A Note on a Televised Course in Introductory Economics

Abstract

From 1967 to 1970 the Department of Economics of the State University College at Geneseo carried out an experiment in the instruction of introductory economics. Commencing in Fall, 1967, a televised two-semester micro and macro introductory sequence was initiated with programmed learning and workbook materials which had been especially written for the courses. Each class of about 25 met twice weekly to view taped lectures and once a week with a live instructor for discussion. The televised classes were designed to involve the student actively in solving problems which were presented in uncompleted form in the workbook. In an ideal sequence, the student would have first mastered the textbook (McConnell) assignment and the appropriate chapter in the programmed learning book, studied the relevant uncompleted pages in the workbook, and then attended the TV lecture class to clarify the concepts presented. The live discussion class, which was taught by a member of the economics faculty, was used as a means to move beyond the positive analysis presented in the lectures to normative issues. This format was used during 1967-68 and was slightly revised during 1968-70 after student opinionnaires indicated that separate TV lectures and live discussion classes had unnecessarily depersonalized the courses. Following 1967-68, instruction was provided in two 75-minute weekly classes with discussion immediately following the TV lectures.' During the period 1968-70, the televised introductory courses were evaluated with two new instruments: The Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE) [2] and a 40-question opinionnaire locally created under a grant from the U.S. Office of Education.2 The results of the TUCE showed that the televised courses did succeed in teaching introductory economics, thus confirming limited 1967-68 evidence as well as the 1967 McConnell study [3]. The results of the TUCE for the academic years 1968-69 and 1969-70 are shown in Table 1. In the introductory macroeconomics course, the weighted average of the mean correct scores on the pretest was 14.8, compared to a national norm score of 13.55. The weighted average of the mean correct scores on the macro posttest was 21.8 compared to the national norm of 19.16. In the introductory microeconomics course, the weighted average of the mean correct scores on the posttest was 18.8 versus 18.6 for the national norm group [5]. (No pretest norm score was provided for introductory microeconomics.)