Economics surveys, games, and modules, oh my! MobLab games and surveys can offer students a great way to experience an economic topic firsthand outside of a textbook, so what makes modules different?
Modules offer a pre-made combination of economics games so that you, the instructor, do not have to create your students’ learning loop from scratch. Our modules have been reviewed by instructors and are a great view into some best practices from instructors who have used MobLab. You can use our pre-built structure filled with instruction comprehension questions, a series of games and treatment variations, and review questions to drive the point home for your students. Currently, our modules tab in the instructor console (Figure 1) features more than 25 different modules that cover a variety of economic topics.
To dive deeper into how the modules function, let’s turn to our Comparative Advantage module (Figure 2). When you add the module to a playlist, a stack of surveys, games, and reflection questions populate into the playlist, pre-made and ready to be started. The Comparative Advantage module takes students through a production scenario independently before allowing them to trade with one another. Students get to trade with each other and experience that mutually beneficial trades are possible, rather than infer it from production possibilities frontier graphs. The learning loop is strengthened by a follow-up with learning comprehension and reflection questions.
Each module also comes with a detailed guide that covers the key concepts and what is included within the module. More information on how to use MobLab modules can be found here. When you click on the guide, a pop-up window will appear (Figure 3) and provide an overview of the module and its objectives. The guide provides a way for you to familiarize yourself with the module’s content without having to go through the whole assignment - providing a huge time saving for you when preparing for class. Module guides also include information on how to best present the game results to allow students to delve deeper into the topics they were exposed to within the learning loop.
You can also find more tips about how to use the Comparative Advantage game in your class and as an Online Assignment module in the MobLab blog.
We hope you use these modules and find them helpful for your students, whether they are using MobLab in or out of the classroom. Thank you for your enthusiastic support of MobLab and, as always, please provide your feedback on our modules, suggest new ones or build your own!
Figure 1. MobLab Instructor Console
Modules offer a pre-made combination of economics games so that you, the instructor, do not have to create your students’ learning loop from scratch. Our modules have been reviewed by instructors and are a great view into some best practices from instructors who have used MobLab. You can use our pre-built structure filled with instruction comprehension questions, a series of games and treatment variations, and review questions to drive the point home for your students. Currently, our modules tab in the instructor console (Figure 1) features more than 25 different modules that cover a variety of economic topics.
Figure 2. The Comparative Advantage Module
To dive deeper into how the modules function, let’s turn to our Comparative Advantage module (Figure 2). When you add the module to a playlist, a stack of surveys, games, and reflection questions populate into the playlist, pre-made and ready to be started. The Comparative Advantage module takes students through a production scenario independently before allowing them to trade with one another. Students get to trade with each other and experience that mutually beneficial trades are possible, rather than infer it from production possibilities frontier graphs. The learning loop is strengthened by a follow-up with learning comprehension and reflection questions.
Figure 3. Instructor Guide
Each module also comes with a detailed guide that covers the key concepts and what is included within the module. More information on how to use MobLab modules can be found here. When you click on the guide, a pop-up window will appear (Figure 3) and provide an overview of the module and its objectives. The guide provides a way for you to familiarize yourself with the module’s content without having to go through the whole assignment - providing a huge time saving for you when preparing for class. Module guides also include information on how to best present the game results to allow students to delve deeper into the topics they were exposed to within the learning loop.
You can also find more tips about how to use the Comparative Advantage game in your class and as an Online Assignment module in the MobLab blog.
We hope you use these modules and find them helpful for your students, whether they are using MobLab in or out of the classroom. Thank you for your enthusiastic support of MobLab and, as always, please provide your feedback on our modules, suggest new ones or build your own!