You don't have to answer all of these...
What topics did you find the most interesting?
What topics did you find the least interesting?
Was this course what you expected it to be?
What topics in resource econ do you think are the most important for econ majors to understand? EVS majors?
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18 comments:
I think that in general you were able to hit on topics that were relevant to EVS majors. I would have liked to see more on variety in the issues covered so as to perhaps have a broader understanding of issues such as cost benefit analysis or discounting. I found discounting the most difficult subject to understand of them all, perhaps more examples or further explanation of the math. Overall I found this course to be what I expected and very interesting, especially for and environmental science major.
Overall I found the class to be very interesting. Being an Economics major, I felt I was able to apply a lot of the skills I had been taught in my previous classes to the material learned in the lectures. Although I agree with Sarah in that I felt the material was slightly more suited towards EVS majors, I still found the lectures to be very interesting.
Before this class I had thought that I was doing my part to be environmentally friendly. However, after reading the lectures I know understand just how little I knew about my impact on the environment.
I thought most of the topics were interesting. I really liked the examples we used because most of the issues we discussed in this course were ones I never thought about. Negative externalities, for example. I liked this course because it was a good balance of work and very organized. I felt I had enough time to complete the assignments with all of my other work as well. The notion of maximizing efficiency really resonated in this course. In every situation, this idea was used and as a concept, that really stuck with me as it should for an economics major. I had wondered prior to this course how environmental issues/economics would coincide since I have never learned about it before. I am glad I took this class because now I have a better understanding of the two together.
I really like how the class used so many real-world applications and examples. I learned a lot about my home city and many environmental issues that have been around for the past few years, but were not as available to the public eye. Especially in the earlier lectures, the students were asked to do their own research in finding topics that were relevant to the class, and I feel it is from these assignments that I learned the most. While the textbook information was useful and extremely interesting, it takes education to a whole new level when the student can apply it to something they are seeing or have seen.
I thought most of the topics discussed in class were incredibly interesting and relevant to today. However, as an Econ major who doesn't normally keep up with environmental news, I felt almost out of the loop--like I was missing something, though I'm 100% positive most of my misgivings came from not taking the class in a physical setting. I learned a lot about myself with this course, mainly that I should not take online classes (nothing to do with the course set-up, but a personal learning style thing), but that I find environmental economics to be a fascinating field of study. My favorite part of the course was probably the beginning lectures discussing the anthroprocentric view and efficient levels of pollution. The later chapters were more difficult for me to understand because I had a hard time visualizing the creation of the graphs. So, I think this course has a lot to teach, both important and just interesting, but if I could do it again, I would take it in class. Also, like Joe said, it has opened my eyes to a lot of alternatives and useful programs.
I thought this class was interesting, I think it really opened my eyes on how much data goes into policymakers decisions. like one of the powerpoints said, and I'm paraphrasing, you don't just make quick decisions on things that deal with million or billions of dollars. I think that discounting is a very important thing to understand because it calculates not just how things are effected today but how things are effected a year from now or ten years from now.
I thought the tree rotation and the fishery topics to be the most interesting. The formulas were definitely the least interesting for me, although they did tie the material together in a way. This course was pretty much what I expected. I do wonder what else would have been covered in a traditional semester setting. I think it's important for everyone to see how closely related economics and the environment are.
I found most topics very interesting because of how you were able to give us real world examples to really solidify what each topic was about. This made it easier to understand the material. This course was a bit tougher than I thought only because I have never done an online class before so it was a bit of a shock trying to keep up but all in all it was very well organized and easy to follow. I believe that maximizing efficiency is important for both econ and EVS majors as without it overexploitation can occur as well as not being efficient in terms of costs and benefits.
Throughout this course I have found almost every topic discussed very interesting. This is the first class I have had in regards to economics that is applied to our environment, and natural resources. It has been a very enjoyable class to understand and realize there are many other factors that play a role in the markets that are not perceived or accounted for. My favorite part has to be applying the external factors that it seems are overlooked quite often in markets. This has intrigued me during this class, because you don't understand how big of a factor they can play in the value of a certain property, area, market, etc. This has been a very beneficial class that I will use and apply the information learned in this class to business ventures in my future. You will never truly know every aspect or outlook of a market without including the environmental factors that have value as well.
