Comlabgames

Economics (82) This project is developing new educational software for running classroom experiments in courses offered within undergraduate social science programs, and propagating the use of internet-mediated experimental games as a teaching aid. The project software has three advantages over existing software designed for classroom experiments with human subjects: it is more reliable and flexible, and is easily mounted on a variety of platforms with minimal fuss and effort; with global access to internet connections, it is more portable; finally, many kinds of games are included and several representations of each game will be released, making this software much more general than the relatively specific applications now available. These advantages are opening up new opportunities for using experimental methods in teaching, and instructors are adopting this software in undergraduate courses taught throughout the world. The core of the software consists of five modules, each of which is based around a family of games. A pilot project has produced the first versions of the first two modules, which are available for public use at the website http://www.cmu.edu/comlabgames/. The project is developing a piece of software called a session organizer, which allows the moderator to program the agenda of games for the class, and display the outcomes for the purposes of classroom discussion and student evaluation. The project is designing the modules, programming the software for them, writing instructions to accompany the programs, acquiring experience using the modules in a variety of experimental settings, and revising the modules on the basis of this experience, as well as the experience of instructors at other academic institutions who use the modules in their own classes.