THE TEACHING ECONOMIST - William A. McEachern 
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Issue 19, Fall 2000
William A. McEachern, Editor
Home Sweet Home
Four years ago, this newsletter first discussed course syllabi and materials posted on the Web (Issue 12, Fall 1996). How goes the online revolution? Whereas most early entrants created their own Web pages more or less from scratch, recent entrants are making more use of Web platforms, such as WebCT, and this has accelerated online growth. But, because these newer platforms usually involve some level of password protection, any survey of Web courses runs into access problems.
Even if one could access all course pages, such a total would undercount use of the Web in economics courses. Here's why. Four years ago, few textbooks offered Web-based resources, such as course links and interactive material. Now most successful textbooks provide an extensive menu of online resources, including some programs that are more interactive (hence, more costly to develop) than anything found on a homegrown site. Some of these resources are also available on CD. Either way, students can use online resources even if the instructor has no Web page for the course.
How does economics compare with other disciplines when it comes to use of the Web for course pages? As of August 2000, links to 63 economic courses appeared on the World Lecture Hall site (http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/), a gathering place for course home pages. Compared to a dozen related disciplines, primarily in social sciences and business, economics tied with business administration for fourth place in World Lecture Hall totals, behind computer science (with 197 links), psychology (94), and history (70). So economics ranks above the median of related disciplines.
A good example of the resources found on a typical course site is the home page of Stanley E. Zin of Carnegie Mellon, one of the first economists to provide a link to his course page (http://bobbyorr.gsia.cmu.edu/macro/) on the World Lecture Hall site. His Web site is simple but does the job, with sections on the instructor, objectives, material, requirements, teaching assistants, assignments, outlines, lecture notes, student feedback, important dates, and a "course board," which posts messages from the instructor and comments from students. For ideas from other course Web sites, see "The Grapevine" on the next page.