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last blog post :)

Throughout the semester of learning and discussing economic concepts and models related to organizations, I had a better understanding of the structures, managing styles, and the reward and punishment system with respect to organizations in general. These concepts and knowledge indeed exist in our daily life, but I had never gotten the opportunity like this course to get to know the linkage between the abstract (overall) economic models and real life. For instance, in the gift exchange model, we are expecting two parties, such as the instructor and the students, to exchange reciprocal benefits with each other. This model can be applied to other circumstances as well, such as organizations. The employees complete tasks and bring profit to the organization, while the employer pays the employees by salaries as a reciprocity. Exchange occurs, so that everyone is getting something as making a contribution. To be more specific, connecting this model with my experiences, I now realize what I should do in order to maximize the outcome by getting to know what I can offer as an employee or a group member and what I can get from the organization I’m working in, either money or precious knowledge and experiences.

In addition, I found that weekly online blog post discussions are a fun way to apply the concepts, digging the experiences of ourselves, matching with the concepts and models we are studying. Although it took me a long time to think of an experience of mine to illustrate the course models and concepts, it is all worth it when I can write out a post and get feedback from the professor. Our professor always provides feedbacks and prospectives from a different, refreshing, and more advanced angle.

When talking about the process for doing the blogging and the excel homework, the hardest part for me is to initiate the assignment. For blogging, like I said in the former paragraph, the hardest part is to think of a qualified experience or example. Of course, the development of logic and narratives can be challenging for me as well. I always looked at the prompt a day or two days before I started to write my thoughts down into actual words, thinking about the material and the ways I was going to apply for narrating. For the excel homework, I always watch videos first and took down notes carefully. It may take quite a long time for me to understand the content, with sometimes confusing the formulas, but I conquered all the confusions as I tried possible solutions and ways of thinking incessantly. So far I’m enjoying the excel homework.

One issue or concern I remain for the course is that the moodle quizzes are way harder than the excel homework, reading materials in the textbook, or the blogging. I can tell that they are all linked with each other, but the quiz questions are so hard to think of because we barely do questions or practices like that during the weeks of acquiring the material. If more help we can get from other content (blogging, reading material, the textbook, or the powerpoint slides), I’ll maybe do better on the quizzes. I’m failing the quizzes and I’m worrying about the final moodle quiz a lot.

But overall it has been a pleasure learning experience.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanDecember 7, 2019 at 3:26 PM

    Does your blog post title mean you won't be blogging after my course is over? Even though I meant to be funny with that question, I also pose it in a serious way. If you enjoy doing something, then you might consider doing it even when it is not required for a course - make your own prompts and try to address those. It's a away to explore your own ideas. People have been keeping private journals for centuries, so that is not a new idea. The only real difference with blogging is that you can connect it to things you read or to your other experiences.

    Let me take on the comment you made about the Moodle quizzes. Truthfully, I did not intend them to be hard, the way you say they are. But I did intend them to show that you understood what the Excel homework is driving at. There is also the format, which you may not be used to. Using matching questions is different from using multiple choice. Beyond that, however, I believe the issue may be how familiar you get with the subject matter when you do the Excel homework. I fear that many of the students in the class, not just you, get through the homework but remain unfamiliar with what it is about. So there is a question that is larger than the subject matter of our course. Can you develop the skills to make something moderately difficult and unfamiliar become within your scope of competence? And, assuming you can do it, which I think everyone in the class can do, what does it take to have that skill?

    Put a different way, the "meta skill" that I'd like to see students develop is a kind of seeing into what the particular subject matter is real about. There is a need to penetrate the idea in a way that it sheds light on related experiences you've had. So the issue is whether you try to do that and if taking notes on the video is a good way to see what's going on. Too often, I'm afraid, the taking notes blocks the seeing.

    Of course, I liked the last sentence in your post. But if my previous paragraph makes sense to you and if I were writing the last paragraph, I'd express frustration rather than pleasure.

    Thank you for this post. Getting reconciliation on these matters is not easy, for you and for me.

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    Replies
    1. Alice RivlinDecember 8, 2019 at 6:43 PM

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    2. Alice RivlinDecember 8, 2019 at 6:46 PM

      Hi Professor Arvan,

      Haha no I did not mean not to write posts again. I just thought it was an accurate title to give for the last post in this class for the semester. However, it is kind of true that I don't enjoy writing in general that much because English is my second language. I always need more time to panic (first thing first haha), and then come up with ideas and ways of expressing my thoughts. Fortunately, I had a lot of opportunities to write this semester, including this class and other classes. It was those practices and processes of putting my thoughts into organized paragraphs made writing looks less scary to me.

      For the excel homework and Moodle quizzes, I totally agree with your opinion. It is crucial for one to acquire ability of make something moderately difficult and unfamiliar become within his or her scope of competence. The key of reaching this point is to see the pattern and the abstract of a model/concept, understand the core idea, and apply that way of comprehension into future applications. The process may take a while, but as long as one is holding an optimistic attitude and not giving up easily, the unfamiliar knowledge will become familiar eventually.

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