Blog Post 10: Review
I plan to craft my post around the traditional final prompt
I both enjoyed the structure of this class and think that the layout is conducive to learning at a college level. I think that this course was planned out with a good insight into how college students operate. In general the class seemed to present the students with the opportunity to get as much out of it as they were willing to put into it. There was a minimal amount of monitoring, there was no required attendance, there were soft deadlines and the traditional form of monitoring (in class exams and quizzes) wasn't used at all.
Despite all of these typical structures being absent, I feel like I learned a lot about organizations in this class. The class discussions and lectures were productive and engaging. The excel homework expanded into specifics and practical situations beyond the theory discussed in class. The blog posts allowed those that didn't attend class or those too shy to speak up to share their thoughts with the rest of us. Although most of these tasks could be shirked, I found that by putting in the time and effort to accomplish them, I got significant returns. To me, this is what makes a good college level class.
With that being said, I would like to comment on each part of the class individually both on it's contribution to the class structure, and my own experience with it.
I personally came to enjoy the blog posts the most in this class. When we began the blog posts, they were difficult for me in nearly every way. As you know from class, I am relatively vocal. I don't mind sharing my opinions or my thoughts. However, translating these to a blog post proved immensely difficult for me. For the first three of these, I would attempt the planning as you suggested, but I would be unable to make much progress. I would constantly bounce between ideas, eliminating them and then adding them back later. I couldn't decide on a single example and I often found myself having to restart when I realized that one direction of my planning ran into a dead end. Eventually I would just quit the planning, feeling it to be a waste of time and I would write the paper as more of a train of thought. If you've read my earlier blog posts you can see that that route was somehow even more of a disaster. By the second half of the semester however, I found that my planning became more productive and I became more decisive. I am now no longer dread these assignments but, actually enjoy them, particularly when I get to read and comment on other classmate's posts.
As a part of the class, I think that the blog posts fit into the structure perfectly. I view them as an expansion of the in class discussion. For the people that weren't able to make it that week or who are too shy to speak up, this is their opportunity to share their ideas and perspective. For everyone else, it is a chance to further synthesize the topics discussed and possibly expand on what they themselves said in class. I also think that it's a great idea that they almost always involve personal experience. This keeps them interesting for you to read, provides real world application and makes it a little easier for us to write about. I can't think of a way to improve this part of the class.
For me the excel homework was pretty straightforward. I found that by reading all of the provided text and watch the recommended videos, the problems were relatively easy to solve. I don't think that this activity usually took me longer than an hour and a half. The only problem that I ran in to was the few times that calculus was involved. I took AP calculus in high school and haven't taken a math class since, so my calculus knowledge was incredibly rusty. This took me by surprise the first time, and resulted in a late assignment, but after that I was able to ask for help from a friend or find help on the message boards. I also changed to starting the excel homework on Tuesday night instead of Wednesday morning or afternoon to compensate, in case I did need help.
As a part of the class, I think that the excel homework fits well. Some of them were long or complicated enough to make shirking difficult, but usually a set of formulas could be exchanged between friends that could complete the homework in under 5 minutes (since the cells were in the same place for everyone). The excel homework usually took a more specific and theoretical look at the more practical scenarios discussed in lecture. I think that it's important to see the mathematical side in any economics class. The length and difficulty of these assignments was consistent. I can't think of any way to improve this part of the class.
The lectures were the most familiar part of the class for me. Like most econ lectures there were a mix of practical examples, theories presented and mathematic representations created around models. I think that I missed three classes this semester and two of them were due to being sick. When I did attend the lectures I participated more than the average person. I would say that my biggest failure in these lectures would be when I would show up, but be too tired to fully participate. There would be a few days throughout the semester when I would be in the class, but I would be so tired that I was unable to focus and therefore I didn't get much out of it.
I think that the lectures were well planned out and fit the class well. They always gave a good look at what we would be doing in the excel homework and gave enough real world examples that the theories were engaging. My one critique would be that at times they were hard to follow. There were a few times when I would be reading the assigned chapter or doing the excel homework after a confusing lecture and all of the sudden everything that had been lectured about would click together. I think that this was due to a few things. Firstly, the absence of a PowerPoint or provided notes highlighting the most important points. I know that mentioned that having a PowerPoint can make you lecture too quickly, so I understand why you don't use it. Secondly, some of the language and terminology that you use can make the points difficult to follow. This can be due to a generational gap and also a better knowledge of economics than the class. Also, when introducing many new terminologies at once, it can be important to go over them more than once.
I had a bit of a conflict with the discussions in this class. I enjoyed a lot of the earlier discussions, but later in the semester, I found that they seemed to become more and more like an extension of the lecture. As I said before I attended the majority of the classes, but tired or not, I found that I contributed to the discussion less often later in the semester.
