Written by Dr Sofía Izquierdo Sánchez

I think we can all agree that the last few years have been especially challenging in higher education. During the pandemic, we had to adapt our traditional way of teaching. Consequently, post-Covid, many things have changed at the university level; now the traditional approach to teaching is more than ever combined with digital provision, whether this “mix” is a positive or negative thing I leave it for you to decide, but hands up I think it’s a positive thing.

However, this new environment has also brought new challenges that still need to be addressed. It has highlighted the problem of students’ disengagement (Pham et al., 2022), and the pre-preparation of the latest and upcoming cohorts of university  students has been affected.

I have always been a fan of using unconventional techniques to help students understand the more complex concepts. I was a student once (I am sure you can relate to this too) and I felt that sometimes it was difficult to understand or see the real world application of a concept. So, using games during my lectures or tutorials became a natural teaching method for me. Not any game, of course, but well-established games with a research background behind them, which helps students to understand the complex concepts in an easy and fun way.

But why is this important? When you understand a concept it’s easier to find the application in the real world and understand the implications. When you have fun learning it is easier to engage. When you engage it is easier to perform well in a module. Introducing games can have a positive impact on students’ engagement and learning (Emerson and English, 2016)

Have you ever tried to use a game to teach economics? The Economics Network has a very useful page with different classroom experiments and games [1], so  why not give it a go? Last term I used the “tennis balls game” to explain the concepts related to short run production in the module Managerial Economics 1, but different games cover a wide variety of concepts! The students seemed to like it! In fact, this was reflected in the unit module evaluation, highlighting that: the group games gave them a sense of community, and were a fun experience that contributed to their knowledge.

The use of games in economics has also evolved and, although in-class games used to be the norm, now online games are rising in popularity. These games can be played in any electronic device in the classroom or remotely. And even if they are online it doesn’t mean they have to be played by a single player, many of them offer the possibility of interaction with the classmates, not losing the sense of community. Below I leave some links to some platforms for you to explore:

Vecon: http://veconlab.econ.virginia.edu/games.php

Economics Games: https://economics-games.com/

Classex: https://classex.de/

Moblab: https://moblab.com/

Can videogames help us to teach economics in Higher Education? That is a discussion question for your next coffee break!

References

Emerson, T. L., and English, L. K. (2016). “Classroom Experiments: Teaching Specific Topics or Promoting the Economic Way of Thinking?”, Research in Economic Education, 47(4): 288-299

Pham, T., Thi K., Dung T. V., and V-H. D. (2022). “The Impact of Academic Aspect Quality on Student Disengagement in Higher Education” Education Sciences, 12(8): 507

[1] https://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/themes/games