Active Learning

Playing it out: A new way to teach health economics

Heather Carroll — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:49:22 +0000

Playing it out: A new way to teach health economics Heather Carroll Wed, 10/07/2026 - 13:49

In Phillip Zane’s 911�� classroom, students weigh an invitation to jump out of an airplane. The skydiving lesson and jump are free, and the exercise assumes there is zero risk of death. But an injury could mean $10,000 in medical expenses and $1,000 in lost wages.

Some have health insurance. Others don’t. Everyone has to decide whether to take the leap.

Phillip Zane presenting to students during class
Photo by Heather Carroll/College of Public Health

The imaginary jump brings a question of health economics within reach: how insurance can change the risks people are willing to take, and what happens when those choices add up across a health care system.

Zane, an associate professor in the Department of Health Administration, Policy, and Informatics, has built his Health Economics and Policy course around such experiments, pulling students into questions that can seem abstract or remote on a textbook page.

He and his colleagues, including associate professor Debora Goetz Goldberg, describe the approach in a new paper, “More Than a Game,” published in a special issue of The Journal of Health Administration Education focused on gamification.

Course evaluations from 129 students between 2022 and 2025 suggest the approach resonated: About 89 percent found the class environment engaging, and 85 percent said the teaching methods enhanced their learning.

In written feedback, students said the games clarified challenging concepts and exposed them to classmates’ different approaches.

Invitation to play

Students participating in Zane's class
Photo by Mary Cunningham

The idea took hold during a summer of online teaching in 2022, when most students kept their cameras off. Zane wanted a way to keep them engaged. “It’s a topic that I love, but they didn’t seem to get it,” he said.

Many of his health administration students came to the course with little background or interest in economics. Game theory—which examines how people make decisions when their outcomes depend on others’ choices—offered a way in. A former antitrust lawyer, Zane had used its principles in the past to help clients decide whether to settle lawsuits. Now he thought it might help students understand the economic forces underpinning health care.

Zane started with the “ultimatum game,” a well-established experiment in which one party offers to divide a financial windfall with another. In his version, Kit Kats stand in for cash. One student makes a proposal to their classmate, who can accept it or turn it down, with a rejection leaving both empty-handed. As it turns out, some students would rather get nothing than accept an unfair share—prompting a discussion about why fairness can outweigh personal gain.

From there, Zane began adding more exercises, some adapted from existing game-theory models and others of his own design, and adjusting according to student feedback.

Students listening to Zane during class. Photo by Mary Cunningham/College of Public Health

In his original orange juice game, students are assigned to groups with different levels of competition, from a single seller with a monopoly to a crowded market with many sellers. Zane tells each group he will pay up to $5 for a bottle of juice. The monopolist can hold near that ceiling, while competing sellers must undercut each other. In the most crowded market, the price can fall close to zero, showing students how competition drives down prices.

The games are only part of the lesson. After playing, students explain their choices and compare their reasoning with others in the class. Reading those reflections helped Zane see whether the economic lessons were landing.

“It became pretty clear that most of the students were getting it,” he said.

In addition to Zane and Golberg, additional co-authors to the paper were doctoral students Shaan Muberra Khan and Sravya Vunnam of the Department of Health Administration, Policy, and Informatics.

The Journal of Health Administration Education special issue also features HAPI professor John Cantiello and associate professor Renee Geschke’s research on case-based learning.

Key Takeaways

911�� associate professor Phillip Zane uses games and simulations to teach health economics.
A new journal article by Zane describes the teaching approach as part of a special issue on gamification.
In evaluations, most students found the learning environment engaging and said the teaching methods helped them learn.

In This Story

Phillip Zane, JD

Debora Goetz Goldberg, PhD, MHA, MBA

Topics

Simulation

Active Learning

immersive technologies

innovative classes

Students

Engineering students in Ecuador give locals a leg up

Jennifer Pocock — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 18:37:38 +0000

Engineering students in Ecuador give locals a leg up Jennifer Pocock Wed, 06/11/2025 - 14:37

In This Story

Ketul Popat

Shani Ross

Sixteen students from 911��’s College of Engineering and Computing took an early summer ROMP in Quito.

Computer engineering major Darion El shapes a prosthetic as ROMP prostheticist Mireya Moreno supervises.
Photo by Shani Ross

It could have been just another frivolous start to the summer, full of parties and pools before kicking off internships and jobs. Instead, these students opted to change lives: those of amputees—and their own.

