Introduction to Economic Analysis – Spring 2009

 

Write a short review of this course to either a prospective student of this course or to the advisor of students considering this course.

 

These are ALL of the responses both good and bad.  I have only corrected some spelling and eliminated student names.  Pay attention to them as you begin your study. _ Dr. Myers

 

  1. I really enjoyed taking this online course.  As long as you work in a timely manner in completing all the modules, I feel that it is much less stressful than other classes.  Being able to work at your own pace to learn the information is really nice.  I learned a lot of information as a result of taking this class and it is easy to communicate with the teacher via email or in his office if I ever have questions on anything. 

 

  1. I would heavily stress the importance of learning the graphs throughout the chapters. Make sure that you read the chapters in full before taking the quizzes.

 

  1. For those students considering taking the online E244 course: I highly suggest this course to any engineering or mathematics major: you learn a HUGE amount of econ is a short time. However, be prepared to do some work on your own. Unlike other classes, there are no set "due dates" and you must be motivated, disciplined, and responsible to keep up with your work. You cannot save all of the quizzes for the last two weeks!

 

  1. You will learn a great deal from this class: probably more than you would in a face to face class. However, I would not suggest this class to students who are slow readers or cannot retain information that they learn through text. But, if you like being independent and you are a diligent worker, this class is certainly a good one to take.

 

  1. The “MyEconLab” accessory was very important to my success in this course. I recommend setting a time in which to devote to this class as if you were attending a lecture. It is very possible to do well in this course if you work hard. It will be counter productive if you assume that this course will be easy based on the fact that it is a web based course. The course requires attention just as if you were attending lecture. You will not be able to finish this course in the last few weeks. Do not make the mistake of putting off the modules to the last minute. Expect to read each chapter. Play by the rules and you will do well. When you complete this course you will be able to formulate independent thoughts based on economic concepts. You will be able to evaluate current events in the world and understand how this big economic machine works. The course will not make you an economist, but all future economic knowledge will build upon the fundamentals learned in this course.

 

  1. I entered this course with a mindset of it just being another general education requirement that I needed to get done.  But it turned into a class that I actually enjoyed reading for-and that hardly ever happens!  I did have to plan to set several hours aside per module, but with planning that was easy.  I highly recommend buying the book.  To me, it is so much easier than trying to read it off a computer screen, and it was probably one of the best books I've used here at UA.  Finally, Dr. Myers really does an excellent job of maintaining contact despite the lack of face-to-fact time.  His answers to the questions were always well explained and cleared up what ever the problem was.  Excellent course!

 

  1. Introduction to Economic Analysis was a course that I would recommend to any person who wants to learn the basics of economics.  However, I would not recommend it to someone who really wants to delve into the topic of economics.  Although, it is a great course.  The basic aspects of the course are split between supply and demand (microeconomics) and macroeconomics, the study of countries economies and the global economy.  If planning to take the course a lot about these areas will be learned.

 

  1. I am writing to you to tell you of the benefits of taking an online economics course. The best thing about taking this course was the fact that you could do it on your own time. If you did not want to start reading, or couldn't, until 9pm then you could do that. The freedom of the course was excellent. I also advise taking this course for the sheer fact that I learned so much about the workings of our government and economy that I did not previously know. I'm glad I took this course for that very reason. Now things that are going on make much more sense to me and I am not so angry about gas prices anymore. All in all, if you have the chance to take this course, please do, you will not regret it and the benefits are lasting.

 

  1. This course is obviously online; therefore, if you like to have someone explain course material to you it is highly unrecommended (sic).  I like to teach myself that is why I believe I was able to complete it.  The coursework is not more than other courses I have taken, yet given that some of the material did not interest me (because I am a science major) it was hard for me at times to sit down and complete modules.  This problem would also be present if I did not take an online class.  Overall it is not hard to get decent quiz scores as long as you read all of the material and get a general picture of what is going on.   

 

  1. Do not fall behind in the modules. It is a pain to catch up. If you cannot learn with just a book and no teacher instruction, do not take this class online. If you need someone to bounce ideas off of to learn or normally study with a friend, sign up for this class with a friend.