Natural resource economics is certainly a diverse subject and the course was exactly what I expected it to be. Though a bit time intensive, I was especially glad the course was offered online. As a commuter, gas costs add up when traveling back and forth to the university. Economics is not my strong suit, but the topics and material covered were both interesting and relevant to current issues. It is clear that our natural resources play an integral role in our economy. As an EVS major, however, it was difficult to focus primarily on the "optimal" economic aspects of the course. It was also interesting to read my fellow classmates posts, so many of which are economic majors! Overall, I learned a great deal in the short time we were together and thank Dr. Schuhmann for his insight and willingness to help his students understand the material.
As an Econ major I believe this class was a very good example of how economics is all around without is us even knowing it. I enjoyed the sections about pollution and externalities. I felt that the workload was not too much to handle given that we did have a lot of information to cover in a short amount of time. I had you for Micro and the way this class was taught(even though this was online) was very similar, you focus more on learning the general principles and less on unimportant specifics , which I like. This class taught me a lot about both Econ and the environment.
I found the end of the class (lectures 6.1, 6.2, 7.1 and 7.2) the most interesting. As an EVS major I was already familiar with much of the material, but I had never seen the economic side of it. I enjoyed viewing these issues from a different standpoint. It gave me an appreciation for the economic side of conservation. I also liked learning about the revealed preference and direct techniques for placing a value on resources. In Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management we learned about some of these methods, but this was much more in depth. It’s very possible that I will have to use these methods in my career one day…let’s hope I still have it saved on my computer. I found the beginning of the class the least interesting, but I think is to be expected when having to learn the basics of a market. In my opinion, the most important thing for econ majors to get out of the class is the end lectures. Seeing how managements can be applied to our resources and just how finite some of them are. For EVS majors I think the most important thing to understand is how to place value on non-use resources. We need to understand these things if we are to make an impact on those who only see the world from an economic standpoint.
I enjoyed the forestry topic and the fisheries topic. I found the first couple topics to be less interesting. I liked how all the topics were relative to today and the examples used were easy to understand. This course was a good class to take for EVS majors.
The most interesting part for me was how market inefficiencies got corrected. Creating a limit but also a free market for Carbon Permits or TAC's was a genius economic move. Companies become more efficient and the environment is somewhat sustained. A real win-win situation was created. Overall, this course was pretty much what I thought it would be. It was challenging enough to keep you engaged yet not too challenging as to overwhelm you. I think a good balance was established.
It was a pretty great course overall. If I could do it again I wouldn't take it as an online course but rather the typical semester course. Being neither an econ or EVS major some of the material I felt was a bit different, and different than I expected, but still very interesting nonetheless.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. Yes, some of the intro material is relatively dry, but without it we can't do the more interesting applications. Many of you also noted that you'd rather have a face-to-face class... me too! I'm actually not a huge fan of online teaching and learning. I think eye contact, voice inflection and body language are important aspects of both teaching and learning. But, online courses serve a purpose so we'll muscle through them when we have to and hopefully make the most of it. I attempt to teach the online course in a way that really encourages reading and research. This requires self-motivation and a love for focused reading. I understand that these are not everyone's comparative advantage. But some of you really stepped up and it was great to see.
Have a wonderful rest-of-the-summer!
This course was very much like I thought it would be which was great as I learned a lot in a short amount of time. To me the most interesting things we covered was that regarding fisheries as I live very close to a large old fishery in New Jersey called Belford. I was less interested in the basic economic principles that we went over in the first part of the course because I have had them several times before but none the less it was a great review. As an environmental studies major i think the more important thing I took away from this course was being able to view topics that i usually only see under an conservation or preservation light in a different way that is rationalized by business models. This helps to understand why extraction and use is necessary and provided me with a better understanding of how use and preservation can be better combined in areas for the best outcome.
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