How to teach economics online on a whiteboard: a price elasticity lesson, step by step

What an economics tutor does on a whiteboard

A 2021 help page from the tutoring platform Spires says tutors of quantitative subjects, and it names economics, will almost certainly need to write equations or solve problems by hand in their tutorials. In a 2017 r/IBO thread on typed or handwritten economics notes, most of the 17 replies say to handwrite because the graphs are easier to draw by hand and the exam is on paper, so drawing them quickly becomes routine; one reply says typing works better for them. Those are individual views, but they point to four jobs for the board:

• Draw the graph. A demand or supply curve, with the points you will use labelled.
• Work the calculation beside it, one line at a time, so the student sees the order.
• Let the student do the next case in their own colour and say what the answer means.
• Keep a reusable page. Leave the board open as the revision sheet, and copy it for the next student.

A tablet or pen tablet makes graphs faster than a mouse; see which pen tablet to buy and online tutoring setup. For the maths side of the same habit, see an online whiteboard for math.

A price elasticity lesson in five steps

OpenStax Principles of Economics 3e, section 5.1, defines the price elasticity of demand as the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price, and uses the midpoint method: each change is divided by the average of the two values, so you get the same answer going up or down the curve. Demand is elastic when the result is above one and inelastic when it is below one, and the book reports it as an absolute value. Section 5.3 adds the revenue test: if demand is elastic, a price cut raises total revenue; if it is inelastic, a price cut lowers it. The board follows that order with our own made-up numbers on a straight demand line:

1. 1Ask first: if a shop cuts its prices, what happens to its sales and to its takings? Let the student guess before you draw anything.
2. 2Draw the line and the four points: price $5, $4, $3 and $2 against quantity 30, 50, 70 and 90.
3. 3Work A to B with the midpoint method: the quantity change is 20 on an average of 40, which is 50%; the price change is 1 on an average of 4.5, which is 22.2%; so elasticity is 50 divided by 22.2, about 2.25.
4. 4Read it and test it: above one, so demand is elastic; revenue goes from $5 x 30 = $150 to $4 x 50 = $200, so the price cut raised revenue.
5. 5Student's turn, C to D: 20 on 80 is 25%, 1 on 2.5 is 40%, elasticity 0.625, below one, so inelastic; revenue goes from $210 to $180, so the same price cut lowered revenue.

The point worth saying out loud is the red note on the board: it is one straight line, but elasticity is not the same at every point on it. OpenStax makes the same point in section 5.1, where it works two intervals of one straight-line demand curve and gets different elasticities. The usual slips are dividing by the starting value instead of the average, mixing up elasticity with slope, and getting the revenue rule backwards.

Drawing economics on Instaboard

On Instaboard you draw with the pen, like a whiteboard in a room. Here is what that means, so you can decide before the lesson:

• Hand-drawn graphs. Axes, curves, points and arrows are pen drawings, as on the board above. They are not to scale unless you make them so, and the board does not check them.
• Hand-written working. Fractions, percentages and answers are written, not typed. Cards and lists hold typed notes if you want a tidy checklist beside the graph.
• The worksheet or past-paper question. Import the student's PDF and write on it. Each imported PDF uses one of the 5 free boards.
• A textbook figure. You can add an image to a card, but a free board holds 3 images, and drawing the graph with the student is usually the point.

When another tool is the better choice

• You need exact or data-driven graphs. A graphing tool or a spreadsheet plots to scale; Instaboard's curves are freehand.
• Your student only needs to watch. Screen-share annotation on your own platform is enough if you do not need them to write.
• Your platform already has a whiteboard you like. Keep it if it works for you.
• You want a recording of the lesson. Instaboard does not record.
• You teach a large class. Instaboard has no class mode.

One UK tutoring service's A-Level economics page says students often reproduce diagrams from memory but never use them to carry the argument, and describes its sessions as building diagrams together on a shared whiteboard rather than watching one appear. That is a service's own description, not a study, but it is the case for a board where the student draws too. Instaboard fits when you teach by drawing, you want the student to do the next calculation, and you want the call, the graph and the working on one link.

Use the lesson board in five steps

1. 1Open the economics board above and make it yours.
2. 2Send your student the link, or press Call on the board so the lesson runs in one place. They sign in free once to write.
3. 3Swap in your topic. Replace the demand line with the curve you are teaching, such as a supply shift, a tax or a budget line.
4. 4Let the student do the next case in their own colour and explain the answer out loud.
5. 5Leave the board open as the revision sheet and start the next lesson from it.

The same pattern works for other subjects: how to teach math online, how to teach physics online and how to teach biology online. For a student's own notes, see the supply and demand notes board.

What Instaboard doesn't do for economics

• No graph plotter, no equation solver, no diagram library. Graphs and working are hand-drawn ink.
• No handwriting reading. Handwritten numbers are not searchable or checked.
• Whole-stroke eraser only. You cannot rub out part of a line; erase the stroke and redraw it.
• No recording of the lesson, no class mode, no scheduling.
• Students sign in to write. Anyone with the link can view; writing needs a free sign-in. Free calls run 60 minutes.
• Free covers 5 boards. Each imported PDF uses one of them. Pen strokes do not count toward the 150-item limit; cards and lists do.
• Free boards are shared by link, so use first names only.

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