Blended Learning Couse Design, Economics

About the course?
The course was reviewed and redesigned to include up-to-date issues that relate to economic policy. Students learn about 21^st century issues and associated challenges such as the environment and immigration. They learn about economic theory and how to identify needs, analyze and understand policy, and write briefs that provide information that is both well-documented and communicated. The students develop practical hands-on skills to become economic thinkers for the real world. Students have difficulty understanding economic theory and translating theory into policy, so the course is setup to be an applied course. Students have studied graphs, models and the math but they also need to know how to apply that knowledge and use it to evaluate policy statements by politicians, political parties, and institutions, for example.

By introducing briefing note writing, the students get to practice how to create briefing notes, which is the real way of working when sharing information with directors, managers, and government ministers. These are concise, complete, 2-3 page documents (approx. 1000 words) that are intended to help distill and critically analyze policy using economic theory. The students are required to write three briefing notes during the semester. Two of these briefing notes are written individually and the third one is produced as a team as a group note. In government, these notes first go to managers and directors for feedback. Students model this work process in class, which provides an important hands-on dimension to their learning.   

Why did you choose to blend your course?
Using a blended course design provides the time and space students need to write their three briefing notes. Students learn to critique policy but it’s important for them to learn to do so without bias. They also need time to develop their position, which is based on independent and team based critical analysis. The course is heavy on critical thinking and analysis, so time is needed to develop those skills. It’s hard to produce briefing notes because the students are writing for a specific professional audience. The blended approach allows for more time spent on analysis and note writing that helps students to learn how to apply theory to real problems. What the students need is that extra time to develop great briefing notes as well as an opportunity to get feedback from their intended audience, which is essential. This is how economic policy is determined.  Because they have those asynchronous learning periods with the blended approach, students also have time to work and write the third briefing note as a group. If too much class time is devoted to writing and practicing the process of writing effective briefing notes, then there’s not enough time for the lecture and class discussions on policy and current events.

What kinds of teaching/learning activities take place in the classroom?
I do some lecturing, about 40-minutes and then we have discussions where I play devil's advocate in class. I challenge them on ideas. I do that in class but then I don’t have enough time to allow them to develop their ideas on their own in order to creatively analyze and research briefing notes. So, I think the best approach is to create opportunities for activities both in-class and asynchronously outside the class. Students also receive a participation grade based on the quality of their participation in the class. More students come to class because they know that they are only meeting face-to-face for half the time during the course. The major discussions are preceded by a lecture, which provides essential information. These face-to-face lectures are not recorded. By playing devil’s advocate and delivering Socratic questioning using a stand-up comedian’s style of delivery, I allow for the setup of some lively discussion which is a key part of the in-person teaching. Students are more engaged and respond more positively to the classroom experience because the lectures are based around relatable, topical news items. Coupled with Socratic questioning, the blended learning approach brings students into the discussion in a familiar and fun way. It’s important to create a climate for discussion that is inclusive, irrespective of individual political ideologies. Students’ contributions to discussion are judged on whether the logic of their argumentations is right or wrong, and the accuracy of the economic theory they share. An example question, “Is it within the Bank of Canada’s mandate that the governor publicly encourage private businesses not to raise wages? If so, should it be?”. These sort of burning questions help actuate in-depth analysis, the expression of opinions and discussion among the students.

What kinds of teaching/learning activities take place in the asynchronous part of the course?
This time is used to critically analyse and write briefing notes. So, I created lecture videos for the weeks that we’re not in the classroom. They will always have a lecture video. These are high quality videos which I post on YouTube. Students get the link so they'll always have some sort of lecture the week that they're not in class. The asynchronous week is also for reading and studying certain news articles and other content in depth. Students get to apply what they learn from the readings, the live lectures with me and the recorded lecture that are posted online. They then use this information to develop questions and draw up conclusions for the briefing note. So there's a lot of outside work that they have to do in terms of the research. Then they come back to class the following week and we continue our discussion along with another in-person lecture. The also always get some sort of exercise to prompt them to develop comments for the following class or a discussion board. There is no final exam in the course because the students are encouraged to focus on their briefing notes.

