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 Ratings
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| Reviewed: |
Jan 29, 2005 by Business Editorial Board |
| Overview: |
This is a comprehensive and useful educational resource that can be used to
introduce college-level students to all aspects of economic development. An
elaborate and logically structured site, it includes the ideas behind economic
development, reviews the historical experiences with it, and profiles related
institutions as well as individual nations. The topic list is extensive, and
includes, but is not limited to: poverty, trade, education, agriculture, public
and social policy, and population.
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| Learning Goals: |
The site is designed to provide summary material of the topics presented, links
to additional material, a decent bibliography and a place to post a message
about the material read. Posted messages become part of the web site, as the
web site is designed to be interactive and build on the interaction between the
material and the user.
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| Target Student Population: |
Undergraduate college students, particularly those with little or no experience
with the ideas, issues, institutions, and considerations of economic development
and trade. Also, high school students.
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| Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: |
A course in high school economics or political science.
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| Type of Material: |
The material is primarily presentation and reference material. material is
dedicated to presenting ideas with text and (mainly) still images.
Interactivity abounds: features of this site include forums, chat area, E-Pals
program, polls, photo database, places to add articles or links or photos,
messaging system, timeline, virtual tour, question-and-answer booth, debt
calculator, statistical database, and simulations. In the simulations, sudents
can act as World Bank or IMF advisors to a country and determine policy actions
and impacts.
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| Recommended Uses: |
This material can be used to provide students with a balanced and comprehensive
introduction to development and underdevelopment -or any component of those
topics.
Simulations demonstrate complex topics such as debt accumulation,
import
substitution, and export-led growth, and allow you to experience phenomena
first-hand, such as the historical impact of colonialism and the realities of
life in underdeveloped, newly industrialized, socialist, and developed
countries. Some simulations put you in charge of a development organization or
even an entire country, which competes and interacts with other visitors'
countries in a competitive game.
Teachers and students can use the Online Classroom to take advantage of
web-based lessons, projects, exams, opportunities for international
collaboration, discussion with experts, and sharing of knowledge. Teachers can
read the Teacher's Guide and devote a unit in class to the study of development
by following the Recommended Course of Study and using the lessons available.
Everyone is encouraged to contribute as much as they can by adding articles,
adding links, responding to polls, discussing books, chatting with other users,
contributing photos, posting messages in the forums, joining the mailing list,
and giving your opinion wherever it is requested on the site.
Instructors may "deep link" into the site to focus upon specific components of
the development issues like trade liberalization, the IMF, or case studies on
the long-term impact of foreign borrowing.
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| Technical Requirements: |
Java-enabled browser only
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| Strengths: |
The quality of the module is the wealth and breadth of the material covered.
The module encourages critical thinking and independent analysis. It includes
data, photo images, and case studies that add "flesh" to the theoretical
bones.
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| Concerns: |
Although the site took thousands of hours to produce and is of high quality, it
appears to have fallen into disuse since its production in 2000. Perhaps if it
gets a new wave of well-deserved recognition it can find a second life. There
are ample opportunities to extend the site via links to related materials that
can be submitted by viewers, but no apparent activity in that direction.
Although all links tested were operational, some lacked images that were
supposed to show. Everything else tested was working.
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Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool |
Rating:    |
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| Strengths: |
One link from a course website is all that is needed to use this
beautifully-organized set of inter-related learning objects. Althought the
material can be used to focus upon one idea or another, the whole site is
greater than the sum of its parts. There are simulations and even self-tests
associated with each set of ideas presented.
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| Concerns: |
Requires strong teacher involvement. Students could not use this as a stand
alone tool. Concepts and learning objectives are not clearly delineated and one
can?t easily write assignments for this module. One question - Will all these
features continue to be supported -and the data maintained?
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Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty |
Rating:  |
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| Strengths: |
The site is elaborate, but navigability is not a problem. Instructors can
easily assign some investigation into only one component of the site if they
wish.
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| Concerns: |
This site is rich in still images that contribute greatly toward student
understanding. The core site does not contain what many broadband users seek:
audio and video components. To the authors' credit,
those contributions are
invited as extensions to the basic site.
There is no way to navigate back without clicking on the back button. It is not
clear on how to post messages and the purpose of this. One can?t read
navigational links, but not sure they would help if could. This seems to be a
lot of material, but how the student is to use it is not clear. For example,
there are no clear instructions on the simulation involving the IMF/World Bank.
The material that is presented in summary form can be obtained by from a
textbook, even though the summaries are excellent.
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| Other Issues and Comments: |
Since discovering this site, I've shared it with my Economics colleagues and
discussed the many ways in which it can be used and extended with our own
contributions. Organizing this material into a comprehensive collection of
learning objects was a huge task accomplished very successfully. The site may
yet serve as the core to a much broader and more personal examination of
development and underdevelopment as more contributions extend it.
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