Dorina Tila | University of New York in Tirana (original) (raw)
Papers by Dorina Tila
This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in t... more This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in the curation of content. Students are asked to explain the various economic topics using the economic terminology and personal experience. For example, in this assignment, the students are split in groups and asked to discuss and identify what their opportunity cost of getting a college degree is. They will discuss all the items that comprise the opportunity cost and the benefits of going to college and share this in real time with everyone else through a google document. Assignment Learning Outcomes: Define and apply the notion of opportunity cost. Understand the consequences of making choices and the relation with costs. Apply and clarify choices based on benefit and cost analysis
This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in t... more This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in the curation of content but in an unintentional way. Students participate in classroom games that eventually unravel economic theory and they are unaware that they are doing it. This can be done by running experiments (e.g., double auction, or option to give a fine), collect the information, and sharing it with students. Comparing the results with the findings from the economic theory in textbook or findings in academic articles, will provide students with a better understanding of the material as they would have unintentionally proven or disproven the theory. Assignment Learning Outcomes Understand, derive, and interpret the law of demand. Understand, derive, and interpret the law of supply. Calculate and interpret the equilibrium, consumer surplus and producer (seller) surplus. Interpret and explain the market efficiency
Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments
This article shares an assignment that has been successfully implemented in Writing Across the Cu... more This article shares an assignment that has been successfully implemented in Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) macroeconomic courses available to major and non-major undergraduate students enrolled in the City University of New York (CUNY) Kingsborough Community College. While the outcome at the end of the semester is a paper of about three pages, the steps designed to assist students with completing it are important because they provide a detailed research and investigation guide. The assignment is composed of a series of scaffolded tasks that engage students in data collection, data analysis, and interpretation using economic theory of the subject area, presentation of the actual findings compared to predictions of economic theory, and investigation and interpretation for convergence and/or divergence from the economic theory. This assignment is based on prior research on the benefits of assigning writing in economics courses and aims to achieve the outcomes described by the stru...
This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in t... more This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in the curation of content. Using findings from prior conducted research and group discussions, students will present some economic indicators and the performance of the economy of a country of their choice (students self-selects the country to be researched). For example, the student is asked to identify the latest recession experienced by the selected country using the historical real GDP data collected and analyzed in stage two. Having identified the time of the recession, the student is asked to explain what happened to the other economic indicators, such as inflation rate and unemployment rate during that specific time. Assignment Learning Outcomes: Interpret, graph, and explain the macroeconomic indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), unemployment rate, inflation rate, etc. Identify a recession and explain it in relation to the macroeconomic indicator of real GDP. Relate and i...
Abstract: The ability of individuals and groups to forecast a future event, with incomplete infor... more Abstract: The ability of individuals and groups to forecast a future event, with incomplete information, by using the trading history of an asset market is analyzed in the laboratory. The results show: (1) when forecasters observe the summary of market-transacted prices, they do not perform as well as when they are provided with a complete real-time sequence of bids, asks and contract prices; (2) groups do not outperform individuals in forecasting, and when the market does not have price manipulation incentives, individual prediction is better than the group prediction; (3) in markets with manipulators, where only a summary of contract prices is provided, both groups and individuals are unable to predict better than flipping a coin. This inability to aggregate information is remedied when forecasters see the complete evolution of market bids, asks
e-mentor, 2020
This study explores whether student academic performance differs between the face-to-face and onl... more This study explores whether student academic performance differs between the face-to-face and online hybrid sections in an undergraduate introductory macroeconomic course offered at a US community college. The data was collected from 414 students enrolled in various sections of the course during five semesters from spring 2016 to fall 2018. The findings show no statistical difference in student performance between face-to-face and online hybrid courses and contribute to the literature specific to the discipline of economics, which unlike other disciplines, has shown discord in findings. The usefulness of such results may extend to US higher education institutions to help them make data-informed decisions about their future investments in online teaching modalities and course design in the discipline of economics.
Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 2019
Recent developments in technology allow instructors to design meaningful customized homework assi... more Recent developments in technology allow instructors to design meaningful customized homework assignments that enhance student performance, while reducing the time and resources required for grading and feedback. In particular, online assignments allow the instructor to utilize various setting options including auto-grading, number of attempts, and timing of access to answer keys that result in assignments that uniquely fit student needs. This study investigates the impact of using such options by comparing single submitted and multiple submitted online assignments in an introductory economics course at a community college. Using the grades on multiple-choice homework assignments, quizzes, and a final exam as the performance measures, the authors tested hypotheses concerning the performance improvement of students at Kingsborough Community College who were allowed to revise and resubmit homework. Results indicate that (a) additional submissions yielded better results, even when students were not told which questions were incorrect on prior attempts; (b) single submitted attempts were not worse off than multiple submitted attempts; and (c) student perception of multiple submission opportunities was extremely positive. The data suggest that resubmitting assignments may serve both as a powerful learning tool to replace or supplement traditional study tools and as a catalyst for student growth mindset cultivation. Helping students perform better, retain knowledge, apply course content, and derive patterns of analysis to solve future problems are all significant instructor priorities. However, any teaching initiatives aimed at optimizing student performance must be considered in concert with the costs associated with such actions. In a realistic world, where time and other resources are limited, and with increasing numbers of students per semester, should faculty consider allowing students to revise and resubmit assignments to help achieve learning objectives and improve course outcomes? Faculty should invest in teaching methods that ensure marginal costs do not exceed marginal benefits. The tools implemented and analyzed in this study aim to decrease the costs while increasing the benefits captured by student performance and positive student outlook and attitude. The study consists of two parts. The first part analyzes students' responses to an anonymous questionnaire regarding their experience of revising and resubmitting assessments, while the second part analyzes their actual performance. Analyzing whether performance improves if students are allowed to revise and resubmit multiplechoice assignments is important for various reasons. First, multiple-choice questions are a type of assessment that can be used in a variety of courses, not just the ones that require extensive reading and writing. Second, due to increasing class size and other instructor obligations, assessing student CONTACT Dorina Tila
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2013
A continuing goal of experiments is to understand risky decisions when the decisions are importan... more A continuing goal of experiments is to understand risky decisions when the decisions are important. Often a decision's importance is related to the magnitude of the associated monetary stake. Khaneman and Tversky (1979) argue that risky decisions in high stakes environments can be informed using questionnaires with hypothetical choices (since subjects have no incentive to answer questions falsely.) However, results reported by Holt and Laury (2002, henceforth HL), as well as replications by Harrison (2005) suggest that decisions in "high" monetary payoff environments are not well-predicted by questionnaire responses. Thus, a potential implication of the HL results is that studying decisions in high stakes environments requires using high stakes. Here we describe and implement a procedure for studying high-stakes behavior in a low-stakes environment. We use the binary-lottery reward technique (introduced by Berg, et al (1986)) to induce preferences in a way that is consistent with the decisions reported by HL under a variety of stake sizes. The resulting decisions, all of which were made in a low-stakes environment, reflect surprisingly well the noisy choice behavior reported by HL's subjects even in their highstakes environment. This finding is important because inducing preferences evidently requires substantially less cost than paying people to participate in extremely high-stakes games. Chance of Receiving 2 Dollars Chance of Receiving 1.6 Dollars Chance of Receiving 3.85 Dollars Chance of Receiving 0.1 Dollars
The relevance of information in various institutions is the main focus of this dissertation'... more The relevance of information in various institutions is the main focus of this dissertation's investigation. Chapter 1 introduces the questions that inspired this work: how can information emerge and improve decision making in a world of uncertainty. Chapter 2 analyzes how ...
Working Papers, 2008
The ability of individuals and groups to forecast a future event, with incomplete information, by... more The ability of individuals and groups to forecast a future event, with incomplete information, by using the trading history of an asset market is analyzed in the laboratory. The results show: (1) when forecasters observe the summary of markettransacted prices, they do not ...
We study experimental markets where privately informed traders exchange simple assets, and where ... more We study experimental markets where privately informed traders exchange simple assets, and where uninformed third parties are asked to forecast the values of these assets, guided only by market prices. Although prices only partially aggregate information, they ...
economicsystemdesign.com
Figure 1: Sailors have read-only access to billets available in their command. The screen also co... more Figure 1: Sailors have read-only access to billets available in their command. The screen also contains other information about the Sailor's job selections and the goodness of the match between billet and Sailor scored on preferences, skills and moving costs. ... Figure 3: Sailors' personal information is logged into a JASS page (but the information is manually transferred from other systems and mistakes are not uncommon. ... Figure 4: Sailors' personal information is logged into a JASS page (but the information is manually transferred from other systems and ...
Journal of Education for Business
The author investigates the learning efficiency of economic experiments, an innovative instructio... more The author investigates the learning efficiency of economic experiments, an innovative instructional tool that recreates the outside world within the classroom. This tool enables the instructor to create an economic environment whereby students experience how their decisions and interactions create the market forces predicted by the economic theory. The findings show (a) improvement in students' attitudes toward the subject, (b) perceived improvement in understanding the material, and (c) increase in assessments' scores.
