Learning at university

Abstract

Much of the economic literature on education models the process of acquiring human capital as a “black box.” While such models have many interesting uses, they are of little use when a student is considering how much teaching she needs and how her time at university is allocated between study and attending class. Considering such questions requires us to “open up” the black box. Our paper shows what one such model would look like by explicitly modeling how students choose to learn. We believe that this framework can inform the current debate about teaching in higher education.