TOR of Committee to Study and Evaluate Online Econometrics Courses

A committee to study and evaluate online Econometrics courses for use in our own teaching programs is hereby created:

1: Head & Responsible Party: Dr Atiq ur Rehman

2. Dr. Muhammad Iqbal

3. Dr. Zahid Asghar*

4. Dr. Hafsa Hina

5. Dr. Mahmood Khalid

6. Dr. Ahsan ul Haq

7. Dr. Saqlain Raza

8. Ms. Amena Urooj

9. Dr. Saud Ahmed Khan

TECHNICAL SUPPORT: Mr. Kamran Khan and Mr. Khurram from IT -- to support setting up a local online course to offered next semester, via MOODLE or any other relevant software

Dr. Atiq ur Rehman -- call a meeting of this committee as soon as possible. Anyone who is teaching Statistics/Econometrics is included on this list. Look at all the outlines of courses being taught. Make sure that each course has a strong APPLIED component – computer based practice of concepts being taught. In particular, in statistics, we must teach basic concepts of Monte Carlo methods, or simulation of random events on a computer.

This committee has somewhat different goals and focus from the two online course committees on Macroeconomics and Microeconomics. These are listed below.

GOAL 1: My online course on Introduction to Statistics is well developed. All intro stats courses in all departments should be built around this ONLINE course. Examine the topics and course outlines for all intro stats course, and study how to ensure that there is complete coverage. We could exclude some lectures for the current basic course and add special topics required by Environmental or Health. Alternatively, existing materials could be REDONE using relevant examples for the concerned field. For example, the course is built around WDI data sets for GDP and other macroeconomic variables. By changing data sets, statistical concepts could be illustrated in the context required for the specific department.

GOAL 2: Similarly prepare one online course – starting with the base of my online Applied Econometrics Course – which should be used for all introductory econometrics courses in future at PIDE

GOAL 3: use an online quiz system like EDMODO to prepare WEEKLY objective type quizzes which all students should take in all Econometrics CURRENTLY being offered. Ensure that the quizzes involve doing ACTUAL EXCEL worksheets, so that students get applied practice on computer with concepts they are studying. Many models for this are available in the online quizzes for Intro Stats. All courses should have lab work in addition to purely theoretical mode.

GOAL 4: ALL students should learn BASIC SIMULATION TECHNIQUES in the introductory stats/econometrics courses, regardless of what course they are taking. That is because SIMULATION is the key to understanding all statistical concepts. The contents of L08: Matching Samples to Populations [attached] should be taught to all students in the statistics or econometrics courses this semester. This may be incorporated into the lectures at some suitable place in the existing syllabus. Furthermore, they should be tested on the understanding of this material. Further development of the lecture, in terms of explaining things better, and also developing lab exercises to accompany the lecture, is part of the project.

To re-iterate, Goals 1 & 2 mean that ONLINE INTRO STATS and ONLINE APPLIED ECONOMETRICS first course should be prepared and be ready for use from next semester. There should be one basic course common to all, and a few lectures can be added as supplements, or changed, to meet requirements of different departments which are teaching variations of the same course. GOAL 3 means that computer labs (tested using online quiz system) should be made part of all courses; these should be conducted OUTSIDE classroom hours. GOAL 4 means that all students should learn how to do simulations – this may involve teaching the material of Lecture 08 attached IN CLASS if needed, and adding labs to practice this skill outside class.

Dr. Asad Zaman