Main goal: develop skills and background to
- understand and formulate real-world problems;
- construct mathematical models that abstract the essence of real-world problems;
- solve the mathematical models of real-world problems.
Specific goals are detailed next according to Dublin descriptors.
- Knowledge and understanding: at the end of the course, students are expected to know the fundamental aspects of quantitative methods involving operations research, mathematical programming and analytics as support to decision making.
- Applying knowledge and understanding: at the end of the course, students are expected to know how to rely on mathematical programming techniques and computer software (e.g., Microsoft Excel) to practically address real-world problems in economics.
- Making judgements: the whole course is organized so as to make the students ask (themselves) the “right” questions. To achieve this objective, computer lab activities, exercise sessions, homework assignments, case study analyses are resorted to in a flipped classroom context.
- Communication: students are continuously invited to lead lectures and participate directly and actively in the learning process in flipped classroom schemes.
- Lifelong learning skills: lectures are devised to encourage self-motivated pursuit of knowledge. In fact, as detailed above, but also in the light of an ongoing evaluation approach, students are urged to develop a leading role during the lectures in a cooperative, as well as competitive environment.