News Home

Talley highlighted in Syllabus Magazine

            DSU assistant professor of Business for Information Systems, Dan Talley, was recently highlighted in an article for Syllabus Magazine on his views of the subject, taking principles of microeconomics online.

            “Naturally, I am quite pleased that Syllabus opted to include the interview in the June issue,” said Talley.

The author of the article, a free-lance writer hired by syllabus, contacted Talley, asking him a series of questions about his background in economics, his use of technology in teaching, and his use of Archipelago’s product specifically. “She was interested in my online course experience and wanted to know more about Archipelago’s courseware for Principles of Microeconomics,” said Talley. “I provided both my views, pro and con, and the prospective that students had given me.”

Talley says he was a tester and early adopter of a product produced by Archipelago, which is a software company, now called Harcourt e-Learning, that was originally part of Harcourt Brace Publishers. “They were tasked with developing electronic software products that could be used to teach online courses,” said Talley. “One of their early products was courseware (course software) for Principles of Microeconomics. It consists of CD-ROMS that contain textbook-style coverage of various topics and a website that the instructor can customize and tell his/her students to go visit.”

While there, students can download assignments, view grades, take quizzes, and get the customized material to download to their computer. The chapters can even be reordered so that they can be covered in any order. Talley says he used the courseware as a textbook. “Compared to a typical textbook, the Archipelago text went into less depth and discussion, but had better presentation and integration with the multimedia aspects,” he said. “Of course, the primary attraction is the use of multimedia presentations. The graphs are drawn before your very eyes, much like a classroom presentation, and the electronic textbook uses movies and voice-overs then add inflection and emotion to the text.”

 “The power of multimedia in teaching however is not the flash, color, and sound effects; it’s the fact that students can manipulate a mathematical model with their own hands and therefore build their understanding of it,” added Talley.

Even simple actions, like changing starting values to recalculating profits, can make a model come alive. “By ‘playing’ with the diagrams, tables, and charts, the students learn how the various parts interact, and perhaps learn better than by reading several paragraphs of detailed description or listening for 15 minutes to a walk-through in a classroom setting,” said Talley. “It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to address these points in a respected periodical whose audience is educators interested in teaching with technology.”

An excerpt of the article can be found at: http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?ID=3699