Westmont College Economics and Business 6 Year Program Review Fall 2010 table of contents
Additional Insights From the 2010 Survey of EB Seniors – Indirect Evidence
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- 5. Additional Results from 2009 Alumni Survey of Graduates – Indirect Evidence
- C. Conclusion
- 5. GENERAL EDUCATION AND SERVICE COURSES
- A. Student Learning Outcomes for GE in the Department 1. Common Contexts: Understanding Society a. EB 011
- 2. Common Contexts: Thinking Globally a. EB 104
- 3. Common Contexts: Thinking Historically a. EB 103
- 4. Common Skills: Writing-Intensive for the Major a. EB 103
- b. In EB 120
- c. In EB 160
4. Additional Insights From the 2010 Survey of EB Seniors – Indirect Evidence We gained some additional insights in assessing our program by means of the Seniors 2010 survey. The following numbered items refer to particular results in the survey (described in Records Program Review reports). 1. The male plurality among students in the EB department is an issue of concern. Since Westmont has a majority of women overall, the 72% male departmental graduation number is both desirable from the standpoint of attracting male students to Westmont but concerning in that more women are not majoring in EB. We believe it would be highly desirable to hire women departmental faculty. We have pursued female faculty for open positions but have not succeeded in hiring one. 4. Our senior class found that class size and the learning environment was satisfying. We would like to improve on the class size through an increase in the number of departmental faculty. 5. While seniors expressed general satisfaction with the availability of faculty for interaction and meetings, this area could be improved through more free office hours of faculty, and more faculty initiated meetings with majors. All full-time faculty do maintain office hours and also make some lunch times available for interaction with students. 6 & 7. The department has increased its effort to provide career advice and help with résumés in the senior seminar. We also bring speakers and business leaders into classes who sometimes speak about career paths as well as travel annually to meet with management personnel at World Vision, the world’s largest relief and development NGO. The new executive leadership class brings in several top business leaders from the community each semester. The Entrepreneurship course culminates with a business plan competition that puts students in direct interaction with highly successful business leaders regarding elements that produce successful business ventures. The World Poverty and Economic Development, the Money and Banking, and other classes bring in one or two speakers each semester. In addition, our several adjunct professors share from current and recent business experience. With a very small budget for bringing notable speakers to campus, we are constrained on bringing more businesspersons to campus. Of course, we would desire a boost in funding of this area. 8. Over the years, we have had large numbers of majors placed in internships in some years and fairly small numbers in other years. There was a time when we required an internship but decided that for some students who were not expecting to pursue a traditional business career or who had significant practical business experience already, that we should not require an internship. In more recent years, some internship professors have encouraged more students to do internships and others have been more restrictive in their approach. As a department, we support the idea of practical experience for our majors and would be supportive of more internship offerings. 9. We have not had a formal alumni mentoring program until this past year when we initiated a “e-mentoring” program. This program offered students an opportunity to interact by email with department alumni. We also had a downtown networking event in which President Beebe spoke and many alumni from the community interacted with current students. The program seemed to be a great success. We would like to continue these programs and expand on them in the future. 10. Many EB classes raise issues of Christian values and ethics vis-à-vis the secular business world and its primary system of capitalism. Some examples of Christian perspectives include the History of Economic Thought class examines Old and New Testament teaching regarding wealth, labor, interest-taking and poverty. The spiritual dangers of wealth are identified. One of many examples discussed is a comparison of the Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler and with the tax-collector Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10); the manner in which these kinds of examples add further complexity to the varied dimensions of Jesus’ teaching are considered. In the Principles of Microeconomics course many different features of capitalism are scrutinized from a Christian worldview, including the institution of private property, the appropriate role of government, and the profit motive, and its role (both positively and negatively) in driving business decisions. The Intermediate Microeconomics course challenges the narrow self-interested business decision-making perspective and purely pecuniary view of success, the issues of low wages paid to disadvantaged workers in the form of labor-market exploitation by monopsonies, and considers a Christian perspective on income inequality including a careful look at the Bible’s portrayal of different reasons why people are poor. Finally, in the Money and Banking class, the problem of deceit and fraud in the mortgage loan industry exemplified in the recent financial crisis and Christian values in lending money at interest are discussed. For the past nine years, we have taken most of our seniors to visit World Vision International, the largest Christian relief and development agency in the world. This visit includes briefings on effective Christian ministry to the poor through direct relief, microfinance and other means. In order to emphasize Christian perspectives more, additional readings in the Principles of Microeconomics and Principles of Macroeconomics classes have been assigned in Fall 2010 from Money, Greed, and God by Jay Richards, and from Bulls, Bears & Golden Calves: Applying Christian Ethics in Economics, John E. Stapleford. The World Poverty and Economic Development class has added sections on biblical teaching on poverty and on a Christian perspective on “social justice.” 