Baker University’s Alan Grant, professor of business and economics, received first place in the Economist Educators Best in Class Teaching Award competition, sponsored by the textbook company Cengage Learning.

Cengage Learning hosted the competition to gain ideas for innovative teaching techniques, and Grant’s presentation, titled “Using Game Theory; Collective Action Experiments to Teach the Economics of Social Issues,” took first.

“It’s based on not the effectiveness of my delivery necessarily, but the approach that I use for teaching in class. Is there a special trick or tool that I use?” Grant said. “My work is for using game theory to explain a lot of these problems and then using the simulations to get students involved.”

Grant was awarded $2,000, and Baker’s business and economics department was also awarded $2,000.

He also earned a trip to Orlando, Fla., Nov. 8-9 for the Economics Teaching Conference, where he will give a presentation about his teaching techniques.

His presentation is based around the way he teaches his introductory course, Economic Analysis of Social Issues.

“This is kind of like a pet course for me. There’s nobody else in the entire country that teaches this course in this way,” Grant said. “It’s sort of my invention … I really sort of built this from scratch, all the simulations I came up with myself …. so it’s nice to be recognized as doing something that’s different and unique.”