The University of West Bohemia and the University of Limerick (Ireland) have been exploring the benefits of using prediction-market games to enhance their students’ experience.
These schools have picked up on some key concepts: The wide-ranging power and applicability of prediction markets, and the willing, intrinsically-motivated involvement students tend to put into ‘gamelike’, performance-rewarding educational activities. The two articles below discuss a pair of programs in which the universities are giving students fictional bankrolls and setting them free to invest in relevant markets – in one case, a stock market analog, and in the other case insurance losses and risk assessment markets. The former even has students use the currency they earn (with good performance) to influence their final grade in the course. While the students participate and compete in the ‘games’ with apparent enthusiasm, the schools recognize that prediction markets are key concepts students can apply in many future careers – taking the students from theoretical to very practical, applied concepts. It seems likely that more schools will jump on this bandwagon as these successes are publicized.