Date Created

12-16-2025

Institution Type

Baccalaureate college

Course Level

Undergraduate

Modality of Lesson

Online

Category

Ideation and Structuring

Primary AI Tool Used

Open AI

Learning Objectives

  • Apply core economic theories to real-world scenarios.
  • Demonstrate critical thinking through chatbot design and refinement.
  • Communicate economic concepts clearly via interactive technology.
  • Develop AI literacy and reflect on ethical AI use in education.

Strategy Description

Students engage with instructor-designed GPT-powered bots (e.g., ECONOHelper, Owlnomics, Alpha (student bot)) to practice applying economic theories and solving structured case studies. Bots are programmed to withhold direct answers initially, prompting students with guiding questions to stimulate analysis before offering feedback or clarification.

For example:

  • In Microeconomics, ECONOHelper helps students interpret supply and demand graphs, calculate elasticity, and analyze pricing strategies for products such as Tesla’s Cybertruck or staple foods.
  • In Macroeconomics, Owlnomics guides students through models such as Aggregate Expenditures (AE) and AD-AS, asking them to predict outcomes of fiscal and monetary policies in real-world-inspired scenarios like “Larissaland” or “Economia.”

The bots’ role is not to provide instant answers but to serve as scaffolding tutors that simulate guided practice. Students must first articulate their reasoning, then refine it with bot prompts. Assignments often include screenshots of conversations with the bots, economic models they built (e.g., graphs in Desmos, Excel or Google Sheets), and short written reflections.

Publisher

University of Central Florida Libraries

Keywords

Economics Education; Microeconomics; Macroeconomics; Elasticity; Aggregate demand and supply; Aggregate expenditures; Production possibilities frontier; Circular Flow Model; Case study learning; Graph interpretation; Digital literacy; Student engagement; Guided practice; Active learning; AI scaffolding; Higher education; IRSC; Adobe Creative Campus

Subjects

Economics--Computer-assisted instruction; Microeconomics--Computer-assisted instruction; Macroeconomics--Computer-assisted instruction; Economics--Study and teaching--Simulation methods; Chatbots

Type

Text; Document

Audience

Faculty; Students; Educators

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Download

Share

COinS