Introductory Honors Economics on the WEB

Alfred L. Norman and Vinit Jagdish - The University of Texas at Austin

This paper discusses the development, use, and evaluation of WEB materials designed for the freshman economics honors courses ECO 303H An Introduction to Microeconomics) and ECO 302H (An Introduction to acroeconomics). The materials consist of course notes, on-line quizzes, simulation models, and Java applications for repeated games.

The course notes were programmed in HTML. The notes for microeconomics review one dimensional calculus and then use the review as a foundation to define microeconomic concepts. The notes for macroeconomics employ linear models to describe basic macroeconomic relationships. On-line quizzes were programmed in HTML and JavaScript. These are self-administered quizzes that test students on the main topics covered in the previous section's notes. (The notes and quizzes can be viewed by visiting http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Norman/05/qq1.html).

The simulation models were programmed in HTML, JavaScript, and Java. The first is a dynamic price adjustment simulation. In this simulation, students manipulate a parameter (h). From experimentation, students find out what values of h make the model converge, diverge, or oscillate. The second model simulates a tax-cut. After a tax-cut, students manipulate the investment growth rate to learn how tax-cuts and growth in investment affect the deficit. (Both these simulations can be viewed by visiting http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Norman/05/qq1.html).

Three more simulations were programmed in Java. These simulations are repeated games designed for use on our X-terminals. The games include two classic examples of game theory (a Cournot-Stackleberg model and a Prisoner's Dilemma model) as well as a Cournot competition game. We intend to divide students into two groups. The first is a control group consisting of students who have been exposed to the material before in a formal classroom setting. The second is an experimental group.

Students in this group have never before seen game theory material. The experiment will test whether or not computer simulations can effectively teach the principles of game theory. A cash award will be provided to the student who performs the best in the simulations in order to guarantee the students' best efforts.

The programs were developed in HTML and JavaScript because they are relatively programmer-friendly languages. An educator with little or no programming experience can quickly learn how to program useful applications in these languages. Programming in Java requires considerable effort but is needed for more powerful applications. Extensive code libraries exist in all three of these languages so it is easy to modify pre-existing code into desired applications.

There were some difficulties, however, in developing the applications. Currently, it is difficult to display mathematical equations on the internet using HTML. In the future, HTML plans to promote math text with a LaTeX type language to facilitate this process. While, JavaScript is an easy language to use, at present, the language remains extremely buggy. These bugs affect the consistency of the applications. One minute an application might work, the next, it might return an error message. The last main problem encountered was in the repeated games applications programmed in Java. The repeated games models depend on communication between terminals. These programs were first written as applets. Due to the read and write nature of the communication, applets could not be used because of the security risk involved. The models were then coded as Java applications. While Java applications do not compromise security, the communication has remained buggy.

The final part of this paper provides an evaluation of these applications as educational tools in economics as well as a description of future projects. It answers the questions of how students responded to the material and what students would like to see more of in the future. Student surveys will also be employed to compare computer applications to alternative forms of instruction. Future projects proposed deal with augmenting the on-line quizzes. If a student makes a mistake on a quiz question, the program will be modified so that it automatically refers the student back to applicable areas in the course notes. Another application plans to simulate a dynamic IS-LM model for macroeconomics students. In addition, the repeated games code will be modified to an N-player format rather than just pairs.

Scheduled for Session 2.1 Topics In Commerce And Education