Interactive Tutorials in Principles of Microeconomics
A suite of around 350 interactive graphs, illustrating microeconomic, financial and mathematical concepts, that run in a modern web browser without additional technology. They can be used in lectures or incorporated into other sites via an iframe.
A set of interactive games and simulations that are played in the browser. The tutor chooses a game and a number of players, then is given unique logins to distribute to learners. 14 games are played against the computer. In the other 47 games, learners play against each other.
A set of configurable, graphically appealing, online interactive games that work across laptops, iOS (Apple) and Android devices. Instructors can customise the games, or use default settings, and students join by entering a class code. The instructor gets a graphical analysis of outcomes immediately at the end of the session, for use in class discussion. The site has course guides that suggest how to sequence the games in different Economics courses, and each game has references to relevant papers. The site's apps can also be used to administer individual survey or assessment questions online.
Simple ten-part quiz that uses interactivity to test the reader's ability to distinguish shifts of the demand curve from shifts along the deamnd curve.
This is a set of hyperlinked mindmaps, including textual notes, images and hyperlinks, starting with Economic Environment of business. Reading the files requires the free MindManager viewer software, which is available for a variety of platforms. Previews of a couple of mind maps are available as PDFs, with reduced functionality.
"This interactive simulation visualizes the welfare implications of different approaches to connect buyers and sellers of a good. The user can act as a perfectly informed social planner, as a partially informed social planner, or she can elicit bids/ask offers from simulated agents in a double auction setting. The resulting allocations with the implied consumer and producer surpluses are visualized. The user experiences the informational demands that a social planner faces, and she observes the ability of a price system to allocate scarce resources when information is largely private, even if individual market participants are not sophisticated." - description quoted from The Journal of Economic Education, v46 n4 DOI: 10.1080/00220485.2015.1071215
Fourteen interactive graphs, created on the free Geogebra platform, illustrating core microeconomic principles including supply and demand, production costs, and elasticity. Each graph has sliders that shift the graph and change the calculated values. The variables are not explained in the page, so these graphs are for use for teachers in explaining the graphs, as an improvement over static slides.
Classic economic models is a set of economic models that run through a web browser, some of which are available as free trials. The models are divided into micro and macro models, covering topics such as perfect competition, Keynsian models, price discrimination and utility-based valuation of risk. The models take the form of model link files which can be read by the EconModel plug-in. Access to the non-free models requires an annual subscription, currently 20 USD for a year. Most of the models have exercise sheets in PDF suitable for printing.
A pair of interactive, annotated graphs showing 1) the demand function and 2) costs and revenue for a seller of cakes. Sliders allow the user to change different parameters of the market and see the curves shift. The reader is directed to see which of the parameters have most effect on the maximum profit and on its optimising price.
This is an interactive iterated Prisoner's Dilemma with an uncertain number of moves. It allows the reader to play against a variety of strategies, and comes with a short introduction to set the scene. This requires the Shockwave plug-in.
These are group economic games that are set up and run in a web browser using Java. Lecturers configure the games and generate an access code, which they then pass onto students. The lecturer can then moderate the game. The games include auctions, tests of the theory of revealed preference and normal form games with customisable payoffs, amongst others. EconPort is a digital library funded by the USA's National Science Foundation.
This tutorial connects utility maximisation and demand curves by illustrating the derivation of an individual demand curve. The interactive aspects are exercises in which the reader has to maximise utility by choosing a number of items to purchase. There are links to related online texts and exercises. This has been created by a non-economist to illustrate the potential of JavaScript for online learning.
A number of Excel spreadsheets by Watson are listed on this Biz/ed page (scroll down a bit). They cover topics including demand and supply, elasticity, trade and comparative advantage.
Thinkwell is a commercial learning tutorial service that supports economics, microeconomics and macroeconomics courses. It consists of video lectures that give simultaneous views of the lecturer and his slides and animations. Online interactive exercises with feedback, review notes, course management tools and a dedicated website for users. Lecturers can customise the course and view the results of interactive tests taken by their students. The materials are available online via subscription and require Flash / QuickTime / Java to load.
