‘Economics with Training Wheels’: Using Blogs in Teaching and Assessing Introductory Economics

Abstract

Blogs provide a dynamic interactive medium for online discussion, consistent with communal constructivist pedagogy. The author of this article describes and evaluates a blog assignment used in the teaching and assessment of a small (40–60 students) introductory economics course. Using qualitative and quantitative data collected across four semesters, students’ participation in the blog assignment is found to be associated with student ability, gender, and student perceptions of the blog. Importantly, students with past economics experience do not appear to crowd out novice economics students. Student performance is positively associated with the quality of their blog participation after controlling for student ability, suggesting that a focus on quality of student engagement could further improve learning outcomes. Students generally report overall positive experiences with the blog assignment.

Keywords:

• assessment
• blogs
• introductory economics

JEL codes:

• A20
• A22

Acknowledgments

The author is very grateful to Tammy Smith for her research assistance, and to John Tressler, Dorothy Spiller, and participants at the 15th Australasian Teaching Economics Conference in Hamilton, New Zealand, who commented on earlier drafts of this article, as well as to three anonymous reviewers. He also acknowledges the encouragement and support provided by Frank Scrimgeour and Dan Marsh when this innovative blog assignment was first introduced to the ECON110 course.

Notes

1. There is a significant minority of students in many first-year courses who enroll but do not actively participate. This may be due to the availability of government support in the form of loans and allowances for enrolled students, incentives which are more attractive than youth unemployment benefits.