Final Reflection

Over the course of the semester, I learned a lot more about organizations than I expected. Coming into the class, I thought I had a strong conceptual understanding of how organizations worked from previous psychology and leadership classes. With that being said, I wasn’t quite sure what this course would entail and how it would tie in concepts from my economic and psychology classes. However, the economic models we explored in this class allowed me to use a microeconomic analysis to have a deeper understanding about organizations and how they make decisions under certain circumstances. I now have a greater appreciation for management and a deeper understanding of the many different approaches organizations take to maximize efficiency. Next semester, I am taking PSYCH 245: Industrial Organizational Psychology, so I am curious to see how this class would amplify my knowledge about organizations.

The format of this class was quite new to me. I would say that this class was a hybrid between an online and in-class lecture course. We were required to share and discuss our ideas through our blog posts while the in-class discussion supplemented to our posts and understanding of the subject. In addition, we were required to complete numerous excel assignments, two quizzes, and a group paper to apply our knowledge. This format took a while to get used to as the flow of the class was different from my previous online or economics courses. All my previous online classes were administered through Compass 2g or Moodle, so I wasn’t used to checking the class blog daily. My previous in-class lecture courses were also administered through these two websites but didn’t require much use unless there was a quiz or paper that needed submission. Not checking the class blog daily led to much confusion regarding when assignments were due or how it should be done. I appreciated that Professor Arvan took this into consideration and was fairly understanding of this necessary learning curve. However, if this class was administered entirely through Moodle where all the assignments, discussions, quizzes, and papers can be submitted to one website, it would've made the process a lot more convenient.   

The excel homework was fairly straightforward and the videos helped me get through many homework assignments. The excel homework did a great job of connecting the topics we covered during the discussion with different theories, models, and equations. There was more depth in my understanding of the topics both mathematically and conceptually. I also enjoyed the group paper as it gave me an opportunity to meet more people in the class. It was nice to see at least a couple of familiar faces during the lecture. Also, I enjoyed the lectures for the most part and thought it was interesting, but sometimes I wished we had a more structured lecture. Personally, I am a visual learner so utilizing PowerPoint slides and knowing the clear outline of the topics being covered would’ve enhanced my learning experience in this class.

Blogging was something I was originally not looking forward to because writing is one of my biggest weaknesses. At first, I wasn't sure what each post required and thought the instructed were open ended. However, I soon came to appreciate writing these blog posts a lot more as it pushed me to synthesize information from the class and connect them to my personal experiences. As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, taking the steps to “prewrite” before writing the actual post transformed my writing significantly. Having a general idea and flow of how I wanted my writing to look like cut down on the time for writing my actual blog posts. It allowed me to organize my ideas and I used my time more efficiently when on the computer. This prewriting step is a useful method that can be utilized in other classes and is something I plan on using more in the future.

Overall, I enjoyed taking this class and would recommend it to other students.