A recent article from the digital news outlet Quartz
detailed efforts by a pair of Texas A&M economics professors to update their
mandatory introductory microeconomics class.
The class has been moved online, a first for the university.
Students taking the class no longer have to sit through
lectures because the professors have already created prerecorded lessons, an
interactive video platform, and prepared all the homework and reading material.
The lecturer uses a transparent whiteboard to explain concepts and discussion
boards to engage students.
“Do I think [this new course] is better than 30 students
and the Socratic Method, Dead Poets Society-style? Probably not,” Jon Meers, one
of the professors of the course, told Quartz. “It’s still vastly superior to delivering
a lecture to 300 students at 8 a.m. on a Friday morning.”
The article claimed the course will increase the quality
of learning by allowing professors to interact directly with students, while
also saving money for the university. However, Joshua Kim, director of digital
learning initiatives at the Dartmouth Center for Advancement of Learning and technology
blogger for Inside Higher Education, questions that conclusion.
He pointed out that creating high-quality digital
materials and video lectures is hard work, requiring time and plenty of
collaboration between the professor and instructional designers and media educators.
He added that while the Texas A&M approach may be more effective than
traditional lectures, it’s also a lot more expensive.
“Everything that I know about flipped courses tells me
that they are more expensive, not less, to develop and run than traditional
lecture courses,” Kim wrote.
