Student perceptions of learning with SoftChalk: Economics lessons and activities

Abstract

Today’s Gen Z college students often enter a Principles of Economics classroom that is similar to that of their Gen X parents and sometimes even their Baby Boomer grandparents, despite a myriad of technological and pedagogical transformations occurring outside the discipline. Leveraging technology to expand learning opportunities beyond the constraints of the campus schedule offers an innovative way for professors to enhance their traditional teaching methods. This paper describes how faculty at a regional university utilized SoftChalk educational content authoring software to design and create online lessons with engaging activities for their Principles of Macroeconomics courses. It also presents results from a student perception survey on the effectiveness of the SoftChalk lessons and activities for supporting learning of economics content. Students also ranked their preferences for different types of SoftChalk activities and compared the software’s overall helpfulness to other learning tools available within their courses.