Playconomics
Academically rigorous and lots of fun!
Learn economics in an online game
Everyone, but everyone, uses economics in real life
The principles of economics play out for everyone in real life, so learning those key principles through a fun, gamified course sets you and your students up for an excellent understanding of decision-making in a changing world.
Whether at the supermarket choosing between products or making a major purchase like buying your first car, understanding supply and demand, quality and pricing and how they affect goods and services is an essential life skill.
So how better to supplement your matriculation curriculum than with a fun, extracurricular activity (or for business students a curriculum tool) that actually provides real-life skills for the road ahead when final exams are over?
"The widespread adoption of Playconomics will not only benefit students by enhancing their comprehension of economic concepts and financial literacy but also contribute to the creation of a more knowledgeable and engaged Australian workforce." UNSW News Jun 2023
A world-first and quite literally... a game-changer!
Playconomics is a video game metaverse for Senior High School and University students.
It is presented on an award-winning Ed-tech platform developed at UNSW that weaves the videogame metaverse with standard university material to create online courses that motivate, influence, and inspire learning as a fun, engaging and rewarding journey.
See what it can do for you in our short videos here and here
Playconomics was developed from inception in 2014 by UNSW Professors Isabella Dobrescu and Alberto Motta in their UNSW-spinoff company LionsHeart Pty Ltd. This dedicated and (very) dynamic duo have now educated over 65,000 domestic and international students at prestigious Universities, UNSW, in the field of microeconomics using the game and have received multiple national and international awards for their achievements.
Participation in Playconomics is recognised as university course credit by UNSW School of Economics.
If a student decides to join UNSW and take ECON1101 Microeconomics, their Playconomics high school progress could count for up to 45% of their university course grades without having to repeat the Playconomics assessments in these courses. Or they can elect to take it again with the benefit of experience.
Satinbird Education is now delighted to partner with LionsHeart and bring Playconomics to Senior High Schools across Australia and overseas.
Note: Playconomics is currently for school-based enrolments only. Course participation fees apply.
Profs Isabella Dobrescu, Alberto Motta and Lionsheart Pty Ltd
Playconomics is the brainchild of Prof Isabella Dobrescu and Prof Alberto Motta, both Professors of Economics in the UNSW Business School .
They believe that the best learning is enjoyable, and with enjoyment comes retention of learning. So, how better to learn the principles of Economics than by playing an online game? With this in mind, they created Playconomics which is now a mainstay of first year business studies at UNSW and several other Universities around the world.
Isabella's interests are in labour, public finance, and applied econometrics, and she is also the Deputy Head of the School of Economics.
Alberto's interests focus on contract theory, labour and development economics, and he is also a Deputy Director (Research) of UNSW's Scientia Education Academy.
These are some of the Playconomics partners...