EconPractice: JSX Graphs in a Learning Platform for Economics
Thomas Groll and Nikolas Nyby
Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Abstract
EconPractice is an open-access, instructor-driven learning platform developed at Columbia University with a current focus on applications in economics. The learning platform combines various open-source tools such as JSXGraph and Django to offer instructors and students the advantages of online illustrations, assessments, and practices produced by commercial products while supplying the flexibility of content creation, adoption, and sharing.
EconPractice offers a variety of features to instructors and students. The platform allows instructors to create economic illustrations and practice assignments that can be shared with students on EconPractice, embedded in a course’s website, or incorporated in assignments on platforms such as Blackboard, Canvas, Doodle, and others. Instructors can provide interactive feedback within the illustrations for review or auto-graded assignments and share content with other instructors. Students can use EconPractice to review provided economic illustrations, create their own, or embed them in their own work.
The current development includes:
- Various diagram prototypes based on JSXGraph.
- A user-course management system.
- Verbal and numerical feedback for scoring.
- Integration into other platforms and online sites.
Current development work focuses on building assignments with adaptive pathways and analytics.
The presentation is intended for instructors and developers.