Iconomix users are accustomed to our units being technically sound, didactically effective, and up-to-date - and thus fulfil the requirements for high-quality teaching and learning resources. But how do we fulfil this promise? This story provides an insight.
Teaching materials must be technically correct and didactically sound. How does Iconomix ensure this for its more than 40 different teaching units?
The answer is: through an ongoing process of feedback gathering and adaptation aimed at continuously improving the quality of a unit.
Specialists from the disciplines of economics, didactics, language and design as well as practitioners (i.e., teachers) are involved in this process. A constant flow of feedback and specialist input enables us to gradually arrive at good solutions.
An essential part of quality assurance is choosing the right partners. All parties involved in the development process of a unit are listed in the unit credits (transparency).
Iconomix distinguishes between the following dimensions of quality:
| Subject content: Is the content accurate, balanced, and up-to-date? This is ensured by the review by economists, usually professors from Swiss universities or SNB economists. |
| Subject didactics: Is the content didactically relevant and is the chosen didactic approach appropriate to the topic? Reviewed in collaboration with subject didactic partners. |
| Language: Is the language correct and the language portfolio appropriate for the target audience? Guaranteed through professional editing and proofreading. |
| Design: Is the design attractive and clear, and in the case of web applications, is the user interface intuitive? This is done by print graphic designers, web designers, and UX designers. |
| Practicality: Are our didactic recommendations useful, is the timing realistic, does everything work as it should in the classroom? Verified by teacher reviews and, for larger modules, by classroom testing. |
Quality assurance at Iconomix is an ongoing process and is therefore never fully completed. It often takes several years for a new unit to reach the desired level of maturity.
In the first months or years after the release of a unit, the need for optimization is particularly high. However, older units are also regularly reviewed - at least every four years. Accordingly, around a quarter of the units are reviewed each year and updated, revised or discontinued depending on the results.
However, Iconomix deliberately refrains from directly measuring the effectiveness of the units in the sense of an intervention study. The reason for this is that teachers hardly ever use a unit 1:1 in the classroom, but adapt it to their needs and the needs of their classes. In this case, from a practical point of view, it makes little sense to invest a lot of time and effort in proving the effectiveness of an ideally used unit.
Instead, Iconomix prefers formative evaluation - both during the development of a unit and in the subsequent operational phase. Interdisciplinary teams of experts, feedback loops, and focus group testing allow us to continuously optimize the units throughout their lifecycle.
Help shape Iconomix
Would you like to help shape the practicality of Iconomix? If you regularly use Iconomix units in your lessons and would like to take part in a focus group, we look forward to hearing from you via the contact form.
