Abstract:

In Econometrics, as in most theoretical-practical subjects, students need some time to fully comprehend the theory and its applications into different issues. However, many of the concepts are difficult to understand in the beginning and may lead them to lose motivation. As a consequence, the study on a regular basis is left aside and only when the exam’s date is close, the fear to fail boost the time they devote to prepare the subject. Although the student’s objective of passing the exam might be accomplished, the teaching and learning process has not been fully successful. This is due to the fact that the subject's concepts are not assimilated in time to take advantage on the small group lab lessons; neither the excellence is reached, most of the students score poorly when studying at the last minute.

In order to change this situation and aim at increasing the student’s interest and study of Econometrics, especially the theoretical part, we carry out a pilot teaching project where students are encouraged to take part into a team-based academic competition. The competition, based on the Trivia game, is divided into weekly short-term rounds where the students answer multiple-choice questions from the Econometrics’ syllabus. The teams are awarded with points for each right answer, and their punctuation is registered into a general ranking that is updated and published in the virtual campus after each round. The competition calendar is set at the beginning of the course to inform about the coming rounds.

The combination of continual assessment and team-based competition may favour the progress and interest for the subject. The weekly short-term rounds and the points’ distribution are designed to allow students to improve or retain their position in the ranking while collaborating with their partners. At the end of the semester and just before the exams period, we name the winning teams that will be awarded with extra credits in the final exam.

By the end of the course, we ask the students to fill out a survey in which they express their opinion about the utility and effects of the Trivianometrics on their motivation, learning process and final exam’s grade. We also evaluate the progress of the class in the different rounds analysing a possible chain reaction where no one wants to stay behind in the classification, improving the class average.

Keywords:

Teaching innovation, competition-based learning, game-based learning, motivation, teaching learning process.