Teaching Quantitative Skills in Online Courses: Today’s Key Areas of Focus and Effective Learning Tools

Abstract

At both the undergraduate and graduate level, an increasing number of students are completing their coursework online or in hybrid formats. As online learning grows and evolves, and new teaching tools emerge, it is useful to review approaches for effective teaching in this modality. This paper focuses, in particular, on proven tools in online teaching that can be employed in courses with a strong quantitative analysis component, such as political methodology and political economy courses. We first highlight critical areas of focus, including text analysis, survey research, artificial intelligence and the communication of results. We then discuss methods and technologies that can be used to teach in these areas, such as social media and news APIs, online labor markets, online meeting spaces and simulation exercises. The final section explores methods for providing meaningful feedback on the types of assignments commonly used when teaching quantitative methods. This review of key areas of focus, learning tools, and methods for providing feedback in online quantitative courses will arm faculty with an understanding of how to develop and deliver courses that encourage participation and impart a deep knowledge of the subject at hand.

Keywords:

• Online learning
• online teaching
• teaching tools
• quantitative methods

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Bachner

Jennifer Bachner, PhD, is Director of the Government Analytics program at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of What Washington Gets Wrong (with Benjamin Ginsberg, Penguin Random House) and the editor of Analytics, Policy and Governance (with Benjamin Ginsberg and Kathryn Wagner Hill, Yale University Press). Her report, Predictive Policing: Preventing Crime with Data and Analytics, has been published by the IBM Center for the Business of Government. As an expert on government analytics and political behavior, she has been quoted and/or cited in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun, Roll Call, Government Executive, and on NPR. Bachner received her PhD in government from Harvard University and undergraduate degrees in political science and social studies education from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Sarah O’Byrne

Sarah O’Byrne, PhD, is Program Coordinator for the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She has been teaching in the program since 2007 and currently teaches courses in global political economy, economics for public policy, political economy of development, corruption and comparative democracies. She received an Excellent in Teaching Award in 2014. Her research and writing take an interdisciplinary approach that combines political science and economic perspectives. She is currently examining the role of epistemic communities on policy outcomes, specifically in the area of development aid and corruption. She holds a BA in Economics from Trinity College, Dublin, and an MA in Economics and PhD in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University.