Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Final Post
The broad topics of the course may have seemed like something that I had heard of before or thought I knew the gist of. This class explained the economics behind them and how they actually work within an organization. Bargaining was a topic that I was surprised to learn the economics behind. My previous assumptions of bargaining would be basic experience seeing bargaining on tv shows or doing so when negotiating with friends. Also transfer pricing was a topic that I had never heard of until this class. I feel that the online blogging helped to allow students to say what they believe on the topic without being afraid of being wrong or singled out in a class room. The feedback we received was helpful in ensuring our answers and supporting them in more detail. With blogging, I would read the prompt and think about an experience in my life that I could relate it to. In the beginning I struggled with the length and quality of my posts, but I feel that they have improved throughout the semester. As for the excel, I would take my time in reading the instructions and write down any formulas or concepts that I needed to understand. Each homework took me at least 45 minutes to an hour and some up to 2-3 hours. Some came with videos and lectures that helped to breakdown the formulas and concepts of the assignment. An approach to possibly improve the class would be to touch on the homework topic the class before it is due as opposed to the class the day it is due. We went into the homework assignments knowing little to nothing about the topic. However, I managed to complete every assignment and perhaps it is beneficial to make the students open the book and/or watch instructional videos to teach themselves the topic and work through the homework one step at a time.
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The chicken and egg problem you mentioned with regard to homework and in class of discussion of this is something I've heard a lot from previous classes. Students are used to the pattern where there is a lecture first and then the homework provides some assessment of whether the students understood the lecture. Possibly there might be a topic presented in the text that is not covered in lecture, so the homework assesses understanding of reading the textbook. I agree that is the usual pattern.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it means that students don't prepare in advance for lecture. They come to that cold instead of well prepared. So I mixed things up hoping to have discussion about points raised in the homework. This semester that didn't happen very much. Perhaps you have a thought on why that was.
In any event, once you get out of here and enter the world of work, having the habit of doing your homework in advance of the meeting will do well for you. The other way around, you might not advance much in whatever line of work you end up doing.
At first, I was a little frustrated but looking back I learned more by working my way through the homework than I would have doing it after class. Perhaps students worked through the homework too soon in advance and forgot their points of discussion when it came to class. Or the usual issue of students being afraid of being wrong or sounding stupid. Even if the class is introverted, they are more likely to absorb your instruction and additional information after already seeing/solving the issues first hand.
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