Final Post

I learn a great deal of things in this course. The way how approach to economics of organizations was very special because it induce students to actively participate in the course flow. In addition to this, the approach makes the material a lot easier by learning many concepts step by step through excel homework and lectures. Also, blog post assignment is like digesting newly learned knowledge, which is connecting important concepts of economics to my real lives so it is not easily perished in my brain. While the course does not require tons of work, it fully teaches many valuable concepts in economics of organization.

There were two rules in this course; (1) that attendance was not required and (2) that deadlines were soft. First, if attendance is not required, it naturally drops the attendance rate during the semester. It might discourage a professor to teach in class if too few students participate in the class. On the other hand, it also increases the quality of lecture. Because students that attend the class only for attendance is not likely to focus on the lecture. By second nature, the students who are left for curiosity are more likely to participate in the course, which makes the quality of the class higher. In addition to this, if attendance is not required, it gives impression to students that they are respected as being responsible individual. It motivates students rather more responsible and professional.

For second rule, if deadlines of assignments were soft, it naturally drops the rate of assignment submission in time. Of course, it can discourage an instructor because some students are not following the flow of learning as the course materials were designed. However, it can give motivation for some students to do the assignment as they are given some freedom to control the deadlines. In addition to this, some people, who have very limited time during semester, can be more flexible to find right time to do the tase so it is better for them to speculate on meaning of assignments. Better learning experience is possible if student takes the responsibility seriously.

For my experience in this semester, I have to admit that I was irresponsible to follow the flow as the course is designed. I tried to attend every single class and do the homework up to date in the beginning of the semester. The progress and my promise were kept until thanksgiving weeks, however it was not easy to be responsible once I am out of track. To the end of semester, workload is getting heavier and heavier, which makes me to forget the most softer or understandable deadlines. This result can discourage myself and an instructor as well. However, I was very satisfied with the course policy until then. Because those two rules in this course made myself more professional and active to the course. I felt like I was treated as responsible man, which increase the productivity and interest about the course as well. I like to have enough time to think about something. In addition to this, if the deadlines are soft, students are not giving up at the end. For example, CS374:Computation and Algorithm class that I took has strict deadlines and require tons of work each week. In consequence, students are severely stressed out and many of them ended up with giving up taking the course.

If I were to recommend changes in the approach, I would keep the soft deadline rule but I would change the attendance required. Even though trust between an instructor and students is important, there are a great deal of student who takes advantage of it. I would still respect the individual schedule about the assignment deadline. However, required attendance may force students to come to the class and make them sit in the class room, but it will give better feedback for both an instructor and students.

In this semester, I really appreciate this course because it makes me learn invaluable concepts not only from the course materials, but also participating in the class as organization. While communicating with a professor through online and offline, for example the class direction decision moments and all the policies about the course, I learned about economics of organization as live.