I think that at the beginning of the class (around the third and fourth week), the discussion sections were what they were intended to be. There were many people in the class contributing, the students were talking more than the teacher by the end of the class and people were sharing personal experiences more and original ideas on the theories. However, by thanksgiving break I found that the situation had flipped. Very few people were contributing and usually the contributions weren't more than two or three sentences. The discussions began to feel more like the lectures with the use of real world examples. In the end most of the student contribution was just answering questions that had been thrown out by the professor following extended awkward pauses. I think that there needs to be more focus on student participation. There was a spark of class culture as you discussed early in the semester, but it was quickly extinguished around the first round of exams. My suggestion would be trying to use something close to a second blog post prompt to try to get students to participate. When people can use their personal experience, it makes it easier for them to talk about the topic.
Finally the quizzes. This part of the class was kind of odd for me. When doing the excel homework, I felt like I had a firm grip on the subject. When taking the quizzes, I would review the excel homework and I would still feel like I understood the subject. After completing the quizzes, I would feel like I had done well on them and had been able to transfer my knowledge to the slightly different questions. Then a few days later I would find that I had gotten a C. This could be due to a few things. It's possible that I don't understand the topics as well as I thought, which is probably a part either way. It's also possible that by misunderstanding one section, it tanked my grade because there are so few questions. I became more careful during the second quiz by double checking my answers, but it didn't seem to make a difference. I will have to be even more careful for the final.
The quizzes are the oddball in this class structure. I understand that the professor does not believe in them and would eliminate them if he could. However, due to university policy they are necessary, so unfortunately that is not possible. The only change that I would recommend is making them a bit more like the excel homework. I feel like they are already very similar, but I can't understand why I am doing so badly on them. It may just be a personal disconnect and not a problem for the rest of the class.
I wish that I could say that I put my all into this class and got everything out of it, but that is not the case. In particular, I know that my blog posts are far from perfect, or even average. Writing to an audience is a skill that I do not have and it definitely showed in this class. I managed to make some progress by reading other student's blog posts, rereading my own and critiquing it when replying to the professor's reply and by working on my planning. All of these helped, but I could have done much more including, asking for specific help from professor Arvan, rereading my own posts for more than proofreading of spelling errors and by doing my own research on the topic. I use this example, because Professor Arvan once mentioned that my accelerated course schedule probably resulted in a loss in some area. I denied this fact at the time, but after thinking about it for a bit I think that he is right. This is where I have lost out by graduating early. While I don't shirk work, I also don't give anything my 100% because I can't. I don't have the time or the energy. I show up to my classes and I get A's and B's, but the higher level stuff, like being able to work on my writing to an audience in this class, I miss out on. This is something that I will have to work on and consider when planning in the future.
I think that I have made my stance on the class abundantly clear. College students have over a decade of experience finding every way to shirk work. I have seen an abundance of classes that do their best force students into work, but I have never seen any of these classes actually able to force a student to learn. In the end every student gets out of a class what they are willing to put into it. This class structure embraces that fact instead of trying to deny it and I think that although some students abuse it, the ones that see it as an opportunity have thrived.
I both enjoyed the structure of this class and think that the layout is conducive to learning at a college level. I think that this course was planned out with a good insight into how college students operate. In general the class seemed to present the students with the opportunity to get as much out of it as they were willing to put into it. There was a minimal amount of monitoring, there was no required attendance, there were soft deadlines and the traditional form of monitoring (in class exams and quizzes) wasn't used at all.
Despite all of these typical structures being absent, I feel like I learned a lot about organizations in this class. The class discussions and lectures were productive and engaging. The excel homework expanded into specifics and practical situations beyond the theory discussed in class. The blog posts allowed those that didn't attend class or those too shy to speak up to share their thoughts with the rest of us. Although most of these tasks could be shirked, I found that by putting in the time and effort to accomplish them, I got significant returns. To me, this is what makes a good college level class.
With that being said, I would like to comment on each part of the class individually both on it's contribution to the class structure, and my own experience with it.
I personally came to enjoy the blog posts the most in this class. When we began the blog posts, they were difficult for me in nearly every way. As you know from class, I am relatively vocal. I don't mind sharing my opinions or my thoughts. However, translating these to a blog post proved immensely difficult for me. For the first three of these, I would attempt the planning as you suggested, but I would be unable to make much progress. I would constantly bounce between ideas, eliminating them and then adding them back later. I couldn't decide on a single example and I often found myself having to restart when I realized that one direction of my planning ran into a dead end. Eventually I would just quit the planning, feeling it to be a waste of time and I would write the paper as more of a train of thought. If you've read my earlier blog posts you can see that that route was somehow even more of a disaster. By the second half of the semester however, I found that my planning became more productive and I became more decisive. I am now no longer dread these assignments but, actually enjoy them, particularly when I get to read and comment on other classmate's posts.
