Applied Economics Teaching Resources

an AAEA Journal

Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Teaching and Educational Methods

Adaptation of Teaching Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Luis Moisés Peña-Lévano(a) and Grace Melo(b)
University of Wisconsin—River Falls(a) and Texas A&M University(b)

JEL Codes: A22, A30
Keywords: Active learning, evaluation, online tools, student engagement, teaching, teaching innovations

Publish Date: March 22, 2022
Volume 4, Issue 1

View Full Article (PDF) | Request Teaching Notes/Supplemental Materials

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced drastic changes in teaching methodologies, shifting from in-person courses toward fully online platforms. This article presents teaching strategies used to modify two traditional face-to-face courses (Economics of Resource Use and International Agricultural Trade) and one synchronous online course with in-person review sessions (Quantitative Methods in Food and Resource Economics) into an entirely virtual setting. This article discusses the challenges of moving content online while maintaining interaction with the students. It also exposes significant factors that have become impending challenges for online instruction during the pandemic. This study also examines students’ perception of their learning experience. Using a paired comparison test, academic performance was evaluated before and during the pandemic, showing that teaching methodologies implemented in the three courses were able to keep students’ engagement throughout the spring semester. These methodologies sought to provide a personalized approach and keep students engaged in the lectures. Further, this study discusses the impact of the pandemic on the students’ perception of their learning experience.

About the Authors: Luis Moisés Peña-Lévano is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin—River Falls (Corresponding author: luis.penalevano@uwrf.edu). Grace Melo is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University. Acknowledgements: The authors thank the Field and Fork Program for supporting the Plant City program. The authors also acknowledge Fei He, teaching assistant of Quantitative Methods in Spring 2020, for her support and marvelous work with the students, and Kati Lawson, faculty lecturer from Plant City, for providing guest lectures (prior pandemic) on the Economics of Resource Use course, which allowed students to understand the importance of effective communication when addressing environmental and economic issues. This research was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Florida (IRB# IRB202002074).

Copyright is governed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA

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