This study focuses on developing an effective online teaching strategy to improve students' cognition engagement and application ability by applying design thinking and case readings on current economic issues for private university students in Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic. The teaching method combines design thinking and the reading comprehension process by the two principles of divergence and convergence. The design thinking method provides stepwise guidance for building understanding and analyzing competence on current economic issues. The reading comprehension process strengthens students' reading skills and learning capability. This combination increases student engagement and concentration in economic case readings during online learning. The research participants comprised 189 first-year students studying economics courses. After implementing the innovative teaching strategies, the results show that the more students are involved in frequent readings, the better are their economics semester grade. The findings revealed that their post-quiz scores improved significantly, and the semester grade increased by 3.44 points. Increasing the reading engagement on current economic issues cases also affected the learning outcomes for absentees. Using design thinking to introduce case reading comprehension, empathy has been suggested as an essential factor affecting the effectiveness of reading learning. This theoretical model can offer directional insights and guidance on developing an effective strategy in online economics education.