During the past year, the University of Iowa has directed a national project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to introduce the use of Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM), a Web-based, real-money futures market, to students at predominantly minority universities. The goal of the project is to increase economic literacy among undergraduates through classroom use of IEM. The project will be evaluated using data collected over the last year from the 25 participating universities. The data set variables include IEM use and learning outcomes measured in terms of pre/post test scores and student surveys.
The presentation discusses a WebCT (World Wide Web Course Tools) course in Financial Management being conducted during the Spring 1999 semester at George Mason University. The evaluation will focus on the cost and time differentials for the instructor, student outcome differentials, and student attitudes towards web-based finance courses. A traditional financial management class is also being taught by the same instructor at the same time and will be used as a control group.
Each student in the WebCT and traditional courses will be pre and post-surveyed to collect data on their background characteristics and attitudes about taking online courses. Data will also be gathered from the registrar’s office for each student, which will include GPA and other student data necessary for the analysis. The study will identify and analyze the factors influencing student performance in the course. OLS and probit regressions will be conducted to determine these relationships and to determine the effectiveness of the WebCT course. A review of the existing literature on web-based delivery will also be included in the study.
The presentation and paper will discuss the development of the first set of computer simulation modules to be included in SimEcon, a CD-ROM for use with standard Principles of Economics texts. The paper will summarize the pedagogy underlying the modules as well as how the simulations may be used as a gateway to more advanced computer applications in economics. The first set of modules will showcase the ability of the simulations to actively engage students in learning traditional economic concepts. Examples of assignment templates from the instructor's guide will show how the modules may be used to gradually lead the student toward more complex analysis. Results from preliminary assessment of the modules in several principles classes will conclude the discussion.
Java applets can be designed in a manner that allows them to be customized by users for their own purposes. The presentation will show how such applets can be used by economics instructors to enhance web pages for their courses. Professional standards are needed for an applet to qualify as a “utility” applet and to be readily available to economics instructors. Ways to implement such standards and encourage the use of Java applets in economics instruction will be discussed.
Discussants:
The presentation discusses the effective use of computer assisted instruction in large principles classes. Several examples show how “surprises” can be imbedded in computer presentations to engage student attentiveness to lecture material. The presentation also demonstrates how the new Introductory Economics Center at Stanford is being used to support the asynchronous use of the web through online videos and sound files of lectures.
The presentation and paper evaluate the effectiveness of using Power Point software for lecture delivery in 13 microeconomics principles classes. The student data set was collected over the last four years and has 508 observations. Approximately half of the course sections are computer-based. Multivariate regression models are used on three different dependent variables: total course points, post TUCE scores, and the change in the TUCE scores (post-pre). The independent variables include a combination of continuous and binary variables representing student characteristics, skill, effort, teaching strategies, and the class environment. The paper concludes with a discussion of student reactions to the computer based course using student evaluations and the educational issues surrounding the adoption of computer-based lecture approaches, including the need for active learning techniques, effective notetaking, and optimal lecture speed.
The presentation and paper examine the effects of online quizzes, bulletin board interactions, and online study aids on the student learning in macroeconomics and microeconomics principles courses. The online material is presented using WebCT (World Wide Web Course Tools). A variety of regression models are used to assess the various forms of computer assisted instruction. Dependent variables include quiz scores, scores on online portions of the final exam, scores on in-class portions of the midterms and the final exam, and the final grade. Explanatory variables include gender, class standing, class section, whether or not students compete in intercollegiate athletics, number of attempts at a given quiz, number of attempts at the online final, number of postings to the class discussion board, and the number of posted articles read. It is also possible to estimate individual and quiz specific intercepts from the data set.
At the University of Illinois, the Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning Environments (SCALE) has been supporting courses with a substantial online component since 1995. Many of these "ALN" courses share common structural features. The courses use Mallard, an intelligent quiz program developed at the University of Illinois for letting students learn via rapid feedback and repeated trials on basic material, and WebBoard, a commercially available asynchronous conferencing package that also includes a syncrhonous chat function. The redesign of the Microeconomic Principles course with ALN has allowed the graduate assistants to be redeployed for online help rather than for in-class presentation and has allowed the department to reduce its reliance on graduate assistants overall. This presentation will demonstrate Mallard and WebBoard as they are used in Economics. It will also briefly review some of the results from the SCALE evaluation done on the Principles course. More of the general evaluation work on the SCALE projects is available at the SCALE Web site and at the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks.
Discussants:
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was last updated on 4 August 1999.