Monday, December 7, 2015
Reflection
When looking back at this course, I would definitely consider it a positive experience. The lessons that had the largest impact on me and my learning were the ones involving the principal-agent model and bargaining. both of those lessons, I feel, were the ones that were able to both make me look at something or concept in a new way, as well as learn brand new information. As far as the lectures, I found them interesting most of the time, but i would sometimes lose interest when they would get too theoretical. I found the excel homework to be extremely useful. They usually took me about half an hour to an hour depending on how familiar I was to to subject matter, and I very rarely found them too difficult that i couldn't take a break and come back to it to figure out where I was going wrong. The other thing I found useful about the Excel homework was that i was able to revisit it after it was discussed in class, and with my new understanding go through the problems again. That was my main review tool for the exams. Blogging was one of my least favorite aspects of the course. The questions or prompts themselves were fine, the problem is that I don't consider myself a good writer and found it difficult to articulate my thoughts about each subject to the level I feel is required by this course. That being said , I did find the project more compelling. I think the reason for that is because the subject was one that interested me and I was able to work at a pace that allowed me to revise and improve my work enough to be at the level of the course. My struggle with the project came from being unfamiliar with how to treat the source material, which I now understand better after the you explained in class. In the paper I shied away from disagreeing with the source material, where i should've rather challenged it and questioned it. Overall the project was a positive, quality experience for me, and i hope to build on it in the future. As for ways i can see the course improving, the lectures seemed to hinge on there being students there, as it was supposed to be a discussion, however that wasn't always the case. While maybe mandatory attendance is too far, some way to incentivise attendance would improve the discussion aspect, and thus the course as a whole.
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Thanks for the comments, particularly your frank assessment of the blogging. I wonder whether you sensed any improvement in your own performance over the semester and/or whether your dislike for the activity changed in that time. Truthfully, not being a good writer is mainly: (a) practice in a way that stretches your writing, (b) probably not giving yourself enough time in pre-write to think about the issues, and (c) perhaps some scar from high school where a teacher graded you harshly. We all need to write tolerably well. It's one of those necessary life skills. Better to get over the awkwardness with it now, while you are a student, than to wait till some project on the job, where a promotion might be in the balance. The added pressure of that sort of consequence doesn't make the writing any easier. I hope the pressure in my class with the blogging wasn't too much to prevent you form making progress.
ReplyDeleteIt was also good to know that you reviewed the Excel in the way you did. That was the intent with the design. Thanks.