Hello Hybrid!

 The dog days of August didn't really materialize this year. The weather wasn't particularly hot or sultry where I am.  And most certainly lethargy and indolence was not an option as the "Fall" semester, in hybrid format, started early.  Beginning-of-the-term hustle and bustle was even more than usual with the new modality, new learning management system (Canvas), new tech in a new campus building, new safety protocols, testing and quarantine updates to keep up on and just getting used to the sheer physical exertion of non-stop lecturing in a KN95 mask in a socially-distanced classroom.

One of the constants, however, is keeping my commitment to incorporating news in the classroom.  Now, more than ever, it is important than beginning economics students are not only able to keep up-to-date on the rapidly changing economic environment, but also be able make sense of it.

Today, I wanted to give an update on what  I am doing to incorporate current events and news into my principles of micro and macro classes.  The discussion boards, as featured on my previous posts, worked well on the fully online modality, but I am trying something new this term.

We typically begin a new topic in Tuesday (face-to-face) class.  After the lecture I introduce them to the week's posted news piece which they are supposed to read carefully before Thursday's class on Zoom.  

I create a ten question quiz where students must tie together class concepts and the article.  The quiz is not high stakes or high pressure.  I randomly assign the class into three person Breakout rooms where they have thirty minutes to discuss and turn in their answers (individually) on Canvas.  For micro, the quiz usually has a graphing problem which they draw together on the Whiteboard, save and submit. 

Below is a quick rundown of what we've done so far.  The quizzes are hosted on a Canvas Commons course called "Macoronamics: Content in Context"  accessible by any Canvas user.

• GDP: We certainly had some historic GDP numbers to discuss! I assigned this New York Times report on BEA's Q2 GDP.  In addition to being able to interpret the content in the article, I also wanted students to "get their hands dirty" with the actual BEA data. For example, by pulling out the growth rates of consumption, investment and government purchases.  Another area of focus was distinguishing between annualized and regular growth rates.  

• Growth: The pandemic is exacerbating both within and across country inequalities.  This Yahoo Finance interview with World Bank President David Malpass discusses this worrisome trend and describes the Bank's efforts to tackle it.  In the quiz, I also ask students to dig into GapMinder data, with an eye on getting them to appreciate data visualization.   Hans Rosling was a pioneer of data visualization and I always kickoff  teaching growth by showing 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes.  

For Micro, I have been tapping my collection of WSJ's Weekly Review articles.  I use some of the questions they provide, but also create some of my own.

• Demand & Supply: Oil is the featured example market when I teach Demand & Supply, so it made sense to use this piece on oil prices.  The quiz is all about bread-and-butter basics like identifying demand or supply shifters and graphing the model.

• Equilibrium: How can one teach shortages right now without discussing consumer staples like toilet paper, sanitizer, flour and all the other pandemic favorites?! This story on Costco was a good starting point for this application.

I'll post my article choices and my Canvas quizzes weekly.  

To all, a healthy and smooth semester!