The author has long thought that the role of instructors in the introductory economics classroom is to serve as ambassadors for the economic profession. They are there not to present their own views of economics. They should, instead, transcend their idiosyncrasies and represent the broad consensus of professional economists. The job of the…

This article focuses on the major national economic indicators and how they changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The indicators that are discussed include Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the unemployment rate, interest rates, inflation, and other variations of these measures. The authors also present data that sheds light on the…

The authors present a Web application they designed in the R programming language as an experiential learning tool for teaching production theory. The app simulates production decisions where a manager is tasked to find the optimal mixture of inputs through experimentation. Users of the application are instructed to use calculations and intuitions…

Cooperative learning is associated with a variety of potential benefits to students, including better comprehension and retention, improved perceptions and attitudes, and increased openness to diversity. Yet, there is limited evidence or instruction on cooperative learning activities in asynchronous online classrooms, an increasingly common course…

In this article, the authors describe an interactive classroom simulation that helps students learn some of the most important ideas from models of international trade with heterogeneous firms. Students make entry/exit decisions for individual firms with different marginal costs of production. The simulation consists of five rounds, beginning with…

Faculty often report limited student engagement in their economics courses. This deficiency makes it challenging for educators to excite students about our field, a situation that could have ripple effects in terms of the number of students who graduate as economics majors. For students, the lack of classroom engagement makes it unappealing to…

The author of this article provides an example of how one might incorporate behavioral economics into teaching macroeconomics or labor economics at an undergraduate level. The focus is on two macroeconomic concepts--wage determination and the Phillips curve--and shows that the implications and conclusions of both models differ from their textbook…

The economics profession has been working to become more open, inclusive, and welcoming. The introductory principles of economics courses provide a unique opportunity to teach students of the wider university the value of the field of economics. It is in this setting that instructors' interactions with students show them a welcoming and diverse…

Learning about how economic well-being--or the lack of well-being--shapes peoples' lives can enhance social work students' and professionals' efforts to "champion social progress powered by science," a stated aim of the Grand Challenges for Social Work. Yet social work and economics have pursued divergent paths since the late 20th…

Social media is becoming a more widely used tool to engage students in learning. LinkedIn (linkedin.com) is a professional social networking platform that most college students are encouraged to use, but it is not widely used as an educational tool. In this article, the author describes how LinkedIn was deployed in a principles course to teach…

Information flow is one of the three main flows of supply chains. It is an abstract concept that can be challenging for students to grasp in its entirety. This article describes a role-playing game for teaching the topic of information flow in an undergraduate supply chain management course. The game allows students to simulate receiving and…

A course on the economics of sports provides a unique opportunity to the economics department but confronts the instructor with unique challenges. Students in such a class are likely to be more heterogeneous and more likely to enter the class with inappropriate expectations than is the case for a typical upper-level economics elective. The author…

During the 2016 to 2017 school year, the Québec Ministry of Education announced the rollout of a new course, "Financial Education," that would take effect the following September. This sparked a curriculum debate over its potential impact on another Grade 11 course, "Contemporary World." Tasked with preparing educators to teach…

The authors of this article demonstrate best practices for creating belonging in economics, which allows diverse students to feel respected and accepted within the discipline. Opportunities to connect with economics allow students to understand and be empowered by the value they add to the classroom. The suggested practices thus include providing…

Wikipedia is not only a source of knowledge and a medium for communicating research but also opens new avenues for teaching in academia. In this article, the authors provide theoretical considerations and practical guidance for setting up a postgraduate economics course where students disseminate research on income inequality in Europe to a…