The Open Pedagogy Approach on the Fly: CORONAVIRUS ECONOMICS

"We learn best when we’re “actively engaged in constructing something that has personal meaning to [us] – be it a poem, a robot, a sandcastle, or a computer program.” -Seymour Papert

“Learning happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity.” -Seymour Papert

From David Wiley on Open Pedagogy:
For some time now I’ve been critical of “disposable assessments.” An assessment can be characterized as “disposable” if everyone understands that its ultimate destiny is the garbage can. Rather than writing essays to submit to their instructor and then throw away, these students published them openly, where others will be able to benefit from their work for years to come. In many ways, I think the most powerful part of renewable assignments is the idea that everyone wants their work to matter. No one wants to struggle for hours or days on something they know will be thrown away almost as soon as it is finished. Given the opportunity, people want to contribute something, to give something back, to pay it forward, to make the world a better place, to make a difference.

Instructions for the Applied Learning Assignment: Covid-19 Economics

As you know, we are using an OER textbook in this class. This means that all the material that you are using is provided to you free of charge since the authors of the text decided to use an open license, including me, your instructor. In the spirit of giving back, this is your opportunity to shift your role from being a knowledge consumer to a knowledge creator. I challenge you to prepare and write an assignment that is not destined for the garbage bin after I grade it, but to create an assignment where your work adds value to the world.

The purpose of this assignment is for you to analyze the COVID-19 pandemic from a point of view of an economist. In this assignment you will examine the impact of this pandemic on economic performance and evaluate public policy created in response to it. Some of the topics discussed here might seem a bit controversial, but we will really be applying the same type of analysis that is typically used to evaluate any public policy. Not only will you be connecting theoretical concepts from economics to COVID-19, but we will also be discussing the best methods for dealing with difficult-to-measure costs and benefits, such as the value of time and of human life.

Basic Instructions
In the sections below, you are supposed to answer a set of questions. The purpose of these questions is to first guide you through theoretical concepts in economics and then show you how you can apply this knowledge to actual situation and to compile these component ideas in to a new whole.
You will also be asked to make and defend judgement based on evidence and external criteria.

You should first try to answer those questions individually. Each response should include at least one solid paragraph. In your answers, you are encouraged to include podcasts, graphs, videos, and most importantly hyperlinks. Your assignment/web-page should look and feel similar to a page like this: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/explaining-coronavirus-death-toll-predictions-improving/story?id=70073130
There is text, videos, images, and hyperlinks, all used for the purpose of providing more information on the topic.

You are also encouraged to then take all the work from your questions below and knit it into one coherent essay that has an introduction, main body, and conclusion. In the introduction you should first briefly summarize the issue. In the main body you should go into details explaining and defining the terms and connecting it to COVID19. Finally, provide an overall conclusion.

How to Submit Your Assignment
As part of this assignment you are required to create a website with all the text, graphs, and links that are relevant for analysis posted online.

Feel free to talk to me about your assignments and send me your preliminary versions for comments and review in order to improve your work and ultimately your grade on this assignment. Feel free to discuss your assignments with other students, however all essays must be written individually by each student. No co-authoring allowed.

Background Information:
Before you start answering the questions below, you should read the following OER chapters:
Module 4: Welfare Economics
Module 5: Externalities: Problems and Solutions
Module 6: Public Goods

In addition, you should also carefully ready the material posted at my website about CORONAVIRUS ECONOMICS. It will hopefully provide you with almost all the information needed to complete this assignment. I will also try to update the site as much as I can with the most relevant information.

Open pedagogy goes beyond OER adoption by having students create, revise and remix their class materials. Instead of reading an open textbook or completing online modules as consumers, students become the authors and developers of the work that they, and future students, will use in the class.

Open Pedagogy takes Open Educational Resources (OER) as a jumping-off point to rethink the relationship between teachers, students and knowledge. When teachers and students are able to modify their own textbooks and learning materials, we shift the student emphasis toward contribution to knowledge rather than simple consumption of knowledge.

Students move from consumers of course content to co-creators of course content. Teachers and students become learners together, and content becomes dynamic and always evolving, rather than static content to be mastered.

Open Pedagogy is a teaching philosophy that has students creating, curating and contributing to the learning environment.

PUBLIC FINANCE AND PUBLIC POLICY: http://publicfinancepublicpolicy.weebly.com/
CORONAVIRUS ECONOMICS: http://publicfinancepublicpolicy.weebly.com/coronavirus-economics.html
THE ASSIGNMENT: http://publicfinancepublicpolicy.weebly.com/covid19-assignment.html
STUDENTS' SITES: http://publicfinancepublicpolicy.weebly.com/students-sites.html

PUBLIC FINANCE AND PUBLIC POLICY: http://publicfinancepublicpolicy.weebly.com/
CORONAVIRUS ECONOMICS: http://publicfinancepublicpolicy.weebly.com/coronavirus-economics.html
THE ASSIGNMENT: http://publicfinancepublicpolicy.weebly.com/covid19-assignment.html
STUDENTS' SITES: http://publicfinancepublicpolicy.weebly.com/students-sites.html