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Authoring guidelines: Experiencing Economics

These guidelines outline and explain a chapter (experiment) template for this publication’s feature set, how to use and indicate the features when writing, as well as other important details for authors of Experiencing Economics.

Before you start

Familiarize yourself with:

Chapters

Each chapter is an experiment, and these will vary in length depending on their nature.

Author template

We suggest that authors write the chapter using the ‘CORE Experiencing Economics - Author Template’ document; this has the heading styles implemented already and also includes any text that is repeated in every experiment.

To use the template, click ‘File’ > ‘Make a copy’ and then work into your copy.

Please use the template alongside the instructions which follow.

Note that the headings are numbered X.1, X.2, and so forth, where X is the experiment number. If you are unsure of the experiment number, please contact Luka Crnjakovic.

Please insert the relevant text, figures, and so forth for your experiment where it says ‘text’. Any other text in the template is standard text that will be included in every experiment, so please do not remove or revise it (if for any reason it does not apply to your experiment, please add a comment for your editor).

Headings and information hierarchy

  • The title of the chapter (Experiment X: Experiment name) should be formatted as a first-level heading (Heading 1).
  • Second-level headings (Heading 2) organize the content into its main sections.
  • Third-level headings (Heading 3) can be used to create subsections and fourth-level headings for sub-subsections (Heading 4).

Most of the headings are already included in the template, but if you need to add further headings please use Google Docs’ built-in formatting tools to apply the relevant heading level (for example, ‘Heading 3’), rather than styling headings by applying a font size, bold, italics or underline.

Sections

Each chapter (experiment) should include these sections:

X.1 Introduction

X.2 Requirements

X.3 Description of the experiment

X.4 Step-by-step guide

X.5 Student instructions

X.6 Predictions

X.7 Discussion

X.8 Homework questions

X.9 Further reading

X.10 Instructor experience

Each experiment can also include further experiment-specific sections where necessary.

Detail about each of the sections follows.

X.1 Introduction

Each experiment begins with an introduction that should include the following:

  • A real-world question that the experiment aims to answer: This should be brief (for example, 1–3 sentences) and should engage the reader, and should be at the beginning of the introduction; the order of the remaining bullet points can be changed.
  • One paragraph exploring (fairly briefly) the economic theory that is relevant for the experiment
  • One paragraph briefly describing the experiment itself
  • One paragraph explaining the purpose of the experiment: This could be similar to a learning outcome—what the students come away with after the experiment (the main purpose of the experiment as a learning device).
  • One paragraph saying ‘You may find it useful to [read about the experiences of instructors](link) before getting into the detail of setting up the experiment, especially if you are new to running classroom experiments.’ where EBW will add a link that points to the Instructor experience section at the end of the experiment
  • A final sentence or paragraph stating the work this is based on, including a reference (for example, ‘This experiment is based on Benedikt Herrmann, Christian Thoni, and Simon Gachter. 2008. ‘Antisocial Punishment Across Societies’. Science 319 (5868): pp. 1362–67.’)

While writing the introduction, keep in mind CORE’s aims of addressing the sorts of questions that motivate students to take up economics, helping students to understand economic challenges in the real world, and preparing students to confront such challenges.

Please include the following two boxes:

Key concepts

[Key concepts box]

Start with the introductory sentence: ‘This experiment will help students understand the following key concepts:’

Then list the key concepts using bullet points.

[End Key concepts box]

CORE projects

[CORE projects box]

Note this is a sidenote box. Use the following stems:

The experiment is covered in:

  • Section X.X in The Economy 2.0
  • Section X.X in The Economy 1.0
  • Section X.X in Economy, Society, and Public Policy

Concepts in the experiment are related to material in:

  • Unit X, Unit Y, and Unit Z in The Economy 2.0
  • Unit X, Unit Y, and Unit Z in The Economy 1.0
  • Unit X, Unit Y, and Unit Z in Economy, Society, and Public Policy

[end CORE projects box]

The introduction should end with the citation details for the experiment. Use the format of the following example:

Citation: Llavador, Humberto, Marcus Giamattei, Ted Bergstrom, and John H. Miller. 2023. ‘Competing Standards’. Experiment 8 in The CORE Team, Experiencing Economics. Available at https://books.core-econ.org/experiencing-economics [Accessed on (date)].

