Invited Talk: Building Computational Method Skills in First-Year Economics

This week, I had the opportunity to contribute as an invited speaker to the Blended Intensive Programme “New Corporate Scenarios” at the Università di Pavia. The setting - the university’s historic library - was as inspiring as it was humbling, surrounded by centuries of scientific work.

A big thank you to Prof. Alessandra Tanda and Prof. Francesco Velo for organizing such a rich exchange between students, teaching staff, and external guests, including former MEP Antonius Manders and Assolombarda representative Dario Pettenon.

My talk “Building Computational Method Skills in First-Year Economics: Programming, MathStat & Gamification” outlined how we can better integrate programming, statistics, gamification, and digital tools into large lectures and the economics curriculum at the University of Hohenheim. The aim is clear: strengthening students’ computational foundations early on and making learning engaging at scale.

In addition, I shared findings from a study on the benefits of additional online practice opportunities in higher education (The Internet and Higher Education, 2022). The paper was led by Jakob Schwerter and co-authored with Thomas Dimpfl, Kou Murayama, and myself - showing that well-designed digital practice opportunities can significantly support students across performance levels.

We also discussed what these results mean in today’s GenAI era: how to manage large courses with several hundred students, and how to adapt digital teaching methods to new challenges.

👉 You can find my presentation slides here: Download Slides

Conclusion. Building computational skills early is not only about coding or statistics - it is about preparing students to navigate a digital, data-driven academic and professional environment.