Review


Arriving to the campus at the beginning of the semester, I had no clue which upper-level economics classes I would be taking. Due to class size restrictions, I was not able to get a seat in the classes I originally desired. However, after coming to terms with the situation, I began to look around for other classes that I could take that filled my economics degree requirements. A friend recommended that I take Econ 490 with you to broaden my knowledge amongst organizations. Since I will be working for companies for the rest of my life, my friend said it is extremely beneficial to know the economics of organizations and how they operate.
Looking at the class structure, I think the best thing you did was create flexible deadlines. This allowed me to truly put forth my greatest effort when doing the assignments, rather than just cranking them out to meet a deadline. Often, I was able to start the blog then take a break and let my thoughts build up before putting my fingers back to the keyboard. I think it’s best to take breaks while writing academic pieces as each time you begin again you get a new perspective on your work. Often, there were chunks of information that I would add in after taking a break for a day or so that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to include if the deadline was strict. Some students may find hard deadlines more appropriate, however, I think it depends on how organized a person you are and your level of commitment/dedication to the class. When it comes to blogging, flexible deadlines are appropriate. I never turned the Excel homework in late, since this is a type of assignment that in my opinion, should be turned in on time with the given deadline. This is to ensure you have attempted to do the work before the class session so you have your questions ready for the professor.
When you told the class that attendance was not required, I think there definitely was a steep drop in the number of people who went to class. I will admit there were a few lectures that I missed due to the interview season and just overall lack of motivation due to poor weather(I also live off-campus which makes it difficult). However, for the most part, I made it my duty to attend class since it allowed me to apply what I had read in the book and the slides that I glanced over before class. I think it would have been better to make attendance mandatory to facilitate good group discussions. In terms of the actual class lectures, I think it would’ve been nice to implement your idea at the beginning of the semester of putting the tables in a semi-circle so we could all look at each other. This would have taken away the element of individualized learning and made it more of a group/sharing atmosphere. This is definitely something I think you should implement, as it would’ve been good to talk about what we wrote about every Tuesday. Furthermore, I think this class could be a place where students can help each other out and build our networks so when it comes time to join organizations, we have people to ask for help. For example, I created a club on campus and it would’ve been nice to have a discussion based on my organization and the starting stages it’s in. These little things are all topics we could discuss if we made the class more of a flowing conversation with the semi-circle structure.





Comments

  1. Professor ArvanDecember 9, 2019 at 7:27 AM

    The comments about taking a break when writing are interesting. You may recall that early in the semester I talked about pre-writing, which is the thinking you do away from the computer to gather your throughs about what you'll write. It sounds like you do some pre-writing after initiation. Sometimes I do that too. If that will actually become a lifelong habit for you, it is good to realize it early and then make accommodations for it. This means the time you initialize will become important. You will have to adjust your behavior accordingly.

    I did cut some classes when I was an undergraduate. One semester I had an 8 o'clocker in German, to fulfill the language requirement that I didn't think was really necessary. I missed a lot of those sessions. But I attended classes for the most part and never missed a class in my major. This was without any incentive for attendance. So, turning the world upside down, I think it is pernicious that other classes do provide such incentive. It would be far better for you to learn to be responsible on your own. Frankly, I think the class attendance thing is couple with - getting through the exams - to an extent where that wasn't the driver for classes I did attend when I was a student. Interest in the subject matter was much more of a factor. I wish that factor were more present now, not just for you but for everyone in the class.

    Now let me make a different point. If you started at the U of I as a freshman, then you probably had a lot of large lectures that first year. I actually spent some time in Foellinger watching another instructor to offer her some suggestions on how to improve her lectures. (This was some years ago.) . From the place I was sitting, you could hardly hear her. And I saw a lot of students with their laptops out doing other stuff. If that's the early experience students have, they learn that coming to class is no big deal.

    There is an idea that every first-year student should have a seminar class, to experience learning where they are more connected to the instructor and to other students. The campus used to have a Discovery Program which encouraged this sort of thing. But when budget cuts came, that program was eliminated for the most part. It is a real shame. Habits to attend class, even without any incentive might have been formed that way.

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    Replies
    1. Adam Smith Econ 490 fall 2019December 9, 2019 at 12:26 PM

      Pre-writing after initiation is definitely the style of writing that I believe suits me best. Being an economics major, it has been a long time since I did any kind of formal writing for a class. Besides writing 150 word discussion posts, I think the last time I actually wrote a piece was freshman year when I took Rhetoric 105.

      An 8am to fulfil a language requirement is definitely not easy to make. Luckily, I took 8 years of Spanish before coming to college so my language requirement was fulfilled.

      Your point on starting with large lectures as a freshman is a perspective I have never heard. However, I completely agree as I took Econ 102 as a freshman and majority of the class either didn't go or just sat on their phones/laptops for the entire lecture. As a new student, we should be pushing students to practice good school habits to guide them throughout their time her at school. There should be a Discovery Program recreated to push the good habits onto the students.

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