Peer Review

Session 2 - Types of Budgets (Budget Basics)

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Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: This 6:11 minute video is the second of ten in the series on Budgeting Basics created for the Association of Washington Cities. The presenter, Mike Bailey, is the Director of Finance for the City of Redmond, WA. In this presentation seven distinct types of budgets used by cities or other local governments are described, along with recent developments in the use of performance-based budgeting.
Type of Material:: Presentation
Recommended Uses:: Recommended for brief introduction to topic in class, or as individual homework, self-paced.
Technical Requirements:: Web Browser. Reviewed using Firefox version 57.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Students will be able to define and describe the different types of budgets used by cities and other local governments. Students will also be able to compare the benefits, and potential limitations of the different budget methodologies.
Target Student Population:: Governmental accounting coursework at any level, public administration coursework, general knowledge for all citizens.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Recommend viewing Session 1- What is a Budget? (from the Budgeting Basics series) as a prerequisite.

Rating:
Strengths:: The presentation provides a historical context to different types of budgets, as well as a discussion of more recent trends, such as budgeting for results. Content is accurate and relevant. This brief presentation clearly and concisely discusses of the types of budgets used by local governments. The short, summary, format allows the material to be used as a stand-alone module to introduce the governmental budgeting topic, or it can be incorporated into a semester course as a self-paced tutorial. The inclusion of references to real world examples and to selected literature is very nice.
Concerns:: This short video tutorial was not meant to provide a complete demonstration of the concept. Instead it focuses on one selected topic to allow viewers to master concepts at their own pace.

Rating:

Strengths:

The format of video is very engaging, as the presenter appears alongside the virtual whiteboard, as opposed to just narrating slides. The timing of the narrative matches the bullets and graphics very well, making viewers feel like they are in a live classroom. Relevant language is used making content easy to understand.
Given the series of videos, concepts are reinforced progressively, as students can advance to the next topic when they feel they have mastered the previous one.
the description of the hybrid example (mashup) is very nice.
The video is very efficient and viewers will learn much in a short time.

Concerns:

Prerequisite knowledge or skills needed are not listed.
The tutorial does not include the ability to assess student understanding, however, measurements could easily be added by the adopter.

Rating:

Strengths:

The video is of high design quality and visually appealing.
The video is clear, incorporates visual words, including closed captioned materials.
The narration is very engaging and the pace is good. Speaking is clear and coherent with a nice tonal quality.
The brief format, just over six minutes, makes this video very easy to incorporate into course material. A substantial amount of content is effectively covered in a short timeframe.
It is most beneficial for students to hear directly from a senior level city government official with real world experience.

Concerns:

The closed captioned materials have a few minor glitches, but overall are effective.
The video is a ‘view only’ tutorial and does not include any type of student assessment or knowledge check.

Other Issues and Comments:

Seven budget types (line item, program, performance, zero-based, expenditure control, incremental, and budget for results) are addressed and differentiated.
Highly recommend that students follow the ten video, presentation sequence in the order listed within the series, as each discussion builds on the previous content covering municipal budgeting.

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