Final Blog Post, Traditional Prompt

Before coming into the course, I had not realized that many of the relationships within organizations, as well as between organizations have been studied so heavily within the economic sphere. I had thought that before coming into the course it would’ve been similar to other 400 level courses where it is a singular professor teaching from their own studies as well as studies they had deemed relevant and related to a niche economic field they invested themselves in. I had been surprised by the idea that there were fundamental economic ideas tied into theories and models relevant to both the past as well as present with entire textbooks with references to a wide range of studies. In terms of knowledge about organizations that I had not learned before coming into the course, every phenomena in relationships between organizations that had been later turned into something that could be understood by quantifying it and applying mathematical principles was new. When we had learned about relationships within organizations, such as team dynamics, hierarchy, opportunism, and how those can affect each other I felt that I had experienced many of the topics discussed. Those ideas had more so been knowledge I had, but it had not been organized, categorized, or even really recognized within my mind before attending the course. 
Regarding the pedagogic approach in the live class, I believe the teaching style was somewhat idealistic. What I mean by this, is that in optimal conditions for a course a somewhat Socratic style of teaching would be the most effective way of clearing confusions students have and building ideas off of one another; However, the course had far from optimal conditions. Optimal conditions would be an attentive and engaged class that is social and intrinsically motivated to learn run by teaching faculty who are engaged and care for the students actual learning. There was clearly a professor that had cared, however the students were often silent in class and the attendance had dwindled dramatically throughout the semester. In terms of blog posts, I believe that they had done a good job at promoting thought about experiences within organizations, however their relationship to what had been discussed in class can feel somewhat disconnected. It had become difficult to connect the discussion post to what had been discussed within the course, though easy to draw answers for prompts from experience in organizations simply because I had the luck of experiencing organizational relationships multiple times. Overall the experience with online blogging did help drive understanding the economics of organizations within my own life, however it was sometimes difficult to understand how it related to what was discussed in class. 

My process when it came to blogging had been first to do my best and understand the prompt, as well as do the required reading if the prompt had called for it. My next approach had been to try and think of the experiences in RSO’s as well as internships I had and how that related to the prompt being discussed. It would usually take me on average about 2 hours to make a discussion post. My process when it came to excel homework had been to try and go in the order the homework directed, but when I would get stumped for too long I would move on to other parts and come back later if I could. What would usually happen is I would have difficulty with one problem, and that problem would take hours to figure out while the rest of the homework would be fairly easy and quick to complete. I believe that to improve the course without changing the teaching style, students need to gain intrinsic motivation to genuinely learn about the economics of organizations. This would be extremely hard to do since it seems that the way college students act revolves around the entire culture of the school, the fault is not within one singular course. 

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanDecember 9, 2019 at 5:00 AM

    I thought this a very mature and full analysis of the situation with one exception, which I will explain in a moment. But first, I want to thank you for talking about student motivation, in general, which seemed spot on to me. If you started on campus as a freshman, I wonder if you can recall your own experiences this way and if the motivation issue was there at the outset or if, instead, it was learned over time while being a student at the U of I. That would be an interesting thing to consider. That first year students are typically in a lot of big classes. Does that do a number on them motivation-wise? Also, I believe many students find making the transition from high school to college more than a step up, which may be reflected in poor midterm scores that first semester of the freshman year. Then some adjustment is made in order to survive. I'm guessing that a few students actually become more motivated after that. But the bulk may become more discouraged and simply find the least cost way to get through.

    My class was designed in a ways that expected good attendance. So the homework preceded class discussion, which is the opposite of how it is in most other courses. In a lot of other classes, where there is both a textbook and lecture, students are assigned textbook readings but quite often don't do them. So the lecture is viewed as the gateway to the content by the students. My hope is that students would be more prepared when coming to class and to motivate that the homework preceded the class discussion. But, as you noted, then most students reasoned, why come to class at all since I've already done the homework? If you consider the overall picture here, it would be good to consider whether it's possible to change things.

    I completely agree with your point that this must be done systematically and not just in a single class. That is unlikely to happen, but it is what should happen.

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    1. Arnold Harberger Econ 490December 9, 2019 at 8:18 PM

      In all honesty the the motivation issue seems to be an issue not in just the college sphere, but in the culture of the all the schools I have attended. Based on observation, motivation is not necessarily higher than normal at the beginning of a students college career but for most people it is higher at the beginning of a new school year or new semester. I can't remember everything but based on what I have seen this type of motivation issue has existed as long as I have attended school. As I'm sure you have seen many times over as a professor, a bulk of students are solely motivated by their grade and will try to achieve what they desire in the most efficient or "least cost" way they can. There are many motivated students on campus, it just seems that it is not the majority of the school.

      If the desired outcome is simply attendance, and it is clear that students pretty much only care about their grades, then having attendance weigh in on a students grades is necessary. Getting the majority of students to be intrinsically motivated to genuinely learn in school requires change on a much larger and more complex scale than a single class, all one professor can do is try their best to keep their students interested. Making knowledge in a course useful and applicable for life afterwards or relating topics to relevant/current scenarios in society are just a couple of ideas that may help.

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