Session I

Computer Assisted Instruction: Course Applications

Chair: Tod Porter, Youngstown State University

Teaching Undergraduate Economics with Mathematica Animations
Craig S. Marcott, University of St. Thomas

The presentation will demonstrate several Mathematica notebooks and packages that feature animated diagrammatic economic models. The animations have been successful in engaging students who are naturally reluctant to confront difficult material. Active learning is encouraged by allowing students to change parameters, and simple VCR-like controls can be used to change animation direction and speed. The animations make fairly complicated ideas visually apparent to quantitatively unsophisticated students. The long-term goal of the project is to provide animated versions of most of the diagrams included in introductory and intermediate microeconomics and macroeconomics courses. Over two hundred animations have already been written covering topics such as cost and production, Jacob Viner’s problem, consumer choice, the circular flow, the Slutsky equation, labor economics, macroeconomics, expected utility, income inequality, and welfare economics. Approximately 50 of the animations can be viewed at the URL http://milkweed.econ.stthomas.edu/~csmarcot/my.html. This web page also provides a link to download MathReader, a free program that can be used to view the notebooks and render the animations. Additional animations will be introduced during the presentation, including an example showing how the expected utility model is related to standard indifference curve analysis.

Java in Economic Education
Winfried Reiss, Universitaet, D-33095 Paderborn, Germany

The presentation will demonstrate a set of Java applets for interactive economics teaching on the web. The program features a set of “books” for different topics and includes an extensive help system with context-sensitive help realized as HTML files. The books are interactive and contain sound and games to motivate students. Students are able to do their own calculations, input data points to charts, construct offer curves, and watch simulations including tatonnement processes.

New Uses for Spreadsheets: Increasing the Breadth and Depth of Economics Teaching
Miles Cahill and George Kosicki, College of the Holy Cross

What is the best place to focus your efforts if you want to integrate computer technology into the teaching of traditional economics courses? This presentation will explore the case for using spreadsheet software. The paper shows how a number of economic concepts can be taught more effectively using spreadsheets. The paper also discusses how a spreadsheet program can make topics which are normally not covered at the undergraduate level accessible to students, thereby bridging the gap between undergraduate and graduate education. Specifically, the paper explores some of the data analysis, model analysis, and model-solving tools embedded in spreadsheets. Many of these features are relatively new to spreadsheets, and have not been covered by earlier surveys. For example, when studying the change in consumer’s surplus associated with a price change, students can use the “Goal Seek” command in Microsoft Excel to compute compensating and equivalent variation. The presentation will include examples that the authors believe can complement many different types of classroom settings, from traditional lecture formats to more discovery-oriented lab environments taking a more active-learning approach to teaching economics.

Two Software Products for Improving Undergraduate Instruction
Lydia D. Ortega, San Jose State University

The presentation will demonstrate two software products. ProEcon is a multimedia product that mimics a live classroom lecture and provides additional benefits. The presentation will show how instructors using ProEcon can restructure class time and shift to teaching techniques using more active learning tools. The presentation will also show how multimedia software can better integrate techniques and applications within a course. This integration should improve student learning by providing the combination of analytical and problem-solving skills that characterize "thinking like an economist." In addition, the presentation will demonstrate Patterns in Problem Solving, a self-test program for economics students.

Discussants:

Michael Lovell, Wesleyan University

Joseph I. Daniels, University of Delaware

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Session II

Computer Assisted Instruction: Evaluating Learning

Chair: Betty J. Blecha, San Francisco State University

Evaluation of a Specific CAI Application in Economics
Carol Johnston, University of Melbourne

In 1998, the Economics Department at the University of Melbourne will introduce a new approach to teaching macroeconomic principles. The course will be based on cases drawn from the Asian region. These cases are to be made available predominantly through internet access and will be incorporated into the task sets for tutorials as well as lecture materials. The problems relating to the cases will be completed using syndicate groups. The initiative is a response to the desire to better cater to the needs of a diverse cultural group and to integrate the opportunities now available for internet-based information with traditional on-campus delivery.

