent students from finishing homework without learning anything. For example, give a longer lecture on algebra that students did in the Excel homework. Or even better, give a short and easy quiz in the class, which might be a good idea to help Professor understand how much students have learned. Also, by giving quizzes, students either have motivations to study or be forced to do it. In my opinion, the algebra we learned in the class should be easy and understandable for a senior Econ student. Spend some time preparing for the easy quiz won’t be too demanding for senior students. However, more quizzes mean that Professor has to reweigh how many percentage that other assignments should take. I believe that assignments might be a bit too much for some students and cause them to turn in homework late; or even worse, just neglect some homework.

The class contents are well structured and highly connected to real organizations. Though I am not familiar with the live class since I didn’t have much experience on how to react to teacher’s questions immediately, I still enjoyed listening to other students’ opinions. Hopefully I can engage in live discussion more in the future. There is one problem that I think is worthy to bring up: students become as shy as me when they confront algebra questions. Most time students are willing to answer Professor’s questions, but become silent once the question is related to algebra. I am not sure what causes this problem, the worst situation is that most of students do not understand what they did in the Excel homework. Once again, I believe that the algebra questions should be easy for senior Econ students. If students are truly unable to solve those algebra problems, it’s better to slow down and find out what problems they have.

Aside from algebra, I think this course provide a good chance for senior students to related what they have learned from previous three years to the real life. The class contents are related to organizations and how organizations use Economics to solve problems. Students do not need to know sophisticated algebra, just basic algebra that Professor taught should enable students to understand how Economics can fit into the reality. Professor provided a lot more intuitions of Economics than algebra, and doing this kind of reminds me why I like Economics. I learn Economics because I like how economists make real world problems quantitative and allow people to make decisions based on analysis. Knowing intuitions of Economics is fun, but learning too much advanced math is another thing. And the way how this course focuses on intuitions is a good way to remind students the interesting part of Economics while we are overwhelming by math.


Interactions inside the class are great, but most of time they are limited between students and Professors. For me, it looks like students do not have many interactions between each other. Since this course is about organizations, I am wondering whether we can make groups in the class more like groups in workplaces. For example, a group with more people and a task that requires more communications between group members. I am not sure which is the best way to achieve that, but if the group task becomes harder, it could probably mean that other assignments should be easier, so students won’t be stressed out.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanDecember 8, 2017 at 2:39 PM

    Thank you for your comments. The idea of workgroups is interesting. In years past I have had teams make presentations in class. It was time consuming but maybe would get students to participate more with one another and to react to what other students say. So that is something I will keep in mind.

    As to the algebra, I'm afraid you are on the mark. It shows a weakness in the education of most econ students, since everyone has had the required calculus class (or classes). They get through it, somehow, but they don't internalize it in a way that is useful to them later. I'm afraid that too much of college education is like that.

    It is admirable that you stuck it out through the class, since English is not your first language and the blogging must have been challenging. As you said, it is good practice for you. But it also must have been a challenge. In the past I've had one or two MSPE students most years. They seem to like the course as a contrast to what else they are taking. But they don't generate followers, for whatever reason. Of that I'm not sure.

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  2. Christina RomerDecember 11, 2017 at 10:40 PM

    First off, I appreciated having you in my group. You are very diligent and hardworking, something that I appreciated. Secondly, I think that your idea about the workgroups is very interesting and a point that I noticed regarding interactions, but something that I had not thought of as a solution. Your connection between the class lessons and the aspects of the class itself are very interesting, something to be cognizant of in the future. This class was very different than any other than I had before, and have currently, so I also appreciated the difference in style.

    I also think the point that you brought up regarding the homework assignments was valid for me as well. I tried to comprehend as much as possible, but sometimes the focus was more so on the finishing the assignment than truly understanding as the points were based on completion. I think that the way that you pointed out the possibility of in class lectures or comprehension quizzes is a good start, while putting the emphasis on the student's learning.

    It was nice working with you this semester and I wish you the best!

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