Principal Investigator: Seyhan Erden in Lecturer in Economics
Summary: Continuing our work in Summer 2024 - Summer 2025, we plan to conduct the same controlled experiment for Simulation 4 in Summer 2025. In the Fall 2025 semester, we will again carry out the controlled experiments for Simulations 3 and 4. The purpose of repeating some experiments in different semesters is to increase the sample size of the experimental and the control groups. In the Spring 2026 semester, we will conduct controlled experiments for Simulations 5, 6, and 7. We will also return to the completed simulations and address the issues raised in focus groups. For both the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters, we will measure students’ attitudes toward econometrics separately at the beginning and the end of each semester, before and after using MetricsMentor. We are still evaluating the possible variations, such as omitting the actual lecture that teaches the material in the simulations and comparing the video (control) group and the simulation (experimental) group results. Since these videos will eventually be available with a click within each simulation, we are also considering a textbook group as the control. The textbook group will have access to the textbook between the pre- and post-quizzes. The textbook group results will be compared to the simulation group results using differences-in-differences methodology. Ultimately, our goal is to make MetricsMentor accessible to all instructors for use in their econometrics classes. After completing all seven simulations and conducting the experiments in those classes, we will present the results at the CTREE (Annual American Economic Association Conference on Teaching and Research in Economic Education).