Description
Book SynopsisThe number of economics professors now teaching at universities will decline substantially over the next couple of decades. This will happen for one main reasonthe advent of distance learning, especially in the form of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which enable a single professor to lecture to tens of thousands of students. Other academic fields will undoubtedly encounter similar reductions in their numbers of professors. However, as this book argues at several levels, academic economics is the one profession that is most qualified to study and address the topic. In this sense it is the one profession that should best recognize the economic benefits of this transition, which this book describes, and take responsibility for leading the transition among all academic fields.Unfortunately, the position espoused by several academic economists has been against this inevitable transitiona position that politically upholds their employment and the status of their institutions. They have
Trade ReviewPayson, by being willing to challenge the status quo, describes in a non-technical fashion a possible future in higher education where the quality of instruction in economics is higher and the cost of delivery is lower. Payson provides convincing responses to questions such as why so many economists continue to deliver lectures in person, how society is harmed when distance educational practices are not adopted, and why the economics profession should be smaller. This analysis, couched in economic logic and drawing from the author’s perspective and experience as a practicing economist, is a must-read for anyone involved or interested in how higher education can be of higher quality as well as more cost efficient. This text is critical for understanding why technology should be adopted for teaching economics and why we all will benefit from upending the status quo. -- Thomas Scheiding, University of Hawai'i
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Preface Introduction Chapter 1: How Economics Professors Have Become Different with Changes in Technology Chapter 2: Distance Learning, Automation, and the Shoe on the Other Foot Chapter 3: Downsizing to Correct the Profession’s Failings Chapter 4: The Profession’s Propaganda against MOOCs Chapter 5: Analyzing the Topic Objectively, Without the Propaganda Chapter 6: Online Courses in Economics, Today and Tomorrow Chapter 7: The Government’s Responsibility in All This Chapter 8: Product and Labor Evolution Conclusion Bibliography
