Peer Review

14.02 Principles of Macroeconomics | Economics

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Jan 2, 2023 by Business

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This is a course availble through MITOpencourseware on Macroeconomics. This course provides an overview of the following macroeconomic issues: the determination of output, employment, unemployment, interest rates, and inflation. Monetary and fiscal policies are discussed, as are public debt and international economic issues. This course also introduces basic models of macroeconomics and illustrates principles with the experience of the United States and other economies.

Type of Material:

Online course

Recommended Uses:

This can help the instructor to get ideas about instructional approach, use some or all of the teaching materials (course content questions, lecture notes, etc.) as an introductory or summary note when introducing and/or completing the concepts in class.
This is useful to the students as a supplementary resource prior to the commencement of classes to get a feel for the content on Macroeconomics and/or as cliff notes when reviewing the key concepts of Macroeconomics.

Technical Requirements:

MIT OpenCourseWare has tested the site with the following browsers: Chrome 20+ Firefox 13+ (all platforms) Internet Explorer 8.0+ (Windows) Safari 5.1+ (Mac OSX) + Adobe Reader for pdf download.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The student will be able to solidify his/her understanding of Macroeconomic concepts.
The student will understand what is involved in economics classes prior to enrolling

Target Student Population:

Macroeconomics for AP Courses
Beginner/Introductory/Survey Macroeconomics, and/or Business Students
Non-economics or Non-business students taking an Microeconomics and/or Business course as a minor

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Math for economic equations (algebra, calculus)

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The main strength of this course content is the clear and clean display of the content for each course.
It is consistently laid out with a course home page, syllabus, readings, lecture notes, assignments, exams and download course materials sections on the left column of the page.

Concerns:

Perhaps, there could be more types of content like online videos or audio clips that could meet the learning styles of visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Instructors can get a quick overview of the different instructional delivery and have access to a new set of teaching materials.
Potential students thinking of taking a similar course could use this site to check out the content, time-intensiveness and layout of the chapters before enrolling in an actual course.
The instructor could provide the link to this site as supplementary reading prior to the commencement of classes so that students can get a feel for the content on Economics or before starting on a new chapter for the course.
It provides active links to major newspapers/magazine: Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Economist.

Concerns:

The textbook used is dated 2003, and thus may not contain the impact of the recent Great Recession on the local economy nor up-to-date case studies that users can relate to, and there is not guidance what exactly to look for in the major newspapers/magazine
The material needs more clarification on when and how the lectures will be made available to students.
The material states that students 'hand in' their assignments. If this is an online course that seems like a contradiction.
There are no identified learning outcomes/goals for this course. Providing learning outcomes would greatly improve this area of the materials.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The material is easy to access and use.
Made available as a pdf download or web reading.
The assignments and exams include both question and answer sets in pdf format.

Concerns:

It is neither engaging nor interactive which could make it difficult for students to retain the concepts learned.
There also is no contact information or an online discussion forum that could facilitate an area for clarification or comments.

Other Issues and Comments:: The description states the course is an online course, yet the material information states there are lectures to attend and homework to hand in.
Creative Commons: