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Chatbot-Guided Scavenger Hunt: Experiential Learning at Scale
Who says economics has to be serious? We turned our syllabus into a real-world puzzle game—join us to explore the power of play in higher education.
INVITED SPEAKER
Dr Ee Cheng ONG
Associate Professor (Education)
Department of Economics
National University of Singapore
There is a pervasive (and somewhat puzzling) assumption that for learning to be rigorous, it must be serious, procedural, and conducted within the four walls of a lecture hall. But if play can awaken intrinsic motivation, remove barriers to learning, and cultivate relational safety (Forbes, 2021), why aren't we using it more? We designed a chatbot-guided scavenger hunt for a large core introductory economics course. A Telegram chatbot guided hundreds of students in teams of 3–4 through the city to solve economic puzzles. Participant surveys showed salient shifts in student perceptions of learning, moving from serious to playful, from procedural to experimental, and from solo to collaborative.
About the Invited Speaker
Dr Ee Cheng ONG [Staff Profile] is an Associate Professor (Education) in the Department of Economics at the National University of Singapore. Inducted into the University Honour Roll for sustained teaching excellence, she teaches large-scale core courses in introductory and intermediate microeconomics along with electives in applied microeconomics. She incorporates constructivist learning, experiential learning, and the pedagogy of play into her classes. Beyond the classroom, she chairs the faculty committee for teaching awards and serves on the educator track promotion panel.
CO-ORGANISERS
