Pedagogical Basis for Communicating Complex Ideas
Wednesday, August 5th, 1:00PM - 2:00PM EST
Actuaries are often tasked to be educators: teaching department models to the new employee, explaining reserving methods to management, and of course, teaching themselves hundreds of hours of exam content. Unfortunately, most inherited and intuited methods of teaching are unsupported by evidence, and actively detrimental to learning.
This lesson presents well-established, research-based methods for explaining, teaching, and learning new and complex ideas. Grounded in Cognitive Load Theory, these lessons are presented in the context of training employees, communicating with non-actuaries, and preparing for actuarial exams.
Excel Cube Functions: Immediate Applications
Wednesday, September 2nd, 1:00PM - 2:00PM EST
Our Excel workbooks are inevitably linked to a dozen external files, require endless named ranges to function , and contain multiple pages of data to feed inelegant pivot tables. Excel cube functions allow for:
- External storage without external links
- Direct connections to data warehouses
- Elegant interaction with slicers
- Smaller, cleaner notebooks with more power
- SQL logic inside of Excel
Follow along at home in the sample indication models provided for the lesson. Build rudimentary cubes and employ simple cube functions that are immediately applicable in your own work.
This workshop is appropriate for anyone who is expected to build, manage, or interact with Excel in their role and requires no prior knowledge.
Introduction to GLMs for Actuaries
Wednesday, October 7th, 1:00PM - 2:00PM EST
Generalized Linear Models have quickly become an essential responsibility in many actuarial roles. Now featured on five CAS exams, GLMs play a role in ratemaking, reserving, risk scoring, and any number of predictive analyses. Unfortunately the actual mechanics of these models are often trapped behind the black box of an R package or proprietary tool.
This interactive lesson provides an introduction to GLM construction, guiding attendees to build their own pet insurance claim frequency model in real time, from the comfort of Excel. Yes, in Excel, no coding required.
This workshop is appropriate for anyone who expects to interact with GLMs and other predictive models in their career.