An Online Course Design Introduction to Economic Analysis

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An Online Course DesignIntroduction to Economic
Analysis

• Steven C. Myers
• myers_at_uakron.edu
• Department of Economics - The University of Akron
• Presented to the
• Department of Political Science
• October 14, 2008
• Online at http//gozips.uakron.edu/myers/online
• And http//learnecon.blogspot.com

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Today

• Origin
• Online Design
• Research Online vs. Face-to-face
• Tour around Springboard
• Other software

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Origin

• College of Business, MBA online
• Faculty
• General Studies Advisory Committee
• E244 Intorduction to Economic Analysis

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Its not the same

• Face-to-face
• Lecture
• Ask questions / lead discussion
• Draw graphs and equations
• Show slides
• 3 big tests

• Internet / online
• Cant lecture
• Cant talk to them or discuss
• Cant draw
• Can show slides if prepared
• 3 big tests invites academic dishonesty and a
  lack of control.

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Design of the online course

• Built in modules
• Modules completed in order
• Competency based testing
• Use student feedback
• For student learning enhancement
• For modifying improving the course

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CourseDesign

• DL requires planning for contingencies
• 14 Content Modules
• Active Learning vs. Passive Learning

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Pre-class and Module 1 Preparing Students to
Learn

• Email them
• http//gozips.uakron.edu/myers/online/
• Is Distance Learning for Me?
• VARK testing learning styles
• Syllabus

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Module 1 Course Introduction
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Content Modules 2-15

• Module Introduction Objectives
• Chapter Introductions
• Content
• Supportive Materials
• Assessment of Learning - Quizzes on objectives
  with multiple trials
• Evaluation

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(No Transcript)
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2 Research Writing Assignments

• Practice and experience in reflecting on a topic
  in the current economy.
• Practice in analysis of economic trends.
• Gaining of confidence about talking about the
  economy.
• Ability to know and use the resources of economic
  commentary, prior analysis and data.

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Introductions Content

• Mostly Passive
• Learner Centered
• Students progress without intervention
• Micro Modules 2-8
• Macro Modules 9-15

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GradedAssessment

• Competency based
• Everyone strives to get a perfect 10 (Mastery)
• Three attempts, 15 min. time limit
• Questions a mix of (1) Recognition, (2)
  Conceptual, (3) Analytic70 CA
• Random intervention by Professor

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Role of Module Evaluation

• Planned intervention
• Forced contact
• Focus on the learning
• Professorial encouragement
• Decreases dropout rates
• Process repeats

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Module EvaluationA Classroom Assessment
Technique from Angelo and Cross (1993) tested
by Chizmar and Ostrosky (1998)

• What comments do you have on this module and your
  experience in completing it?
• What main point have you learned that you did not
  fully understand before?
• What questions Include any points that still
  remain muddy or unclear. Do consider posing the
  muddy points to your fellow students in the
  discussions.
• What recommendations do you have for us as we
  continue to change and enhance the course?

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Student Comments / online

• The fact that this course was completely
  internet based, had no bearing on the level of
  knowledge I gained from the course. I think I
  learned as much, or even more, than I would have
  in a traditional classroom. I contribute this
  most to the way the instructor organized the
  course.

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Do On-Line Students in a Mastery Based Principles
Course Analyze, Synthesize And Evaluate Better
Than Face-To-Face Students? (Myers and Nelson)

• (1) Does the mode of delivery (face-to-face or
  web-based) have an influence on learning
  outcomes? 
• (2) Are students in an online environment as
  likely to do as well as in face-to-face classes?
  Will they be able to equal the complex problem
  solving of the face-to-face students?
• (3) Will web-based students develop more
  favorable attitudes towards economics than the
  attitudes developed by students in the
  face-to-face class?
• (4) Do student myths about economics affect
  their learning outcomes and attitudes towards
  economics?
• http//gozips.uakron.edu/7Emyers/online/ASSA2004/
  ASSA_2004_Internet_Paper_myers_nelson.pdf

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Comparison

• Face-to-face
• Offered by Michael Nelson
• Regular class times
• Lecture and active learning collaborative
  techniques
• Better than the norm of 83 chalk and talk
  (Becker and Watts)
• Some minor web-enhancements such as online
  gradebook

• Online
• Offered by Myers (F02) / Nelson (S03)
• No face-to-face meetings
• Mastery competency based learning
• High professor-student interaction
• No student to student interaction
• Full use of the WebCT environment

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Student Characteristics

• Face-to-face Students
• More likely
• To be male
• To be a freshman
• To be undecided in their major
• To spend less time gathering business and
  economic news.

