Open Learning Initiative

The Introductory Economics course is a collection of online experiments and related online workbooks which can be used by individual learners or to supplement an instructor lead course.

In each experiment students make deals online with other traders and attempt to earn as much profit as possible.

After each experiment, economics is really put to the test -- can economic theory predict and explain the complex interactions of the participants in the experiment?

Online workbooks seamlessly incorporate the data from the experiment and guide students through the analysis and economic theory needed to understand the experiment.

Experiments cover most of the key topics in microeconomics: supply and demand, labor markets, taxes, monopolies and cartels, externalities, and information economics.

• Getting Started
• Course Description
• Available Now
• Information for Instructors
• Information for Students

Getting Started

This Open & Free Course provides you with access to the online workbooks used in the full semester course on Microeconomics taught at Carnegie Mellon University. Your access includes the complete online workbooks including all expository text, graphing applets, comprehension tests and computer tutors. No credit is awarded for completing the Open & Free Economics course.

At Carnegie Mellon, the online workbooks are used in combination with virtual online experiments and the course is taught as an instructor-lead course. The Open & Free Economics course does NOT include access to the virtual online experiments, end-of-module graded exams or to the course instructor. Periodically, we will have open and free online experiments available. Please check back to see the calendar of scheduled experiments in which you can participate.

Academic versions of this course are offered by educational institutions which award accreditation. Students taking an Academic Course have access to the same course materials as the students taking the Open & Free Course PLUS students will participate in the virtual online experiments. The Academic courses track student's learning of key concepts and give the student and the instructor formative feedback to improve learning outcomes.

Course Description

The Introductory Economics course is a collection of online experiments and related online workbooks which can be used by individual learners or to supplement an instructor lead course.

In each experiment a student is an active participant attempting to make deals with other traders in a market. After each experiment, the data the students generated is stored and the student will use this data to complete an online workbook.

The workbook guides the student through the analysis and much of the economic theory needed to understand the related experiment. In these experiments the student is both a participant and an observer.

• As a participant the student will be able to experience firsthand the issues that all economic agents must confront.
• As an observer, the student will see that the economic theory explains the complex interactions of the participants in the experiment in which he/she has participated.

Students often report that they learn nearly as much about economic principles from their experience as a participant as they do from their analysis of the experiment as an observer.

There are seven experiments and related workbooks

• Supply and Demand
• A Sales Tax
• Minimum Wages
• Monopoly and Cartels
• Externalities
• Information and Adverse Selection
• Network Externalities

Available Now

The Open & Free Course includes seven online workbooks created with synthetic experiment data. In addition, computer based tutors that support student learning are available for the Supply and Demand, Sales Tax, Minimum Wages and Monopoly and Cartels workbooks.

Information for Instructors

Benefits to Instructors

• The course supplements and complements a traditional economics course with minimal effort required on the part of the instructor.
• It is designed to actively engage students in learning key economic concepts, the online experiments and workbooks can be done outside of class.
• The course management features ease the teaching task. The instructor sets up the due dates for the experiments and workbooks and the course automatically presents the material to students, supports students in learning the concepts, tracks student progress, and grades the results.

General Notes

This is a relatively new approach to experiencing economics for most students and, especially early on, students may need some time to adjust to the system. You may want to give students some extra time and coaching for the initial assignment. (Some faculty have provided in-class demonstrations of the system via projection screens, others have given students the option of not including the first assignment grade in their final score, etc.) After students get one assignment under their belts, things seem to go very smoothly.

Encourage students to develop good academic skills. For example, students who leave their assignments until the last minute may suffer from computer problems or find that they get locked out of the system because the assignment is a few seconds past due.

Finally, some instructors have given rewards (either monetary or grade) for profits earned by students during the experiments. While this is a good way to motivate students, our experience is that it is not needed and it can lead to some odd behavior (most of the experiments are constant-sum, so a coalition of two players can make a trade where one trader earns massive profits while the partner receives massive losses, so you need to anticipate this possibility and put in place some mechanism for dealing with it such as penalizing excessively poor performance). Even without any direct rewards, students seem to maintain high levels of motivation (especially if you "publish" performance rankings) throughout the experiments.

Setting Up a New Course

Please being by creating an OLI instructor account. Information on creating your Introductory Economics course can be found here.

In the full course, students can asynchronously interact with one another in experiments over a period of a few days. If you have fewer than 12 students then you must choose the "workbooks only" option which generates synthetic data for the workbooks.

It will often take students a few days to get registered on the system and enrolled on the admit list. You should make sure to leave enough time at the start of your course for this process. Please note that if a student is not admitted to your class when an experiment starts, then they will be unable to participate in that experiment or receive a workbook for that experiment.

