This document discusses a plan to redesign a quantitative methods module for economics students. It proposes replacing traditional lectures with a blended approach incorporating peer learning, online resources, and problem-based activities. Resources will include video lectures, self-assessment quizzes, and lesson plans created by students using open resources. The goals are to improve student engagement with quantitative skills, make more efficient use of staff time, and better align teaching methods with research on effective learning. Challenges of the approach and strategies for assessment and feedback are also addressed.

1. Dr Sarah Keast, Dr Fangya Xu, Panagiotis Tziogkidis
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2.  Background
 Motivation
 The Literature
 The Plan
 Resources
 An example
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3.  Economics Group
◦ Faculty of Business
 Students
◦ Average cohort 110
◦ No post 16 mathematics qualification required
 Programmes
◦ BSc Economics (7 separate programmes in total)
◦ Core second year Econometrics and final year electives
in mathematical economics and economic modelling
 Module
◦ Core for all Economics programmes
◦ 20 credits
◦ Mathematical and statistical modelling
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4.  Traditional lecture/tutorial format not
effective for teaching QM
 Lack of engagement amongst some students
 Increased size of cohort
 More efficient use of staff resources
 Perceived decline in quantitative skills of in-
coming students
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5.  Economics is less popular among disciplines
in the NSS, especially with respect to
assessment and feedback
 Recent trends in teaching and learning
include:
◦ Peer learning
◦ Problem based approaches
◦ Use of online resources to facilitate independent
reading
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6.  ETL project in economics: the traditional
lecture-tutorial mode seems to fall apart
 Constructive alignment: Biggs (1996)
◦ … but also align with students: Reimann (2004)
 Threshold concepts for teaching QM: Meyer
and Land (2003)
 Problem based approaches and “learning by
doing”: Kolb (1984), Barnett (2009)
◦ … particularly good for QM (Aliaga et al., 2012)
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7. 20 %
10 %
5%
30 %
50 %
75 %
90 %
Lecture
Reading
Audio Visual
Demonstration
Group Discussion
Practice
Teaching others
Retention rate
7
Source: National Training Laboratories, Bethel, Maine

8.  “To teach is to learn twice” - Whitman and
Fife (1988)
 The “learning cell”: Goldschmid (1970)
 Many benefits but many challenges: Boud et
al. (2001), Topping (2005)
 Assessment needs to be well-thought: Boud
et al. (1999)
 Recent examples: Herrmann (2013)
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9.  Learning opportunities
◦ Resource based learning: Video „lectures‟
◦ Learning through teaching
◦ Experiential learning
 Assessment and feedback
◦ Peer assessment and critique
◦ Online self-assessment with immediate automatic
feedback
◦ Mini viva assessed by academic staff with specific
feedback
◦ Consultancy style report and presentation with
authentic feedback
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10. A series of resource booklets consisting of the
following material:
◦ Background documents with key concepts and
intended learning outcomes
◦ TED-Ed: build an online lesson using TED-Ed and
YouTube resources
http://ed.ted.com/lessons?category=business-
economics
◦ Mathematical for Economics: enhancing Teaching
and Learning (METAL)
http://www.metalproject.co.uk/
◦ Questionmark-Perception (QMP) and MyMathLab
are used for self-assessment/formal assessment
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11. http://ed.ted.com/activity/lessons?lesson=EJuCku
SP&state=update
Share the lesson with students and ask them to
Watch-Think-Dig deeper-Discuss-And Finally
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12.  Teaching QM in economics is challenging
 We propose a blend of collaborative learning
and resources
 Obvious benefits but pitfalls that must be
avoided
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