• Online Students
• More likely to be
• To be older
• To be non-white
• To be female
• To have taken more credits
• To be decided in their major
• More favorably disposed to economics

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The online course design has influenced student
success

• Grade on pre-test status

A B C/D F
Online Course 0 0 17 83
Face-to-face Course 0 0 14 86
Grade on final examination status
A B C/D F
Online Course 5 40 36 18
Face-to-face Course 2 16 61 13
Fall 2002 and Spring 2003 WD and Inc ignored
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The online course design has influenced student
success

• Grades Distribution

A B C/D F
Online Course 33 39 0 10
Face-to-face Course 8 37 40 10
MC Learning Assessment Breakdown / Online
Modules Total Recognition Conceptual Analytical CA
2-8 Micro 331 29 45 26 71
9-15 Macro 563 32 54 15 68
2-15 Total 894 31 51 19 69
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Research design
Students success f( students initial
endowments, awareness of the
economy, attitudes about economics, course
modality, student characteristics)
Pre-test scores total on recall and
recognition on simple application problems on
complex problems GPA Previous attempt of course
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Research design
Survey of economic facts 20 questionson trends
and facts in the economy. 2 questions How does
the student collect business and economic
news. How many hours per week does the student
spend collecting news
Students success f( students initial
endowments, awareness of the
economy, attitudes about economics, course
modality, student characteristics)
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Research design

• Three Survey Questions
• Level of student report of being interested in
  economics.
• Level of student report of liking this economics
  course.
• Level of student report about likelihood of
  taking more economics courses.

Students success f( students initial
endowments, awareness of the
economy, attitudes about economics, course
modality, student characteristics)
5strongly agree 4agree 3indifferent/no
opinion 2disagree 1strongly disagree
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Research design
Students success f( students initial
endowments, awareness of the
economy, attitudes about economics, course
modality, student characteristics)
Online or face-to-face Major Level, e.g.,
freshman Credits completed Age Gender Ethnicity
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Dependent Variable Student Success Outcome
Measures

• examscore on first 6 chapters
• In class exam for face-to-face class
• Average of first three module quizzes for online
  class
• Final examination
• (FE, FE_recog, FE_apply, FE_complex)
• First 3 or 4 levels of Blooms Taxonomy
• Writing assignment
• writing2
• 4th to 6th level of Bloom
• Regular Grades in class

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Results

• Students Initial Endowments
• Higher pretest and higher GPA are positive on
  examscore, writing2 and less so on FE.
• Higher complex pretest scores and higher GPA are
  positive for writing2 and FE_Complex

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Results

• Economic Awareness Attitudes
• Survey is weakly positive for examscore and
  writing2, but has no effect on FE.
• No combination of News gathering is ever
  significant.
• Attitudes are strongly significant for
  examscore and writing2, but no effect on FE

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Results

• Student characteristics
• Those with an undeclared or undecided major do
  much worse than engineering majors for examscore
  and FE.
• Older students do worse on examscore, no effect
  on writing2 and strongly positive on FE
• Females do better in writing2 (strongly
  significance), but do worse on FE (almost
  significant)

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Results

• Online Students
• Do much better on examscore
• Show no significance difference in scoring on
  analytical and complex reasoning tasks.
• Insignificant coefficients in writing2
• Insignificant and small coefficients in
• FE
• FE_recog
• FE_Apply
• FE_complex
• There is some evidence of a possible interaction
  with females
• Weak suggestion in the data that
• Men in online classes do better and
• Women in online classes do worse all things equal

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Springboard software

• Springboard
• Virtual Office Hours
• Elluminate.com
• Adobe Connect
• Slidecasting (at sldeshare.net)
• RecordPad (www.nch.com.au/recordpad)