The paper will evaluate the effectiveness of the new course. The evaluation strategy includes: 1) pre and post tests of student knowledge of Asian economies, 2) focus interviews with a sample of syndicate groups, 3) pre and post student surveys measuring student attitudes toward economics, and 4) comparisons of student performance on common examination questions in 1997 and 1998.

The department’s previous experience with technology includes an interactive learning module that can be accessed from the department’s homepage.

A First Year Seminar on “The Economist’s Way of Thinking:” Structure and Evaluation
David G. Brown, Wake Forest University

The paper will describe the concepts behind the author’s seminar course and how these concepts have affected the author’s teaching. The concepts include collaboration, immediate feedback, application of theory, continuous dialogue, customization of readings and exercises, and public accountability. The subject matter covered in the course is for non-economics majors and includes opportunity cost, comparative advantage, marginal cost and benefit, risk and return, stocks and flows, and supply and demand. The demonstration will include the “course cabinet,” which includes specific student essays and the interactions among students.

The paper will also report on the results of an evaluation questionnaire that compares student perceptions about their learning in the seminar course with similar courses (although not in economics) that have not been enhanced by the computer-based communication system at Wake Forrest.

The author’s work with technology can be seen at http://www.wfu.edu/~brown.

The Benefits and Costs of Teaching a “Pure” Internet Class
Jim Clark and Jan Dimmen, Wichita State University

During Spring 1998, the authors will be teaching economics classes where almost all the instruction and contact with students will be via the internet. There will be no classroom sessions, except for an optional introductory get-together. The classes are aimed at K-12 social studies teachers. Offering classes through the internet allows teachers to work on the material at times and places of their own choosing. Also, teachers are spread out over large geographic areas of Kansas, making it difficult to gather large numbers of teachers at specific locations. Offering classes via the internet thus allows the class to be delivered to teachers who could not come to traditional workshops due to schedule or geographical constraints.

The paper will describe the classes and discuss the benefits and costs of teaching classes over the internet, along with some of the problems and pitfalls encountered along the way. The cost discussion will include estimates of the time involved in preparing the classes, the necessary investment in hardware and software, and necessary institutional commitments. The paper will also discuss the possible extension of internet-based instruction to more traditional economics classes such as macro and micro principles. Part of the session will be used to demonstrate the class materials.

Implementing UCLA's Instructional Enhancement Initiative: Experiences in the Department of Economics
Geoffrey Gerdes and Trudy Cameron, University of California at Los Angeles

In 1997, the College of Letters and Science at UCLA launched a multi-year initiative to enhance undergraduate courses through the integration of instructional technologies. Now that the UCLA web infrastructure is in place, numerous departmental efforts are underway. The Department of Economics is currently involved in a long-term and massive effort to revamp the entire undergraduate curriculum, and is pursuing the increased use of information technology. The presentation will discuss the department’s implementation plan and the use of student evaluation surveys to provide feedback data for future web development.

The portion of the department plan relying most heavily on instructional technology begins with the Economics 1 (Introductory Micro) web site. The site is meant to achieve two complementary goals, 1) to ensure that certain core subjects are covered in every lecture section, regardless of who teaches it, and 2) to enhance the educational experience of students by providing interactive supplementary materials which can a) help clarify some of the more difficult-to-grasp topics, and b) help provide connections of the theoretical instruction with real world application. Interactive java applets and cgi scripts enhance the educational experience of students by providing real-time feedback on the student's performance. For example, the interactive quizzes are self grading, and offer additional insight after the student has attempted to answer them on their own. (This site is still under development. The prototype will be available Spring 1998.)

Links:
UCLA Economics Department
My UCLA (Login as guest)
Scholarship in a New Media Environment group (SIANME)

Discussants:

Kim Sosin, University of Nebraska at Omaha

Scott Simkins, North Carolina A&T State University