Engaging students with
online videos
Do students learn better with online videos?
Learn Liberty
• Are poor getting poorer?
What is Learn Liberty?
• LearnLiberty.Org
• “A resource for exploring the ideas of a free society”
• Short educational video clips
• Theoretical explanation and opinion piece offered by professors in a range of
academic disciplines.
• Majority of the videos begin with an introduction by narrator and continue
with short animation explaining the concepts discussed.
• Each clip is approximately 3 to 4 minutes long, contains closed captions, and a
transcript of the narrator’s speech.
Subject areas
• Economics
• Public Policy
• Political science
• History
• Law
• Philosophy
Economics topics
• Minimum wage
• Social security
• Drug prohibition
• Coase theorem
• Marginal costs
• Unintended consequences
• Opportunity cost
• Cost of higher education
• Price mechanisms
• Deficits and Debts
• Inequality
• The invisible hand
• Trade
• Immigration
Anecdotal evidence
• Students reciting narrator
• I remember, the three D! (Property rights should be well Defined, Divisible,
and Defendable)
• Minimum wage benefits most productive worker and hurts least productive
worker
• Students answer LL questions better than other questions
• Students can remember “answers” at the end of the semester
Video assignments
• In-class
• Discussion questions after
• Homework/in-class questions after
• Discussion
• Most students give same answers
• Good grades!
• Not much of critical thinking
• Homework
• Good grades!
• Not much of critical thinking
Experiment
• Introduction to economics
• 31 enrolled in face-to-face class
• 45 enrolled in online class
• Non-majors
• Mostly Sophomores and Juniors
Experiment
Face to face class
• Minimum wage
• Lecture +in class
• Common resources
• Lecture & Homework assignment
• Drug prohibition
• Lecture
• Coase theorem
• LL video during class + in class
Online class
• Minimum wage
• LL Video as a Homework assignment
• Common resources
• LL Video as a Homework assignment
• Drug prohibition
• LL Video as a Homework assignment
• Coase theorem
• Lecture
Minimum wage
• What if minimum wage was increased to $12 an hour?
• Employer will have to pay $12 to those that work for him
• Employer will have to pay $0 to those that don’t
• Example: Burger Joint
• Price of each burger = $.10
• Al can flip 100 burgers an hour, Bob can cook 120 burgers an hour and Carl can cook 90
burgers an hour
Introduction to Economics. Dr. Mariya Burdina
Minimum wage
Productivity
Revenue
Cost
Profit
Cost
Profit
Al
100
$10
$8
$2
$9.50
$0.50
Bob
120
$12
$8
$4
$9.50
$2.50
Carl
90
$9
$8
$1
$9.50
-$.50
Who was increase of minimum wage good for?
Introduction to Economics. Dr. Mariya Burdina
Minimum wage
• First lesson of minimum wage: It doesn’t help the worker at the expense of
the owner; it helps the more productive workers at the expense of the less
productive workers.
• Do more productive workers need help?
• With time owner would have to reward Bob’s higher productivity with a
raise, or owner’s competitors would have offered Bob more money to go
work for them.
• Eventually Bob would have ended up earning more anyway.
• Second lesson of the minimum wage: Many of the workers that it does
help would have ended up better off anyway, even if the minimum wage
hadn’t existed
Introduction to Economics. Dr. Mariya Burdina
Homework/In class
• What are the reasons for a country
to have a minimum wage law?
• What is the current minimum wage
in US? What about Oklahoma?
• Who do minimum wage laws help?
• Who do minimum wage laws hurt?
• What will happen to US
unemployment rate if minimum
wage laws were removed?
• In your opinion, should US keep
minimum wage laws? Explain your
point of view.
Midterm
• Who benefits and who gets hurt
from minimum wage? Explain.
• What will happen to
unemployment rate if
government decides to increase
minimum wage? Explain.
• Describe an alternative policy to
increase in the minimum wage.
Why do you think this policy is
better? What are the possible
unintended consequences of
this policy?
Results
Score averages
Common resources
Minimum Wage
Coase Theorem
Drug Prohibition
Other questions
Midterm
Face-to-face
Online
Mean
Mean
St. Dev Min
7.68
3.45
7.39
2.16
7.23
2.22
8.84
1.66
74.2
7.4
12.15
1.23
0
1
2
3
50
5.33
St. Dev
8.19
3.27
8.17
1.79
7.90
1.92
9.07
1.62
75.4
7.33
15.2
1.28
Min
0
2
2
4
21
5.23
Results
• Adjusted score averages
Face-to-face
Online
Mean
Mean
St. Dev
St. Dev
Common resources
2.60
1.75
2.93
1.67
Minimum Wage
1.90
1.24
2.33
1.36
Coase Theorem
1.77
1.36
2.07
1.49
Drug Prohibition
3.03
1.33
3.12
1.27
Table 3. T-stats comparing online and face-to-face class
H 0: μ 1 = μ 2
H a : μ 1 ≠μ 2
Online vs. F-t-F
Common
resources
Minimum
Wage
Coase
Theorem
Drug
Prohibition
Online vs. F-t-F
Adjusted scores
L.L. vs. other
questions (Online)
L.L. vs. other
questions (f-t-f)
0.642
0.798
1.565
0.365
1.642
1.405
2.409*
-0.112
1.357
0.902
0.461
-1.555
0.600
0.275
5.350*
3.758*
Why no results?
• Small sample
• Difference in class setting
• Difference in topics
• Take home exam
Benefits
• Saves class time
• Good for class preparation
• Good for visual and audio learners
• Attention catching
• Encourages discussion
• Students’ attitudes:
• 63% of students prefer these assignments to other
• 85% think they learned from the videos
Downsides
• Students are reciting the material
• Discuss in class or online
• Inability to answer questions not covered in the video
• Feedback
• Short videos with fast talking speakers
• Assign as a homework and make available online
• Libertarian view of the problem
• Other videos, additional explanations
• Broken Links
Success formula
• Mix it up
• Lecture + homework or discussion
• Explain during the lecture + video
• Lecture + In class assignments
• Show in class + add discussion points
Other video resources
• The Economics Network
• Planet Money Podcasts
• Econ Lowdown
• Youtube
• CBS 60 minutes
• TV Shows+Films+Music
Questions?
Suggestions?
Concerns?