Unit.  College/School/Department:

Harriot College/Department of Economics

In Cooperation with (Optional):

(Name of Cooperating Unit)

Name of Project Director:

Dr. Craig Landry

Campus Address:

Brewster A-433

Phone Number:

328-6383

E-Mail:

landryc@mail.ecu.edu

Total Funding Request:

$37,532

Choose One:

¬ Distance Education Proposal

X

¬ On Campus Proposal

Project Title: 

Experimental Economics Mobile Instructional Lab

Name of Unit Head:

Dr. Richard E. Ericson, Department of Economics

Campus Address:

Brewster A-428

Phone Number:

328-6006

The goal of this project is to enhance undergraduate and graduate instruction in economics.  Use of the mobile experimental lab will promote a better understanding of economic models through economic policy simulations, econometric applications, and economic decision-making experiments. The proposed project will not only significantly improve instruction in general education courses in economics, but also upgrade instructional facilities for undergraduate economics majors and graduate students.

Computers have become essential tools for teaching economics. In particular, the proposed mobile computer lab allows instructors to seamlessly integrate traditional classroom teaching with many powerful interactive instructional tools, via the network or web, to help students become engaged in active learning. Economists study how people make economic decisions. Instead of being a passive observer of market determinants and outcomes, students have the opportunity to engage in economic decision-making as an active participant within the economic environment. A Classroom experiment provides students with a way to reflect on their own behavior and develop an intuitive grasp of fundamental concepts such as optimization, market interaction, the role of information and strategic behavior. Classroom experiments conducted on these mobile computers can highlight the interaction between individual behavior and aggregate outcomes.

The advantage of the mobile experimental lab over a wired lab is the flexibility it provides.  All wireless classrooms become potential laboratories.  Also the mobile lab is scaleable so that the laptops can go where needed with subsets used in different classrooms at the same time.  Additional units can be added and updated at a later date.

Existing courses:

Econ 5000 Special Topics: including Industrial Organization, Labor Economics, Health Economics, Money and Banking, Monetary Theory, and Natural Resource Economics. Students would be graduate students and upper class undergraduate students (over 200 students are enrolled for these courses each year).

ECON 3144 Intermediate Microeconomics (approximately 80 students enrolled each year).

New courses:

Economics of Natural Hazards; Student would be graduate students and upper class undergraduate students

The Department of Economics currently has access to two 5-year old Gateway laptop computers and to the desktop computers at Kim Lab.  However, the instructional capabilities of Kim Lab are very limited as its work station layout is not suitable for classroom instruction. The proposed mobile lab will effectively utilize the projection capability in the newly renovated classrooms in the C-wing of the Brewster building.

The Center for Natural Hazards Mitigation Research currently has 4 IBM Thinkpads, which will complement the mobile experimental lab.

As of 11/30/04, no materials have been obtained by the Department of Economics via SCTR request

Comment from Wendy Creasey:

If you guys decide to fund the Economics proposal for a laptop cart, I need to write them a memo on expectations for wireless, the hours of wireless support, and check out the area with networking to make sure they will be successful/set the expectation. 

1. 25 IBM 15” R51 “Thinkpads.”

2. 1 Dell OptiPlex GX280 Small Mini-Tower with pre-installed ITCS lab computing image: this will be the departmental server for the mobile lab.

3. 25 Wireless cards.

4. 1 wireless PCI adaptor.

5. Secure cart for storing and transporting mobile experimental computer lab.

Note:  No software purchases are required, as all necessary software and development tools are in the public domain.

Support for the project will be provided by the Department of Economics.  The classrooms of the C-wing of the Brewster building, our primary teaching location, have recently been IT upgraded with “smart classroom” wireless and projection technologies; our mobile experimental lab would make use of this advanced capability.

Software for running economics experiments is available, free of charge, in the public domain.  One source is Dr. Charlie Holt’s interactive experimental webpage called VECON which was developed with NSF support to provide internet-based teaching experiments.    To date approximately 15 experimental modules are available and more are being added.(http://www.people.virginia.edu/~cah2k/teaching.html).  A second source of software is the University of Zurich’s software called Z-Tree (http://www.iew.unizh.ch/ztree/index.php).  Z-tree also has existing experiments suitable for classroom use.  In addition, since it is a simple to use ‘experiment development language’, ECU professors can and will use it to create customized teaching experiments.

The usage of these interactive instructional tools in classroom settings has been shown to be appropriate for courses at all levels: in introductory principles courses, intermediate level courses, and undergraduate application courses such as managerial economics, industrial organization, labor economics, health economics, money and banking, monetary theory, and natural resource economics.  The Economics Department currently tests students on the acquisition of understanding of basic economic principles as part of on-going assessment to improve teaching.  The impact of the new technologies inherent in the mobile laboratory will be measured in these ongoing tests, and in tests specialized to the material specifically taught through the use of this experimental economics laboratory.