Posted by David E.R. Gay on December 05, 1996 at 14:28:57:
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?
Sometimes I have indicated that monetary prizes would be awarded.
Then I distribute enlarged photocopies of old USSR rubles, or Yugoslav
hyperinflation notes (making someone a billionaire). "Winners" receive these
tokens and also those who did not do as well.
In the "double oral auction" students have mixed feelings about grade points as
prizes because the outcomes depend upon the luck of the initial distribution.
If you'd like copies of the photcopied bills, send me a note and I'll send them by
snail mail.