As a part of the class, I think that the blog posts fit into the structure perfectly. I view them as an expansion of the in class discussion. For the people that weren't able to make it that week or who are too shy to speak up, this is their opportunity to share their ideas and perspective. For everyone else, it is a chance to further synthesize the topics discussed and possibly expand on what they themselves said in class. I also think that it's a great idea that they almost always involve personal experience. This keeps them interesting for you to read, provides real world application and makes it a little easier for us to write about. I can't think of a way to improve this part of the class.
For me the excel homework was pretty straightforward. I found that by reading all of the provided text and watch the recommended videos, the problems were relatively easy to solve. I don't think that this activity usually took me longer than an hour and a half. The only problem that I ran in to was the few times that calculus was involved. I took AP calculus in high school and haven't taken a math class since, so my calculus knowledge was incredibly rusty. This took me by surprise the first time, and resulted in a late assignment, but after that I was able to ask for help from a friend or find help on the message boards. I also changed to starting the excel homework on Tuesday night instead of Wednesday morning or afternoon to compensate, in case I did need help.
As a part of the class, I think that the excel homework fits well. Some of them were long or complicated enough to make shirking difficult, but usually a set of formulas could be exchanged between friends that could complete the homework in under 5 minutes (since the cells were in the same place for everyone). The excel homework usually took a more specific and theoretical look at the more practical scenarios discussed in lecture. I think that it's important to see the mathematical side in any economics class. The length and difficulty of these assignments was consistent. I can't think of any way to improve this part of the class.
The lectures were the most familiar part of the class for me. Like most econ lectures there were a mix of practical examples, theories presented and mathematic representations created around models. I think that I missed three classes this semester and two of them were due to being sick. When I did attend the lectures I participated more than the average person. I would say that my biggest failure in these lectures would be when I would show up, but be too tired to fully participate. There would be a few days throughout the semester when I would be in the class, but I would be so tired that I was unable to focus and therefore I didn't get much out of it.
I think that the lectures were well planned out and fit the class well. They always gave a good look at what we would be doing in the excel homework and gave enough real world examples that the theories were engaging. My one critique would be that at times they were hard to follow. There were a few times when I would be reading the assigned chapter or doing the excel homework after a confusing lecture and all of the sudden everything that had been lectured about would click together. I think that this was due to a few things. Firstly, the absence of a PowerPoint or provided notes highlighting the most important points. I know that mentioned that having a PowerPoint can make you lecture too quickly, so I understand why you don't use it. Secondly, some of the language and terminology that you use can make the points difficult to follow. This can be due to a generational gap and also a better knowledge of economics than the class. Also, when introducing many new terminologies at once, it can be important to go over them more than once.
I had a bit of a conflict with the discussions in this class. I enjoyed a lot of the earlier discussions, but later in the semester, I found that they seemed to become more and more like an extension of the lecture. As I said before I attended the majority of the classes, but tired or not, I found that I contributed to the discussion less often later in the semester.
I think that at the beginning of the class (around the third and fourth week), the discussion sections were what they were intended to be. There were many people in the class contributing, the students were talking more than the teacher by the end of the class and people were sharing personal experiences more and original ideas on the theories. However, by thanksgiving break I found that the situation had flipped. Very few people were contributing and usually the contributions weren't more than two or three sentences. The discussions began to feel more like the lectures with the use of real world examples. In the end most of the student contribution was just answering questions that had been thrown out by the professor following extended awkward pauses. I think that there needs to be more focus on student participation. There was a spark of class culture as you discussed early in the semester, but it was quickly extinguished around the first round of exams. My suggestion would be trying to use something close to a second blog post prompt to try to get students to participate. When people can use their personal experience, it makes it easier for them to talk about the topic.
Finally the quizzes. This part of the class was kind of odd for me. When doing the excel homework, I felt like I had a firm grip on the subject. When taking the quizzes, I would review the excel homework and I would still feel like I understood the subject. After completing the quizzes, I would feel like I had done well on them and had been able to transfer my knowledge to the slightly different questions. Then a few days later I would find that I had gotten a C. This could be due to a few things. It's possible that I don't understand the topics as well as I thought, which is probably a part either way. It's also possible that by misunderstanding one section, it tanked my grade because there are so few questions. I became more careful during the second quiz by double checking my answers, but it didn't seem to make a difference. I will have to be even more careful for the final.
The quizzes are the oddball in this class structure. I understand that the professor does not believe in them and would eliminate them if he could. However, due to university policy they are necessary, so unfortunately that is not possible. The only change that I would recommend is making them a bit more like the excel homework. I feel like they are already very similar, but I can't understand why I am doing so badly on them. It may just be a personal disconnect and not a problem for the rest of the class.
