Internet Learning Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2012 | Page 25

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Internet Learning

The University’s strong practitioner emphasis, as manifested in the Master of Public
Administration (MPA) degree, meant downplaying the political and contextual dimensions of
public budgeting. As a result this course’s emphasis was split quite unevenly between budgetary
application at the core and context and politics on the margins. Since the former counted for the
greater proportion of the grade by far, students had a strong incentive to be engaged during the
second half of each 150-minute class, when the applied financial assignments were explained
and related examples worked. The first half of these classes, when budgetary context and
politics were discussed, held intrinsic interest for a number of the students (and the instructor),
but provided scant extrinsic motivation for engagement. Accordingly, a lecture-based quiz on
one or two of the main points covered in the first half of the class was always given at the
halfway point. The weekly quiz, which did not involve assigned reading beyond the lecture
material, was incorporated into the original course design, preceding the virtual attendance
option. Table 3 illustrates the difference between contextual and political topics covered in the
first half of each class versus the applied topics in the latter half.
Table 3.
Contextual and Political Topics versus Applied Topics in Public Budgeting Course
Module
Contextual/Political Topic Examples
Applied Topic Examples
Budgetary context Theoretical and political distinctions
Distribution of state & local revenue
between public and private goods
sources and spending allocations
Budget structure Line-item, programmatic, and perforLimits of fund accounting and linemance-based budgeting paradigms
item budgeting in cutback scenarios
Budget preparation Incremental, rational budgetary theories; Multi-year patterns in budgetary
and execution b Ց