X.2 Requirements

This section should include the following details:

  • Timing: Set out how long the experiment is likely to take to run, including setting up time, explaining to the students, and so forth. If there are various options on how to run the experiment, provide a range of times or set out, for example, 20 minutes for Experiment A only, 40 minutes for Experiments A and B. As the timing for discussions is likely to vary based on the length of the lecture, do not include discussion time in your timing. Instead, add a sentence saying: ‘Remember to allow time for a stimulating discussion.’
  • Resources: List the resources that are needed for the experiment, both in terms of physical resources and online resources like classEx. For example, ‘Instructors and students need a smartphone, tablet, or laptop that has a web browser and is connected to the internet. For in-class experiments, a projector is recommended to help with instructions, results, and discussion. The experiment will be run in classEx.’
  • Number of participants: Set out the range of participant numbers that will work for this experiment. If it is possible to run a revised version with fewer or more participants (and you have included an explanation of how to do that), mention this briefly here and provide a link to the explanation.

The writing style for this box should be descriptive rather than brief bullet points (for example, ‘A projector is recommended for instructions, results, and in-class discussion’ rather than simply ‘a projector’). It may be helpful to qualify your statements (for example, ‘In our experience, the experiment works very well with groups between 20 and 50 students, but there is no limit to the number of participants’).

X.3 Description of the experiment

Provide a medium-length (200–300 words) description of the experiment, written descriptively in paragraphs (rather than step-by-step bullet points). Include a description of what will happen in the experiment and a short note on any alternative ways to run the experiment, if relevant.

X.4 Step-by-step guide

Subtitle (heading 3): Detailed instructions

Start with the sentence: ‘Go to the [‘Quick summary’ section](link) if you have previously run the experiment and just need a brief reminder of the instructions.’

If there is more than one version of the experiment, include a brief intro paragraph to mention this point and perhaps add any details of when you might want to use each version (for example, one version might be more suitable for larger groups, or for more experienced students, or for when you don’t have enough time for the full version).

Subtitle (heading 4): Experiment name, including details of the version (for example: Public good game without punishments)

Provide step-by-step instructions, starting with the preparation. Each step should be numbered 1, 2, 3, and so forth.

Subtitle (heading 4): Experiment name, including details of the version (for example: Public good game with punishments)

Provide step-by-step instructions, starting with the preparation. Each step should be numbered 1, 2, 3, and so forth.

If many of the steps are the same as in the previous subsection, you can refer back (for example, ‘Follow the steps described in the ‘<Experiment name and version>’ section, except for the following changes …’)

Subtitle (heading 3): Advanced settings

Note that this section relates to experiments using classEx. There is no need to include this section if the experiment is not run in classEx. Start this section with: ‘This section is not necessary to run the experiment and the class discussion, it just provides further information on personalizing the classEx settings and parameters. You can skip it and go directly to the [‘Student instructions’ section](link) if you just want to follow the standard settings, as we used in the ‘<Experiment name and version>’ and ‘<Experiment name and version>’ sections.’

Subtitle (heading 4): Parameters
Subtitle (heading 4): Allocation of types
Subtitle (heading 4): Downloading the data from your experiment

Use the same text as in the template, with the exception of any variables which need changing for the current experiment.

Subtitle (heading 3): Quick summary

Start this section with the details (omitting the final sentence if the experiment is not run in classEx): ‘This section is intended for instructors who have already run the experiment in the past and just need a brief reminder of the instructions to get them going. It assumes that your students are already logged in to classEx and ready to start the experiment.’

Each step should be numbered 1, 2, 3, and so forth.