This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in t... more This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in the curation of content. Students are asked to explain the various economic topics using the economic terminology and personal experience. For example, in this assignment, the students are split in groups and asked to discuss and identify what their opportunity cost of getting a college degree is. They will discuss all the items that comprise the opportunity cost and the benefits of going to college and share this in real time with everyone else through a google document. Assignment Learning Outcomes: Define and apply the notion of opportunity cost. Understand the consequences of making choices and the relation with costs. Apply and clarify choices based on benefit and cost analysis
This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in t... more This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in the curation of content but in an unintentional way. Students participate in classroom games that eventually unravel economic theory and they are unaware that they are doing it. This can be done by running experiments (e.g., double auction, or option to give a fine), collect the information, and sharing it with students. Comparing the results with the findings from the economic theory in textbook or findings in academic articles, will provide students with a better understanding of the material as they would have unintentionally proven or disproven the theory. Assignment Learning Outcomes Understand, derive, and interpret the law of demand. Understand, derive, and interpret the law of supply. Calculate and interpret the equilibrium, consumer surplus and producer (seller) surplus. Interpret and explain the market efficiency
Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments
This article shares an assignment that has been successfully implemented in Writing Across the Cu... more This article shares an assignment that has been successfully implemented in Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) macroeconomic courses available to major and non-major undergraduate students enrolled in the City University of New York (CUNY) Kingsborough Community College. While the outcome at the end of the semester is a paper of about three pages, the steps designed to assist students with completing it are important because they provide a detailed research and investigation guide. The assignment is composed of a series of scaffolded tasks that engage students in data collection, data analysis, and interpretation using economic theory of the subject area, presentation of the actual findings compared to predictions of economic theory, and investigation and interpretation for convergence and/or divergence from the economic theory. This assignment is based on prior research on the benefits of assigning writing in economics courses and aims to achieve the outcomes described by the stru...
This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in t... more This assignment aims at making instruction student-centered where students would participate in the curation of content. Using findings from prior conducted research and group discussions, students will present some economic indicators and the performance of the economy of a country of their choice (students self-selects the country to be researched). For example, the student is asked to identify the latest recession experienced by the selected country using the historical real GDP data collected and analyzed in stage two. Having identified the time of the recession, the student is asked to explain what happened to the other economic indicators, such as inflation rate and unemployment rate during that specific time. Assignment Learning Outcomes: Interpret, graph, and explain the macroeconomic indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), unemployment rate, inflation rate, etc. Identify a recession and explain it in relation to the macroeconomic indicator of real GDP. Relate and i...
Abstract: The ability of individuals and groups to forecast a future event, with incomplete infor... more Abstract: The ability of individuals and groups to forecast a future event, with incomplete information, by using the trading history of an asset market is analyzed in the laboratory. The results show: (1) when forecasters observe the summary of market-transacted prices, they do not perform as well as when they are provided with a complete real-time sequence of bids, asks and contract prices; (2) groups do not outperform individuals in forecasting, and when the market does not have price manipulation incentives, individual prediction is better than the group prediction; (3) in markets with manipulators, where only a summary of contract prices is provided, both groups and individuals are unable to predict better than flipping a coin. This inability to aggregate information is remedied when forecasters see the complete evolution of market bids, asks
e-mentor, 2020
This study explores whether student academic performance differs between the face-to-face and onl... more This study explores whether student academic performance differs between the face-to-face and online hybrid sections in an undergraduate introductory macroeconomic course offered at a US community college. The data was collected from 414 students enrolled in various sections of the course during five semesters from spring 2016 to fall 2018. The findings show no statistical difference in student performance between face-to-face and online hybrid courses and contribute to the literature specific to the discipline of economics, which unlike other disciplines, has shown discord in findings. The usefulness of such results may extend to US higher education institutions to help them make data-informed decisions about their future investments in online teaching modalities and course design in the discipline of economics.
Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 2019
Recent developments in technology allow instructors to design meaningful customized homework assi... more Recent developments in technology allow instructors to design meaningful customized homework assignments that enhance student performance, while reducing the time and resources required for grading and feedback. In particular, online assignments allow the instructor to utilize various setting options including auto-grading, number of attempts, and timing of access to answer keys that result in assignments that uniquely fit student needs. This study investigates the impact of using such options by comparing single submitted and multiple submitted online assignments in an introductory economics course at a community college. Using the grades on multiple-choice homework assignments, quizzes, and a final exam as the performance measures, the authors tested hypotheses concerning the performance improvement of students at Kingsborough Community College who were allowed to revise and resubmit homework. Results indicate that (a) additional submissions yielded better results, even when students were not told which questions were incorrect on prior attempts; (b) single submitted attempts were not worse off than multiple submitted attempts; and (c) student perception of multiple submission opportunities was extremely positive. The data suggest that resubmitting assignments may serve both as a powerful learning tool to replace or supplement traditional study tools and as a catalyst for student growth mindset cultivation. Helping students perform better, retain knowledge, apply course content, and derive patterns of analysis to solve future problems are all significant instructor priorities. However, any teaching initiatives aimed at optimizing student performance must be considered in concert with the costs associated with such actions. In a realistic world, where time and other resources are limited, and with increasing numbers of students per semester, should faculty consider allowing students to revise and resubmit assignments to help achieve learning objectives and improve course outcomes? Faculty should invest in teaching methods that ensure marginal costs do not exceed marginal benefits. The tools implemented and analyzed in this study aim to decrease the costs while increasing the benefits captured by student performance and positive student outlook and attitude. The study consists of two parts. The first part analyzes students' responses to an anonymous questionnaire regarding their experience of revising and resubmitting assessments, while the second part analyzes their actual performance. Analyzing whether performance improves if students are allowed to revise and resubmit multiplechoice assignments is important for various reasons. First, multiple-choice questions are a type of assessment that can be used in a variety of courses, not just the ones that require extensive reading and writing. Second, due to increasing class size and other instructor obligations, assessing student CONTACT Dorina Tila
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2013
A continuing goal of experiments is to understand risky decisions when the decisions are importan... more A continuing goal of experiments is to understand risky decisions when the decisions are important. Often a decision's importance is related to the magnitude of the associated monetary stake. Khaneman and Tversky (1979) argue that risky decisions in high stakes environments can be informed using questionnaires with hypothetical choices (since subjects have no incentive to answer questions falsely.) However, results reported by Holt and Laury (2002, henceforth HL), as well as replications by Harrison (2005) suggest that decisions in "high" monetary payoff environments are not well-predicted by questionnaire responses. Thus, a potential implication of the HL results is that studying decisions in high stakes environments requires using high stakes. Here we describe and implement a procedure for studying high-stakes behavior in a low-stakes environment. We use the binary-lottery reward technique (introduced by Berg, et al (1986)) to induce preferences in a way that is consistent with the decisions reported by HL under a variety of stake sizes. The resulting decisions, all of which were made in a low-stakes environment, reflect surprisingly well the noisy choice behavior reported by HL's subjects even in their highstakes environment. This finding is important because inducing preferences evidently requires substantially less cost than paying people to participate in extremely high-stakes games. Chance of Receiving 2 Dollars Chance of Receiving 1.6 Dollars Chance of Receiving 3.85 Dollars Chance of Receiving 0.1 Dollars
The relevance of information in various institutions is the main focus of this dissertation'... more The relevance of information in various institutions is the main focus of this dissertation's investigation. Chapter 1 introduces the questions that inspired this work: how can information emerge and improve decision making in a world of uncertainty. Chapter 2 analyzes how ...
Working Papers, 2008
The ability of individuals and groups to forecast a future event, with incomplete information, by... more The ability of individuals and groups to forecast a future event, with incomplete information, by using the trading history of an asset market is analyzed in the laboratory. The results show: (1) when forecasters observe the summary of markettransacted prices, they do not ...
We study experimental markets where privately informed traders exchange simple assets, and where ... more We study experimental markets where privately informed traders exchange simple assets, and where uninformed third parties are asked to forecast the values of these assets, guided only by market prices. Although prices only partially aggregate information, they ...
economicsystemdesign.com
Figure 1: Sailors have read-only access to billets available in their command. The screen also co... more Figure 1: Sailors have read-only access to billets available in their command. The screen also contains other information about the Sailor's job selections and the goodness of the match between billet and Sailor scored on preferences, skills and moving costs. ... Figure 3: Sailors' personal information is logged into a JASS page (but the information is manually transferred from other systems and mistakes are not uncommon. ... Figure 4: Sailors' personal information is logged into a JASS page (but the information is manually transferred from other systems and ...
Journal of Education for Business
The author investigates the learning efficiency of economic experiments, an innovative instructio... more The author investigates the learning efficiency of economic experiments, an innovative instructional tool that recreates the outside world within the classroom. This tool enables the instructor to create an economic environment whereby students experience how their decisions and interactions create the market forces predicted by the economic theory. The findings show (a) improvement in students' attitudes toward the subject, (b) perceived improvement in understanding the material, and (c) increase in assessments' scores.