Abstract:

The advancement of computer science and spread of the Internet have significantly affected the perception of didactic processes at schools, especially in university-level institutions, where students are required to be much more on their own in knowledge acquisition than it is typical in case of lower-level schools. It is especially noticeable as regards quantitative courses, which are ancillary for teaching economics. Students, as well as teachers of major subjects, merely expect practical information from courses in mathematics, financial mathematics, statistics, econometrics or operations research. It is practical proficiency that makes a difference, while theoretical layer of theorems and proofs is less significant. With a widespread availability of e-learning courses, specialized mathematical and statistical tools, more and more Internet offers of free calculators, one may think about considering all those new opportunities within syllabi of academic courses of quantitative subjects. Financial mathematics, statistics, econometrics and operations research have been mostly taught as hands-on classes for a long time. Now a question arises as to whether mathematics could also be taught in this way, while its main role is to provide theoretical foundations for other subjects. The paper will present an idea of teaching quantitative subjects, in particular mathematics, at universities of economics, taking account of circumstances given above, and also a reduced number of hours available for teaching the courses.

Keywords:

Education, academic curricula, quantitative methods, mathematical software.