For the third briefing note, I get the students to form groups. Students self-select into groups of 3 or 4 and members of the group designate themselves as senior economists while one student is expected to assume the role of group manager. During the asynchronous week, they have to meet together by themselves via Zoom or in-person. They can meet during the scheduled out-of-class time on campus or elsewhere, or they may choose to meet at a different time and place. I don’t dictate to them when they meet. I want them to experience what it’s like in the real world when everyone has different schedules and different priorities. But they always have that weekly class time available to them if that’s when they want to meet. The manager will coordinate this as they would in real life. They also decide as a group what it is they’re going to write about and what the options will be.  It’s up to them to work on the development of their theme and then write up a third and final briefing note. Their team manager reviews it, provides comments to the group and once they’re all satisfied with their final draft they schedule a 20-minute meeting with me. I act as if I’m the Director General and I will provide further comments so students can go back and make any final changes to their group briefing notes. These are then submitted to the TA for grading instead of the instructor so that there is no bias. That’s an example of the sort of work they do during the out-of-class asynchronous course time, which in this case happens during the last two weeks of the course.

What are the main changes you made to your teaching?
The main change is the balanced division of activities between lecturing and discussion and real world learning activities. The out-of-class sessions based on a blended approach provide students the time to work on their briefing notes and generate commented responses to the in-person and recorded lectures. Building in the time to meet with students and provide formative feedback on their briefing notes before they are submitted for evaluation helps student understand the anatomy of economic policy while also allowing them the opportunity to experience the real process and workflow of the disciple with their peers. This is something that cannot be done in a regular course; otherwise, the course becomes two courses with too much work for the students. The new course outlines will explicitly state all of the work activities for the in-person sections and the blended version of the course so students can choose which format best suits their learning style and needs. In the blended section, about 50% of the course is based around the lecture and discussions and 50% on application and learning-by-doing.

What do you do to connect with and provide support to your students in the asynchronous part of the course?
I will meet with the students to provide comments on their group briefing notes. This typically means meeting with about 36 groups of students for 20-minutes each. These are scheduled according to the groups availability. That in-person support creates sense of authenticity. There is the challenge for those students that want to be in constant contact with their instructor; they may prefer a non-blended approach if they have a need for immediate feedback versus asynchronous feedback. This is why there are three sections offered for the course. Two sections are all in-person and one section is blended. The in-person course sections do not have a group-based briefing note. This gives students the option to choose.

To form connection with students both in-class and asynchronously, I will often refer to themes and ideas based on the things I observe about the students and their general interest, e.g. seeing a student watching a soccer video leads to a discussion on soccer balls, where they’re made and by whom, poverty, wealth, equity, and opportunity cost.

I also use Moodle for announcements, PowerPoint presentations, assignments, links to videos, articles, tests on Moodle, discussion board, 1-2 forum discussions based on suggested topics, links to other videos, news broadcasts, political discussions etc.   

How do your students benefit from blended learning?
Students appreciate the flexibility of the course and the fact that it’s different than the other courses that they’re used to. They get to meet with the instructor for a real world type of meeting as I simulate the role as a Director General. This gives students the chance to practice the direct application of their knowledge in live scenario.

It should be noted that only one of the briefing notes is done as a group assignment. This is in order to balance assessment according to personal preferences; that is, individual work versus group work. Not all students like group work while some students prefer it. Choice is important. So, the new course outlines will detail all activities including individual work, group work and how these will differ depending on whether the course is all in-person or blended.

The blended approach allows more time for students to develop their writing skills, writing style i.e. passive voice versus active voice, subject-verb mismatch, remaining concise, use of topic sentences, avoiding prepositional phrases etc. Students in a regular class will not get to experience and practice the application of economic policy to the same extent as students in the blended version of the course. Students learn to think and act like an economist and they get to think critically with lots of opportunity practice.