Posted by Gerhard Ortner on May 15, 1997 at 05:34:04:
In Reply to: Incentives: Money, grade points, or sheer fun? posted by Greg Delemeester on December 02, 1996 at 19:28:43:
: I would like to know what, if any, incentives instructors have used to motivate student-subjects in courses which utilize several experiments over the course of a semester. Has anybody used money on a regular basis? How about grade points? If grade points, are they part of the regular course grade calculation or merely bonus points? In addition to these incentives, I've simply relied on the sheer fun from participation (and the general competitiveness of students) to generate salient behavior. The latter, however, has not always been successful. What have others tried?
I use a mix out of real money and grade points. I collect all data during the entire semester (make a new ranking after every experiment) and publish it to the students. They seem to be really motivated and enthuiastic. Experimental results are always quite near to the theoratical predictions.
Gerhard