I wish that I could say that I put my all into this class and got everything out of it, but that is not the case. In particular, I know that my blog posts are far from perfect, or even average. Writing to an audience is a skill that I do not have and it definitely showed in this class. I managed to make some progress by reading other student's blog posts, rereading my own and critiquing it when replying to the professor's reply and by working on my planning. All of these helped, but I could have done much more including, asking for specific help from professor Arvan, rereading my own posts for more than proofreading of spelling errors and by doing my own research on the topic. I use this example, because Professor Arvan once mentioned that my accelerated course schedule probably resulted in a loss in some area. I denied this fact at the time, but after thinking about it for a bit I think that he is right. This is where I have lost out by graduating early. While I don't shirk work, I also don't give anything my 100% because I can't. I don't have the time or the energy. I show up to my classes and I get A's and B's, but the higher level stuff, like being able to work on my writing to an audience in this class, I miss out on. This is something that I will have to work on and consider when planning in the future.
I think that I have made my stance on the class abundantly clear. College students have over a decade of experience finding every way to shirk work. I have seen an abundance of classes that do their best force students into work, but I have never seen any of these classes actually able to force a student to learn. In the end every student gets out of a class what they are willing to put into it. This class structure embraces that fact instead of trying to deny it and I think that although some students abuse it, the ones that see it as an opportunity have thrived.
Thanks for your honest assessment. What you said about calculus is interesting - no math once you were in college at all. Wow! I wonder, then, why you were interested in economics and whether you had math issues in other econ courses.
ReplyDeleteI am also curious about your double major and graduating in only three years. How does one do that? And do you think, perhaps, that your thinking about the economics didn't mature as you took those other courses. I did have the feeling that you weren't getting it some of the time - both the Excel stuff and the blogging - and more so than other students. I should, however, say that with some other students who are not as forthcoming as you that I know less about their understanding.
That said, it might have been possible to remedy some of this via office hours type of discussion on some of the material. We did a bit of that after class - but not on course content. And, for whatever reason, I was pretty spent after class so it would have been better to do this on non-class days. I wonder if that would have been possible for you.
I will say that when I was an undergrad I took a few courses in political science that were over my head, but I still enjoyed. And the interest stuck with me, so much so that I pursued some if it in retirement. (For example, you might read the first paragraph or two of this post.) But I had a general social science interest that well predates going to college and I was able to satisfy some of that with economics, where my math major was definitely handy. In your case, in contrast, I'm guessing there is no overlap between MCB and econ, so I wonder, especially given that you were doing college in three years. why you did both.
I took Calc BC in high school, so I had exposure to the equivalent of Calc 2 here at uiuc. In most econ courses I didn't struggle with the math, but in the past year I have noticed that my memory of even the basics of calculus has slipped.
DeleteFor me the double major was mostly about planning. With AP credit and getting the basics out of the way at Parkland, I was able to do it just taking 17/18 credit hours a semester, 1 winter class and 3 summer classes. Overall, it was busy, but far from impossible. I also still managed 10 credit hours of research and to take two other classes that weren't required for either major.
I'm not sure if I missed out on a higher level of learning due to the accelerated track. I got mostly A's other than two B+'s in my core classes, so I felt like I was learning the material. I definitely struggled with the excel calculus on two particular assignments and I have never written to an audience before, so that was particularly out of my comfort zone.
I was especially busy this semester looking into graduate schools, but it definitely would have been possible. I strongly considered asking for a meeting with you after the second blog post to work on the writing, but as I got busier, it lost priority.
You are right, there is no overlap in subjects as far as I can tell, other than the gen ed requirements. The reason for both is that I believe I will have good use for the economics major when I attempt to start my own business. Every article or book I have ever read about biotech startups cites mismanagement, inability to budget, not understanding the market etc. as the reason of failure for many if not most biotech companies. It's actually the reason that I took this class as one of my 400's. To learn how to work within an organization and how to manage.
I wouldn't say that taking on economics as a second major could be described as a hobby like you mention with your political science courses, but it's probably closer to the mark than the reason that most of classmates have chosen to major in it. I will never have a need for macro economics or even most of the micro that I have learned. Econ will never be where I get a job, because jobs like that don't interest me, but I know that the way of thinking and many of the little things that I have learned in this major will help with what I plan to do.
I agree with your assessment that anyone could get what they wanted out of this class. It definitely had enough material and knowledge on organizations to satisfy anyone truly wanting to learn about it. Similar to you, I often struggled with the blog posts because I was unfamiliar with writing a blog. However, I think after the semester progressed I got more comfortable with my writing and found them easier to tackle once I got my thoughts organized. I feel bad that you struggled with this part of the class, but maybe it will help you gain a life skill you will use later on down the road.
ReplyDelete