Fun and games with mobile phones : SMS messaging in microeconomics experiments

This paper details the application of SMS messaging to facilitate ‘classroom experiments’ in microeconomics classes. Laboratory style experiments and simulations have long been used for teaching and learning in many disciplines, however classroom experiments in economics have a feature that distinguishes them from their counterparts in many other disciplines. This is that students participate in dual roles as both experimental subjects and as researchers in analysing the outcomes of an experiment. Good experimental designs should thus support student learning with feedback at both levels. In the past, this was done most effectively by conducting experiments in fully networked laboratories. However in view of the cost of developing fully computerised experiments, paper based designs have remained prevalent, even though these are cumbersome and time consuming to conduct. By using SMS as a response medium, the limitations of paper based experiments are overcome without incurring the costs of full computerisation. Individual feedback is delivered by return messaging, while aggregate results are summarised in automated charts and tables. This makes it possible to conduct classroom experiments in large classes in lecture halls.