Where there are two versions of the experiment, you can either include subheadings as in the ‘Detailed instructions’ section or include occasional additional information in the sidebar as a sidenote, if it is not crucial to the main instructions.

X.5 Student instructions

These should be a stand-alone set of instructions that can be provided to the students. It should be written with the student as the audience (for example, ‘Log into classEx’ rather than ‘tell your students to log into classEx’).

Make sure you include a placeholder link to the student instructions at the suitable place in the step-by-step instructions. EBW will include the actual link during digitization.

At the beginning of this section, include the following text:

‘These are also available in [the students’ version](link).

A [PDF of the student instructions and homework questions is also available](link).’

This material will be included in the lecturer website and duplicated on the student website. The author template includes tags [Instructor only] and [End instructor only]; please keep these tags in place so that the correct sections are visible to instructors and students.

If relevant, you could include questions that will help students test their understanding of the procedure (for example, getting them to calculate the payoffs depending on their and others’ contributions). If so, add a subheading of ‘Warm-up questions’ and start the subsection with this sentence: ‘You can use the following questions to test your understanding of the rules.’

If it would be helpful to provide answers to students, please supply them and we will include them behind a ‘show answers’ button.

Note that figures in this section should be labelled A, B, C, and so forth, rather than 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and so forth.

X.6 Predictions

Subtitle (heading 3): Predicted results

Describe the anticipated results, using graphs of actual results where relevant.

Subtitle (heading 3): What might go differently?

Describe how and why results might differ from the predictions above. Explain how the instructor can respond to these differences during the class discussion and/or how they can make adjustments to the experiment.

X.7 Discussion

Try to include approximately 2–3 questions for each of the following headings (using bullet points). If a heading is not relevant for the specific experiment, please remove it. Alternatively, please feel free to add more general topics. These questions will only be available on the instructor website.

Each bullet point should provide the wording for the question to be asked (for example: ‘Which situations in real life may be similar to the game you just played?’).

Please consider whether any tips or suggestions would be useful for the instructors (keep in mind that some may be teaching assistants, and so may need a little more guidance than professors would). Please tag these tips as a sidenote which sits beside the question (if the tips are quite lengthy, we might consider using a sub-bullet point rather than the sidenote).

This section should be introduced with the sentence: ‘A good discussion following the experiment is important. Ask your students the following questions to frame the discussion.’

Subtitle (heading 3): Interpreting the graphs
Subtitle (heading 3): Relating the experiment to real life
Subtitle (heading 3): Reflecting on the decisions that players made
Subtitle (heading 3): A hypothetical situation
Subtitle (heading 3): Running the game again
Subtitle (heading 3): Critical evaluation of the experiment

X.8 Homework questions

This section should be introduced with the text (omit the final paragraph if the experiment is not run in classEx): ‘These are also available in the [students’ version](link).’

These questions can be set for students to work on outside the classroom or can be completed and discussed in the classroom. They may help students reflect on their experience and understand theirs and others’ behaviour in the experiment.

Data from your experiment can be downloaded as an Excel file from the Data menu in the instructor’s screen in classEx. You can use this data to create your own questions. A description of the data variables can be found in the [‘Downloading the data from your experiment’](link) section.’

These questions are likely to be ones that require students to spend some time working something out, or to analyse something. You can include ‘hints’ in the sidenotes. The questions will be included in the instructor website and also in the student-facing site.

X.9 Further reading

Include a list of selected further readings.

Start with the sentence: ‘Also available in [the students’ version](link).’

The further reading list will be included in the instructor website and also in the student-facing site.

Each reading should be accompanied by a short sentence describing why it is relevant or what is particularly interesting about the reading.

Please include a reference to the relevant sections in The Economy and Economy, Society, and Public Policy, as the references in the introduction will not be seen by students.

The number of readings will vary depending on the experiment, but aim to keep it a manageable number (for example, 3–5 items, plus the CORE products).