11. We have offered many off-campus study programs over the past couple of decades. These have included the International Business Institute (summer program from 1981 to present, Comparative Economic Systems, International Marketing, International Trade and Finance, International Business Policy), Westmont in Asia program (studying several Asian economies including China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, 1998,1999, 2003 and business internships in China), The Chinese Economy and Microfinance program (MayTerm 2008, including visits to Hope International microfinance sites outside of Beijing and business briefings in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong). Last year we offered for the first time two new semester programs abroad offering upper division EB credit, one at King’s College in London and one at American University in Paris. Professor Noell is also offering a course on the Chinese economy in the summer of 2011 that includes four weeks of travel and study in various parts of China. Students also participate in Westmont semesters abroad in various locations. We value study abroad programs and will seek to offer as many as possible in the future. 12. We have not taught any dedicated computer courses but we do use extensive computer statistical assignments as well as other excel assignments in the Business Forecasting class. Some of the accounting classes require used of computer programs. We use a simulated economics lab via a computer program called Aplia in the Principles of Microeconomics class. We need to reconsider our overall requirements for computer assignments to make sure that student are comfortable with basis programs, especially excel. 5. Additional Results from 2009 Alumni Survey of Graduates – Indirect Evidence The following are key strengths of the EB department identified in the survey: size of classes/learning environment; access to faculty for discussion and interaction; faculty availability for coursework, career advice, and mentoring; integration of faith and learning; opportunities for off-campus study programs. For many alums, the department’s practicum and off-campus program were the highlights of their academic careers because they were able to experience the things they were learning directly rather than from the distance of a traditional classroom. Many valued the opportunity to explore a career path in a Practicum placement. The integrative courses and sections of courses in the major were also appreciated by many of our graduates. Some valued the opportunity to grow in their capacity for critical thinking as they thought about controversial and often contentious issues, and there was general appreciation for the approach taken to thinking about faith-related issues in the department. The 2009 alumni survey also invited alums to think about ways to improve the Economics and Business program. There was a wide range of responses, including: 1. Getting and staying connected with the alumni community; 2. Building the breadth of the program by offering new courses and more interaction with guest speakers from the business community; and 3. Greater connection to practical experience while students are at Westmont. A more detailed presentation of the responses is given in the Records Program Review Reports with the 2009 Alumni raw data files.
We have been blessed with a great group of students with whom to work. They are capable students who work hard, and they have a lot of ownership of the program. We have seen some progress on the front of writing for business. Finally, in comparing our curriculum to those of eleven comparable institutions, it seems clear that what we are doing lines up favorably with the broad consensus of what constitutes an undergraduate economics and business major. However, the hallmark of the strongest programs is the research experiences that are available for their students, and this will be a growing edge for us for some time to come. Simply put, we do not have the resources of space, funding and faculty time to extend the same opportunities to our students, as much as we might like to do so. The assessment evidence supports our sense that we are building a strong foundation of economic analysis combined with outstanding application to business practice and entrepreneurial innovation. Assessment of senior students indicates understanding of economic theoretical constructs and outstanding performance as indicated by achievement in regional and national business plan competitions. The alumni survey indicates that around 25% of our alums earn graduate degrees, including the M.B.A., J.D., and M.D. among others. We would like to see increased number of students pursuing graduate degrees across the fields of economics, law, and business and we would like to see more graduates pursuing explicitly serving professions such as economic development, international law and justice, and entrepreneurship within the context of serving the poor. In building on our progress with respect to faith and learning integration, we plan to undertake the following measures. Professor Morgan is doing a major revision of EB 12 motivated by a low student evaluation from last semester, and based on data from an earlier student positive student evaluation. While he believes the course is vital with many very important and immediately relevant applications to economic policy, he finds it desirable to reorganize the course into nine shorter units. Each will end with a quiz over less material than previous tests in Principles of Microeconomics. He is also planning on several group discussion days based on the book Money, Greed, and God (Jay Richards, HarperCollins, 2009), and as well he is also going to try to do more in class problems and less lecturing. Professor Noell is planning to expand the discussion of a Christian perspective on the corporation in EB 195 (Senior Seminar). In Spring 2011 this will occupy half the class as readings, class discussion, and guest speakers will challenge students to reflect carefully on the ethical dimensions of