 

  1. I think this course is an excellent course if you are strict with yourself and can stay on schedule and work at your own pace.  It was an excellent course in my case where I had 19 credit hours and was better off completing the modules at any time I had free rather than being in a classroom at certain times and days.  I would overall recommend this course and just give warning to make sure you do not slip and fall behind, because when you do, it can be difficult to catch up.

 

  1. If you need to take an economics course for your general education requirements, it is a good choice.  Although there are some glitches in the system, overall it is nice not having to attend class and being able to work on the modules at your own pace.

 

  1. I believe the course has a lot of good content. If I were to advise anyone about to take this course I would tell them that it takes a lot more effort as a student; a student needs to be self-motivated to succeed in this course. The content is well organized and it allows you to work at your own pace, which is nice for anyone who understands the material well and wants to move faster; it is up to you, as a student. The course is setup so that you don't get overwhelmed with all the information at the same time. A student can only see the current and past information, no future content, so it focuses your attention to the most important facts at that moment. In general, the class is a good course but a student should not think that just because it is online that it is any easier. In fact, it probably requires a greater amount of work and more self-motivation.

 

  1. This course is very challenging.  There is a lot of material to cover and study.  This is not a course that a student can wait till the last minute to do, no matter what the circumstances.  I would recommend this course to a student that is well-disciplined in completing their work at a steady pace and does not have any outside obstacles such as an activity or other difficult classes that will affect the completion of this course.  I believe the materials provided for this class are very useful.   The professor as well as the learning assistant are extremely helpful with answering questions.

 

  1. I would suggest taking this class online because you can do it on your own time. With that said you must be sure that you have enough self-discipline to be sure to complete everything. I know this semester I kind of put it off my last few modules until the very end and then had to complete them quickly. I would suggest to do more than one module a week so when the end of the semester comes you can focus on studying for your finals instead of completing modules.  Also, be sure you have good internet access. It is nice to be able to have three chances to get a ten out of ten on quizzes too. Overall, I like this course and would suggest you to take it if you feel as though you can buckle down and get everything completed. 

 

  1. While taking this class a friend of mine was taking the course in person, and we found that in general I had to devote more time and put in more effort for the online class than he did. This class takes discipline and motivation to complete, but if it is worth taking it online for the convenience.

 

  1. As long as you can force yourself to stay on track, I would recommend this course. Due to the nature of it, it is very easy to put off, and indeed that is what I did. I was lucky to finish the course in time. If you have a busy semester with classes or are very involved with extra-circular activities (as I was) I warn you to strongly consider other options before taking this class. However, if you are very good at working without due dates and staying on top things without any pressure, this class is a good one to take.

 

  1. Overall the course was fine, however there were sometimes mistakes present within the questions. For example, sometimes figures would not show up in association to the questions.

 

  1. This is an introduction course in economics which teaches you the basic concepts of both micro- and macroeconomics. The first part of the class concerns microeconomics, which is the study of the choices that individuals and businesses make, how they interact in markets and the influence on governments. Macroeconomics, which is studied in the second part of the course, is about the performance of the national and global economy. The concepts studied in this class can be used to better understand the current economic development and its features. The obtained knowledge can also be used to analyze decisions in everyday life. By taking this class, you obtain knowledge that will be useful throughout college and beyond.

 

  1. In my opinion this course was much better than a regular lecture course.  To be honest, some of the material in the course is kind of boring and, if I had to sit in a room and listen to somebody else drone on about it for an hour, I'd probably fall asleep and miss everything he said.  However, as it is an online course I could break it up as much as I wanted until it was in manageable chunks.  I'm not sure how well I would have done in this class had it been a lecture but I can't imagine learning as much had I not taken the online class.

 

  1. The course is a lot of outside work, the chapters take a while to get through but the web resources are very helpful. The lecture notes I would always read before starting the book chapter helped me understand the material more. The worksheets didn't appear very useful in helping complete the quiz's but they are helpful if your struggling with the concepts the text is providing. The text book is pretty decent and tries to offer examples for each of the topic they are going over which help greatly in understanding how each term works. The quiz's can be frustating at times the question wording can at times be diffecult to discover what exactly they are asking.