Teaching the principles of Economics with a fresh approach
Dr. Michael Barber teaches the core Principles of Economics courses at UBC
Starting in 2025, thousands of UBC students began to enroll in Econ 101–Principles of Microeconomics and Econ 102–Principles of Macroeconomics with Dr. Michael Barber, Associate Professor of Teaching at the Vancouver School of Economics.
Barber’s teaching approach leverages technology to achieve a more active learning environment, where students watch Barber’s prerecorded videos before attending in-person lectures. This preparation enables students to gain an introduction to core concepts at their own pace, while freeing lecture time to dedicate to practice problems and group discussions.
The educational value for students comes from opportunities to actively apply what they have learned, while receiving more responsive in-person support. And because the video content is created in-house, students enjoy a consistent experience from learning, to assessment.
“You can watch it at 1.5x speed, 2x speed, .5 speed if you really want to... if you have a problem you can pause it or go quickly if it's something you've seen before, and there's captions provided for accessibility.”
Dr. Barber’s work strengthens the VSE’s ability to deliver high quality economics education. By rethinking how introductory economics is taught, he is helping equip students with the tools needed to succeed throughout their academic journey.