participating in the corporate world through particular examples such as workplace management and decisions to cut payroll, ‘sweatshop labor’, and air and water pollution cleanup decisions. The other half of the course will focus on a Christian perspective on economic theory and policy. Here students will be asked to apply Christian values to concepts such as self-interest, imperfect information, and the recent financial crisis. In Intermediate Microeconomics Dr.Noell is incorporating more case studies. In EB 103 and 135, he is also adding discussion of the ethical challenges regarding debt and lending money at interest in light of historic Christian teaching as a product of the research done for his Summer 2010 faculty development grant. In light of feedback from both the 2010 seniors survey and 2009 alumni survey, the department is modifying expectations for students graduating with a B.A. degree in economics and business to include more direct practical experience in business. All EB majors are strongly recommended to take EB 190 for 4 units. During pre-registration meetings, faculty advisors will make encourage students to take this course in their last 4 semesters at Westmont and name specific examples of internships that fit with student interests (accounting, finance, marketing, pre-law, international business, small business management, general business). In addition, we will continue to look for ways to tie in our students with EB alums. Currently our majors interact with EB alums on campus in a number of courses. Several alums speak in EB 195 Senior Seminar each spring on relevant topics including their own job search experience coming out of Westmont, graduate school (MBA) training, and advice regarding resumes and the interviewing process. In addition, alums speak in our other classes and interact with students. Three examples from the 2009-10 academic year would be the following: one alum in financial management addressed investment management strategies in EB 135 Money and Banking; an alum demonstrated the practical use of quantitative techniques for managerial decision-making in EB 138 Applied Management Science; and another alum who has worked for Opportunity International talked about the challenges of doing microfinance in Southeast Asia in the EB 104 World Poverty and Development class. 5. GENERAL EDUCATION AND SERVICE COURSES As we presented in Section 2, the economics and business Department’s contributions to the General Education program include courses satisfying the Understanding Society requirement in the Common Inquiries section, the Thinking Historically and Thinking Globally requirements in the Common Inquiries section, writing-intensive requirements in our major, the Integrating the Major Discipline requirement, the Competent and Compassionate Action Production and Presentations requirement, and certain Practicum placements along with the Principles of Marketing course that enable the student to satisfy the Serving Society-Enacting Justice requirement. At department meetings over the past few years, there has been discussion of the ways in which the concepts developed in the Principles of Microeconomics and Principles of Macroeconomics courses address the specific requirements for Understanding Society given that what the GE Committee has articulated seems to overlook economic reasoning. We have named some specific student learning outcomes for the GE Committee that speak to this issue. A. Student Learning Outcomes for GE in the Department 1. Common Contexts: Understanding Society a. EB 011 introduces students to the basic principles of economics and sets them in the context of the particular methodologies of the social sciences. Students are engaged with the core premise of scarcity and the implication of how consumers, firms and governments make choices among alternatives. They examine the activities of key institutions such as the federal executive and legislative branches of government and the central bank in making fiscal and monetary policy. b. EB 012 uses models, usually in graphic form, to analyze complex human economic behaviors. These models or hypotheses about human behavior are built on the fundamental economic premises that scarcity forces choices and that persons, families, businesses, and government are responsive to costs and benefits associated with those choices; in economics, incentives matter profoundly. Not only does economics illuminate human behavior in the traditional economic areas of production and consumption but also such behaviors as the decisions concerning family size, the decision to commit crime, and the behavior of government policy makers. The method used in the course is primarily the scientific method. While economic behavior cannot always be observed in a laboratory as in many areas of science, empirical data from broad formal studies and anecdotal examples from life experience can be used to confirm or challenge hypotheses about economic behavior. 2. Common Contexts: Thinking Globally a. EB 104 introduces students to a comparative global perspective through the following: It challenges students to compare policies and institutions among various developing countries and relate them to economic successes or failures. It considers how policies promoted by the North through the IMF and World Bank help or hinder proclaimed principles of trade and mutual benefit. It considers Asian, African, and Latin American cultural elements that affect economic behavior and performance. It challenges students to consider perspectives beyond those of the U.S. and the North by looking at poverty “traps” associated with the poorest economies in the world. It utilizes the largest available global data sets to test hypotheses about development. It encourages students to consider off-campus programs and careers that work toward promoting prosperity and justice. b. EB 184 challenges students to engage in critical thinking by pushing beyond a narrow parochial perspective in considering major global economies and their interaction. They wrestle with the issues of international trade and trade barriers, participation by low-income economies in the global trading system, outsourcing and offshoring and their impact on job movements and wages, poverty levels and income growth, and environmental pollution. Students are shown through numerous examples that to truly think globally regarding economic issues is to consider how the nature of these economic problems are similar and yet different for economies in Asia, Africa, South America, Europe and North America, and to consider how these problems impact the connections between these economies in an increasingly borderless world. Students employ a comparative approach to Itsi History and Cuurent iHiHihii