Experiment Order and Timing

You should always start your course with the supply and demand experiment. This experiment gives the students the basic skills necessary (including graphing supply and demand curves and finding equilibria) to complete any of the other experiments. (The network externalities experiment can be run without knowing the theory of supply and demand.) Again, after completing the supply and demand experiment you can include any of the other experiments in whatever order you feel is most appropriate. Usually you will want to run the experiments sequentially, though you can run them simultaneously if time is short and your students are able to handle the extra workload.

You should plan on having each experiment run for about two to three days duration. Students will need to briefly sign in a few times during this period to participate in the experiment, so make sure that the experiment is ongoing at an appropriate time. At the completion of the experiment, you should give your students a few days to complete the workbook. For example, you might want to conduct the experiments over, say, Wednesday and Thursday, and then have the workbook due on the following Tuesday or so. Such a schedule will leave you some time to do brief lectures on the material and answer any questions that may arise.

Workbooks and Automatic Grading

Once an experiment is over, students will be allowed to access and change their workbooks up until the "Workbook Due Date." Once the due date has passed, the workbook will be automatically graded based on the most recently saved set of answers. Each workbook is based on the data generated by the experiment, so correct answers may differ across students (or groups of students). You can get details of each student's progress via the Gradebook -- the current grades of the most recently saved workbook are always reported to the instructor.

The grading mechanism is automatic, exact, and does not give partial credit. Thus, for example, having a single point in a graph line slightly misplaced will result in no credit being given for that line. Question types include multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and line-graphing. All assignments are worth 20 points each, with the exception of Network Externalities which is only worth 10 points. You may find it useful to rescale the grades to a smaller range, for example, good/pass/fail, to avoid the subtleties that can arise with automated grading and no partial credit.

When the experiment is over, you can go to your instructor page and get either a copy of the completed student workbook or an outline of the key teaching points and questions for the assignment.

Viewing Completed Student Workbooks

You can see any students graded workbook in the Gradebook. Locate the student and assignment, then click on the student's score. The student's actual workbook will open in another window. You can see their answers, whether they were scored as correct or incorrect and, if their answer was incorrect - the correct answer.

Information for Students

Your Syllabus

Your syllabus page will allow you to easily keep track of, and participate in, ongoing course activities. The links to the right of each activity change depending on what you should be doing next. You can check your grades for the course by clicking the "My Scores" tab.

Participating in Experiments

Experiments take place over a set period of time (usually a few days -- check your syllabus for the actual dates and times). When you join an experiment you will be given some basic background information and the option to join various sessions. You should make sure that you participate in all available sessions. While each session is based on the same background information, your role and other conditions will vary across the sessions. Each session is independent -- that is, what you do in one session has no direct impact on what happens in any of the other sessions.

While an experiment is ongoing, you can enter and leave it as often as you like. (Any actions you take, such as offers to buy or sell, will remain on the system even if you sign out.) Most students visit each session at least a few times while it is ongoing.

In each session of each experiment, you should always strive to earn as much profit as possible. (Your instructor can track your profits and may be willing to offer a reward to the top performers.)

Completing Your Workbooks

For each workbook you will need to complete a serious of questions found throughout the workbook. Question types include multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and line-graphing. For the graphing questions, instructions are given at the base of each graph for how to manipulate the lines.

You may access and change your workbook up until the due date given in your syllabus. Once the due date has passed, the workbook will be automatically graded based on the most recently saved set of answers.

To save your current workbook, use the "Save" button at the top or bottom of the page. Make sure to save your workbook at least every half hour while you are working on it. Whenever you open your workbook, you should see all of your previously-saved answers. You can always modify these answers until the workbook due date.

Each workbook is based on the data generated by your experiment -- the correct answers may differ among students.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are the Learn By Doing problem graded? Will my instructor see my answers?

The Learn By Doing links provide additional instruction and a safe space for practice. Your responses will not be graded or seen by your instructor. You may return to these exercises at anytime for extra practice; your answers are not saved.

I have finished my workbook. What do I do now? How will I receive my grade?

While working on the workbooks, be sure to save your answers by pressing the button at the bottom of the page. When finished, check your work carefully. You may continue working (and change your responses, if necessary) up until the due listed on your syllabus. If you are satisfied with your answers, there is nothing else to do. After the due date has passed, your responses will be automatically graded and feedback will be provided. To view your current scores click the My Scores link.

I am trying to participate in an experiment, but I am told that the market is closed to new participants. What does this mean?

This message indicates that you did not register for your course before the experiment started. In order to participate in an experiment, you must register for your course before the experiment is scheduled to begin. You should contact your instructor and inquire about an alternate assignment.

Please note, if you did not register in time to participate in the Supply and Demand experiment, you will still be able to complete the Supply and Demand workbook. You will also be allowed to participate in all subsequent experiments.

When I try to join an experiment, I am told that there are too few participants. What does this mean?

Each of the experiments requires a minimum number of students. This message means that there are too few students in your course for the experiment to be offered. Please ask your instructor to contact us for assistance.