Change of the course

This year I will be making some rather big changes to the course. In short:

• More directed study of game theoretic topics.
• Returning to an exam for assessment.

In practice this is in fact reversing a trend I have taken over the years to attempt to use research projects as assessment to empower students to investigate relevant areas of game theory in an intrinsically motivated way.

The course this year will in fact resemble a version of the course you can still find online here.

Why am I doing this?

Over the more recent years I do not feel the spare amount of content and open ended research projects have yielded the pedagogic outcomes I was hoping for. In fact they have tended (not for all students) to result in narrow focus and actually not independent work.

Why keep any research project at all?

When thinking at length about what I wanted to do with this course, one option was to go to 100% exam. I have not done this as I want to continue to give students the opportunity to explore and gain credit in a topic they are interested in. At it’s worst this is an opportunity to have something to discuss in a job interview, at it’s best this is a genuine exciting exploration of mathematics.

Why go for a group project instead of an individual one?

There is a small percentage of this decision that is selfish: it is less marking for me.

The bigger reason is that working as part of a group (with all the downsides) is something I believe to be pedagogically and experientially important.

Will the class delivery be different?

No, I’m still planning on using class sessions for exploratory activities with students expected to work through the notes independently. I will continue to be available and eager to assist. There is also, still slack in the schedule to ensure we have time to revisit particular topics.