X.10 Instructor experience

This section should be introduced with the sentence: ‘In this section, we hear from instructors about their experience of running the experiment with their students.’

Each testimonial should be tagged as [Instructor experience box].

Features

A chapter feature is any element which is repeated in the book. In other words, features are a group of elements that have distinct purposes, and are consequently given a distinctive design.

The features used in this publication are explained in detail within the CORE feature set, and those specific to Experiencing Economics are explained within this section.

They are:

Other CORE features used in this publication and explained in the feature set section are:

‘CORE projects’ box

This box lists the relevant sections and units of other CORE projects so that insutructors can focus on suitable experiments. It should be placed in the introduction.

Mark up the text with [CORE projects box] and [end CORE projects box].

There is no need to use any additional formatting, such as placing it within a box.

‘Key concepts’ boxes

The key concepts which the experiment aims to help students understand are listed so that instructors can focus on suitable experiments. This box should be placed in the introduction.

Mark up the text with [Key concepts box] and [end Key concepts box].

‘Remember’ boxes

Use a ‘remember’ box (which displays in a sidenote) for key pieces of information (for example: ‘It is very important that you abide by the following rules. All your decisions must be kept private. You cannot communicate with other students nor make public announcements, no matter how tempting it might become.’)

Note that the text in the ‘remember’ box must reiterate what is in the body text already, rather than be new information (in case the instructor or student skips over it).

Mark up the text with [remember box] and [end remember box].

‘Instructor tip’ boxes

Use an instructor tip (which displays in a smaller, full-width box) in the ‘Discussion’ section where you want to provide supplementary information for discussion prompts. It is only used in that section.

Mark up the text with [instructor tip] and [end instructor tip].

Full-width ‘info’ boxes

These can be used when you want to provide additional information in a box (example).

Mark up the text with [Full width info box] and [End full width info box].

Sidenotes

Use a sidenote where you want to provide extra information, or brief commentary on the related paragraph. They can be used to add a tip, perhaps based on your own or other lecturers’ experience in running the experiment.

Make sure that key points are included in the main text and the sidenotes are additional (non-essential) pieces of information.

See the further guidelines within the CORE feature set.

‘Hint’ sidenotes

Use a ‘hint’ sidenote alongside the student questions where you want to provide a hint to help them answer the question.

Note that the ‘hint’ will be visible to the students, and so should not provide the answer.

Mark up the text with [hint sidenote] and [end hint sidenote].

Questions with show/hide answer button

Questions are included to test the students’ understanding before they start the experiment.

The questions are not in MCQ form, but rather with answers displayed as a hidden paragraph below the set of questions in the paragraph above. A ‘show answers’ button reveals the answers.

See an example from the student website for Experiencing Economics.

To mark these up:

  • Include the questions as a numbered list.
  • If there are subquestions, include these as an indented numbered list.
  • Include the [Hide answers] tag above the question answers.
  • Provide the answers in a separate numbered list (with numbers matching the question numbers).

Student website text

Some material will be duplicated on the student website so that instructors can provide direct access to the material for students.

The student instructions, homework questions, and further reading will all be duplicated on the student website. Note that the material will be on both the instructor and student websites.

There is no need to mark up student text, as it is the default version shown (explained in the next section).

Instructor-only sections

In Experiencing Economics, there are two separate websites built from the same content. This means only one document is written, including both instructor and student content, and the instructor-only sections are hidden from students in the version of the website they’re able to view.

All sections except ‘Student instructions’, ‘Homework questions’, and ‘Further reading’ are hidden from students. Those three sections should be written as aimed at students, but will also be visible to instructors.

Add ‘[Instructor only]’ and ‘[End instructor only]’ tags around all sections which should be visible to instructors only. These should include all sections except ‘Student instructions’, ‘Homework questions’, and ‘Further reading’.

Before handing over authored content

Ensure that you have followed the guidelines and have run through the pre-digitization checklist given in the Preparing your content for production section of this documentation.