Métodos de Ensino e Avaliações

In line with its main goals and expected learning outcomes, there will be two types of sessions in the DAEM course: traditional theoretical sessions plus computer-mediated laboratory sessions. The theoretical sessions will be devoted to presenting and discussing each data analysis topic listed in the program. The focus of such theoretical sessions will be on learning specific vocabulary and methodological frameworks necessary for analyzing economic and business-related issues and data, while learning how to compute several basic statistical metrics by-hand and how to interpret them. In these sessions, students will therefore develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills by means of traditional pen-and-paper exercises. The computer-mediated laboratory sessions will follow-up on the theoretical sessions and will be essentially applied, devoted to discussing, illustrating, and allowing students to de facto conduct each data analysis topic listed in the program with the use of computer software, namely Excel and R. The focus of such applied sessions will be on learning basic practical skills to collect, analyze, interpret, and visualize economic and business-related data. In these sessions, students will therefore develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills by means of computer-aided hands-on exercises that allow making use of large datasets. The economic and business-related problems, their framing, and the datasets used in the laboratory sessions will be adopted, and adapted, from the online ebook CORE/Doing Economics, which relies on the use of Excel and R. In the applied sessions, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to program in R for the purposes of data collection, data analysis, and data visualization will also be discussed at a rather introductory-level, making sure that the ethical issues concerning the use of AI are also brought to the table. Assessment To maximize the likelihood that the evaluation throughout the semester (ALS) in the DAEM course facilitates learning and is effective from the point of view of encouraging on-going study from students, there will be four 30-minute in-class individual assignments, each one worth 25% of the final grade. Specifically, there will be two 30-minute theory-based in-class individual assignments with traditional exercises to be solved by-hand. The two theory-based in-class assignments will take place in two previously scheduled theoretical classes. In addition, there will be two 30-minute data-based in-class individual assignments with interpretation of outputs in R and an empirical analysis of an actual database to be done in R. This 2-part structure will allow to distinguish the ability of students to execute a data analysis from the ability to interpret it, while evaluating both skills. The two data-based in-class assignments will take place in two previously scheduled laboratory classes. As part of the effort to pursue the aforementioned effectiveness, the sequence of assignments throughout the semester will be the following: - TA1: Theory-based in-class Assignment 1 (25%) - DA1: Data-based in-class Assignment 1 (25%) - TA2: Theory-based in-class Assignment 2 (25%) - DA2: Data-based in-class Assignment 2 (25%)