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Class Review


Actually this class is very different compared to others; not only in terms of content, it also has unique ways of studying for homework and blog posting. Since this is the first 400+ class that I've ever taken, I actually thought it was a little bit hard for me at first. Then when I went over the excel and read the book, I found myself on the right track to study this course and really enjoyed it. So I would say this class is a process of exploring for me. 

Before signing up for this class, I actually didn't have a clue about what this course was about. But as I started, I found the economy in organization is much more complicated and interesting than other economic courses. In my micro or macro econ classes, most I learned was about theories and didn't talk a lot of examples in real life. That's why I like the class discussion because you always get prepared for some examples in real life, which makes the content much easier to understand. Also, I struggled for excel homework sometimes. I often chose to do the excel homework the weekend before so I have enough time. The longest time I spent was more than two hours because I stuck in some problem. At first I felt like rushing myself to the homework and just try to get the correct answer. While later, I realized that only doing math doesn't make sense to me. I went through all the excel homework and dig into the algebra, I found it really helpful for me to understand the models and the reason behind it. For example in the excel homework about insurance under asymmetric information, I understood the basic settings of the model develop the function about premium and coverage step by step. The process that the homework leads me is really helpful. About the weekly blog post, my reaction at first was nervous because I'm not a person like writing essays. But I like your prompt which tries to relate our personal experience with the topic in class. As you mentioned several times in class, you expect our blogs are related to our previous ones, class discussions, or the examples in the book. I think i still feel not so comfortable about relating these to my new blogs, but I really tried to accomplish that. I have to admit it is not an easy class but I'm willing to pay efforts to it, challenge myself, and do something like blog posting that I've never done before for other classes.

Overall I believe taking this class is a right choice because I have a more comprehensive understanding of how people make decisions, how organization works, regarding to risks and many different perspectives. I found the exam is relatively easy as long as I understand the content. But for the essay problem I always lose more than 10 points, which reminds me that there's still something I didn't understand well. For the whole class I think both the excel homework and blog posts are helpful. The calendar for the due day for homework and blog may be better if they appear on the due day because sometimes I feel confused about the date. And the text book is a little bit hard for me to read, especially for some graphs, and sometimes feel some content is not so related to what we discuss in class. Maybe you could point out some pages in text book for us to read.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanDecember 6, 2014 at 8:31 AM

    The calendar! You are the first to mention it. But it is something I don't do as well as I might. So you are saying there should be two entries for each blog post, one in advance and one the time it's due, is that right? That's a do-able change to be made.

    I'm glad you liked the practical aspect of the course. I have come to understand that students are much more practically oriented than professors are and that this orientation can be a source of motivation. And I must say with the blogging and you each writing about your own experiences, I don't worry about plagiarism at all. I think that if I did see students plagiarizing, it would discourage me so that I'd abandon the approach.

    Finally, on the essays, my standards in grading require saving some points for students who teach me stuff that I don't know - either with an example that is novel or by making a theoretical point I hadn't considered. I don't give out points for that very often, but when I do see performance like that I want to be able to reward it.

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