globalization from the standpoint of its history, current dimensions, and lessons for the 21st century world economy. Students explore not only to how globalization is understood in the West, but also how it is understood and evaluated by non-Western perspectives. 3. Common Contexts: Thinking Historically a. EB 103 examines different modes of inquiry in the history of economics. Students analyze the key primary texts in the history of economics, and engage in the process of historiographic discussion of critical interpretive questions raised in the secondary literature of the history of economic thought. Students examine the history of economics in order to appreciate its origins in antiquity and the specific ways in which the evolution of economic institutions in both the premodern and modern eras shaped the way it has developed as a formal discipline. This requires careful reading of the great thinkers of early and late antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas) and both the early modern and modern eras (Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, Mill, Marx, Marshall, Veblen, Keynes, Hayek, Schumpeter, Friedman) which takes account of the particular economic, geographic and political features of the eras and societies in which they wrote. b. EB 120 brings students to examine the complex questions of economic change in developing an understanding of the economic transformation of the United States. In the process students engage with primary historical texts such as the U.S. Constitution; Hamilton’s Reports; debates over tariff policy, the construction of infrastructure, and Civil War monetary policy; the literature of the robber barons; debates over New Deal economic policy; post-World War II labor law; and the debates over Reaganomics, Clintonomics, and trade policy towards competitors in Asia and Europe. Students work with the historiographic discussion of interpretive issues in the secondary literature in American Economic History, placing in historical context various economic institutions and developments in the American economy over time, including issues such as regional specialization in the colonial economy, the American Revolution and formation of the United States, trade and the antebellum economy, slavery and economic development, the role of technological innovation, immigration and the postbellum economy, the changing relations between the participation of African-Americans in the economy and labor law, the changing role of women in the evolution of the American economy, and changes in the role of government and economic policy over time. 4. Common Skills: Writing-Intensive for the Major a. EB 103 requires four writing assignments: three 2-page papers and a research paper of 10-12 pages in length. For each of the short papers, students examine a particular topic through working with primary sources in the history of economic thought. Each paper is evaluated in terms of both content and writing quality. The research paper requires students to engage in a writing process and adhere to benchmarks for submitting an outline and rough draft; for these assignments the instructor provides feedback in improving the final paper. The research paper is designed for the student to address and evaluate an aspect of the economic thought of a key contributor to the historical development of economics. To help provide some of the materials needed for a historiographic discussion of the paper topic, students are directed to the secondary literature as noted in the journals, research volumes, and other sources listed in the annotated bibliography at the end of the syllabus. These sources are useful in both choosing an economist and topic and in developing a discussion of critical interpretations of the primary sources utilized in the paper. b. In EB 120, student writing assignments include requires four writing assignments: two 2-page papers, a five-page debate paper, and a research paper of 10-12 pages in length. Each of the papers requires the student to delve into a topic in American economic history by means of a careful analysis of contrasting positions and defense of a thesis. Each paper must interact with secondary sources. The paper is evaluated in terms of both content and writing quality. The research paper requires students to engage in a writing process and adhere to benchmarks for submitting an outline and rough draft; for these assignments the instructor provides feedback in improving the final paper. The objective of the research paper is to produce a thoughtful, well-written historical narrative that applies economic analysis to a particular issue/topic in American economic history. The paper must engage the critical interpretations of this issue/topic in the secondary literature. The journals, research volumes, and other sources listed in the annotated bibliography in the final section of the syllabus are useful for the historical narrative and historiographic discussion of the paper’s issue/topic. c. In EB 160, students are required to write a 5 page marketing paper that demonstrates a capacity to review a marketing message, analyze it in greater detail, and hone their business writing and critical thinking skills. Feedback is provided on the first draft with respect to the essay’s presentation of its argument and how effectively its images, ideas, concepts, and reasoning are communicated. The final essay has strict assessment criteria including report excellence, creativity, delivery and self-evaluation. The essay is to include development of target markets, branding and promotion. Students also complete a minimum 10 page marketing plan paper for their evaluation of a marketing strategy for a non-profit organization. Download 0.56 Mb. Share with your friends:
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