The Impact Of Technology In Teaching Freshman Economics: A Quantitative Approach

This paper uses a quantitative approach to determine the relationship, if any, among the use of information technology in a freshman economics lecture environment. Over a two-semester period, students in four sections of economics courses were used as treatment and control groups. These classes consisted of two sections each of microeconomics and macroeconomics. The content for each course was delivered using several examples of technology (treatment) and conventional methods (control). At the end of each class session, students were asked to complete a survey to measure their perceptions of the lecture. The survey measured their perceptions of retention, ability to understand the material, testing confidence and other components, which would increase/decrease the understanding of the material. After analyzing the survey data, there were clear relationships among the use of technology and understanding the lecture material. The results suggested that certain attributes of technology (color, character composition, graphing) provided a positive experience for the student. However, some components of technology methods showed little effect on the learning process. Specifically, students did not perceive the use of multimedia as having a significant effect on the retention or understanding process