MSc in Finance. Module: Econometrics 2. Econometrics is a technical, quantitative module

Can you provide any tangible info – e.g. module descriptor, learning outcomes, assignments, assessment criteria

Assessment: 2 projects

1.      Group Project – develop “soft Skills” – 50%

2.      Individual Project – develop “hard skills” – 50% discipline focused

Breakdown of group project work:–

1.      Technical aspects:  50%

2.      General Aspects: 40%

3.      Individual self-Reflection: 10%

How was it taught:

·        number of students

·        student groupwork or individual,

·        how they worked with the partner,

·        how the project proceeded,

·        any reflection done with students,

·        evaluation or formal assessment of their learning,

·        tech used

·        Anything else interesting?

5 students took the elective module.

The CERL project part of the module was group work.

The CERL project was run under the auspices of ENFUSE, so the students communicated directly with the community partner, without the lecturer being present. The lecturer supported the students’ progress separately.  

Students were required to submit individual reflections on their learning.

The feedback from the community partner was very positive. They said the students produced a high-quality fantastic report. Lucía gave this feedback to the students and acknowledged that although they did not get to apply all their econometrics knowledge to the project, this was OK as they had another project in which they could demonstrate this.

They were encouraged to present their work at a showcase but they decided not to, and Lucía feels they missed a valuable opportunity to showcase their work.

Any challenges and how you overcame them

At the beginning Lucía found it challenging to find a community partner. The module content is quite technical and is based on econometrics. She was worried about what value they could give to a community partner as often this particular area of work is misunderstood.  Lucía received a list of projects from ENFUSE and they seemed to be mostly based around marketing and management. They chose a community partner, a non-profit organisation called SPADE who are in the field of entrepreneurship.  The community partner had a shared kitchen facility and they wanted the students to develop research that they could use to secure funding.

In the beginning the students were excited about the project idea, and Lucía had promised them they would do a lot of learning about econometrics. After the students first met the partner, they came and told Lucía that the project wasn’t about econometrics or even finance, it would be more of a marketing and business management project. Lucía felt that this response in itself showed good communication skills and judgement by the students. The students’ motivation towards the project dropped because of this misalignment of the community partners’ goals with their learning goals. Lucía had to rethink how to align what was happening in class with the CERL project. She felt in hindsight that she could have framed the project better for the students; it was a very rich experience, but she told the students they would be doing more with econometrics, and this was not the reality – the professional/soft skills would be an important part of their learning. She felt she had mis-managed their expectations. More open discussion with the students and the community partner from the start she felt would have benefited everyone involved.

Moving forward for the module:

Image courtesy of Lucía Morales.