From May 16 to 26, 16 students in the BENG 417 Bioengineering World Health class with trip leaders Claudia Borke and Shani Ross worked in Quito, Ecuador, with the Range of Motion Project (ROMP) to fit locals with high-quality prosthetic devices. Ketul Popat, chair of the Department of Bioengineering, brought the ROMP program to 911�� after a successful run at Colorado State University.

“This was the first year that we did this,” he said. “The goal was to give more hands-on experience to students so they could see how a background in engineering could make a difference in people’s lives instantly.”

Different styles of prosthetics are displayed with shoes at the ROMP workshop. Photo by Darion El

The students absolutely felt the difference. Nicolas Garcia Callejas is a rising senior who began his academic career as a pre-med nursing student, earned an associate’s degree in health science, and is now hurtling through undergrad and straight into a master’s in bioengineering with 911��’s Bachelor’s Accelerated Master’s (BAM) program.

“We got to know the patients and help them through the process. Then we got to do everything from scratch in making the prosthetics,” he said. “We went from taking measurements, doing the sculpting and molding, refinements around the socket, and building the prosthetic. It was a full 9-5 job, but the time flew by because I was having fun.”

This trip, Garcia Callejas said, lit a fire in him to continue working with ROMP. Not only did he get to help others, as he wanted to do as a nursing student, but he could also make things hands-on and use his language skills to help translate. “ROMP was a really cool experience. I fell in love with the people there.”

Andres Miguel Cruz Guzman was another student who transferred to 911�� from a community college with an associate’s degree in engineering. This mechanical engineering major wants to eventually work on solar and water technology projects, but the personal and hands-on aspect of the Ecuador program attracted him.

“I liked that we were going to work directly with the patients,” he said. “The prosthetics are going on their bodies and will be something they wear for the next three years. I was intrigued by that challenge.”

One thing he didn’t anticipate, however, was the emotional aspect of the work. “I saw one 12-year-old boy walk for the first time. It didn’t hit me at the moment, but at bedtime the impact that we had on his life overwhelmed me,” he said.

Popat said that one thing that struck him was how quickly the students adapted to the work. “I went on the third day, and it didn’t seem like the students were new there,” he said. “They were already very comfortable with what they were doing.”

And that’s the kicker (pun intended). These programs are so valuable because they enable students to see, in a very short time, how their years of study prepared them to make a difference in the world.

Topics

CEC Global Engagement

CEC students

CEC BAM program

Terri Ann Guingab, MEd

admin_alpha — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 23:24:01 +0000

Terri Ann Guingab, MEd admin_alpha Tue, 10/20/2015 - 19:24

Instructional Designer, College of Public Health

Contact Information

Email: tguingab@gmu.edu

Phone: 703-993-1912
Building: Peterson Hall
Room 5405

Biography

Terri Ann Guingab, MEd, is an instructional designer supporting faculty, staff, and students in online, online-enhanced, and face to face courses. Terri Ann is an Online Learning Consortium Online Teaching Certificate program alumna and received the inaugural Distance Education Award at 911�� in 2012. In her spare time she enjoys ballroom dancing, tabletop and computer gaming, photography, and taking online classes for fun.

University Service

Planning Committee Member, Asian and Pacific Islander Affinity Group, 2023-Present
Co-Leader, College of Public Health Inclusive Excellence Workgroup, 2021-Present
Member, Digital Accessibility and Inclusion Community Group, 2021-Present
Member, Google Analytics User Group, 2015-2019
Unit Representative, University Security Liaison, 2014-2019
Member, Department Technology Coordinators Group/System Administrator Leadership Group, 2001-Present
Reviewer, Online Learning Course Portfolios for Office of Digital Learning, 2012-2018

Honors and Awards

Employee of the Month, 911��, 2022
Exemplary Service Award, 911��, 2018
Impact Award, 911��, 2014
Distance Education Award, 2012, 911��
Outstanding Achievement Award, 2004, 911��

Degrees

MEd, Curriculum and Instruction, 911��
BSN, Nursing, 911��

Active Learning

Playing it out: A new way to teach health economics

Invitation to play

Key Takeaways

In This Story

Related Stories

Topics

Engineering students in Ecuador give locals a leg up

In This Story

Topics

Terri Ann Guingab, MEd

Contact Information

Biography

University Service

Honors and Awards

Degrees

Infants