My teaching centers on making economics accessible through active learning, removing financial barriers for students, and preparing them for data-driven careers. My overall rating in principles courses rose from 4.37/6.0 in my first independently taught course to between 5.03 and 5.33 in every course since.

Teaching Evaluations

Teaching Evaluation Summary (PDF, 2 pages) — ratings for every course, by core item, with selected student comments.

Full Teaching Effectiveness File (PDF, 24 pages) — the summary, an annotated sample syllabus, and every official Auburn eValuate report, with a clickable contents page.

Official Auburn eValuate reports by semester:

SemesterCourseRoleOverallOfficial report
Fall 2023ECON 2020 Principles of MicroeconomicsInstructor4.37/6.0PDF
Spring 2024ECON 2030 Principles of MacroeconomicsInstructor5.21/6.0PDF
Fall 2024ECON 4600 EconometricsTA5.39/6.0PDF
Spring 2025ECON 2020 Principles of MicroeconomicsInstructor5.33/6.0PDF
Fall 2025ECON 4600 EconometricsTA5.86/6.0PDF
Spring 2026ECON 2030 Principles of MacroeconomicsInstructor5.03/6.0PDF
Summer 2026ECON 2020 Principles of MicroeconomicsInstructor5.30/6.0PDF

Continuous Improvement

Each semester I introduce a concrete change to lower barriers to learning and replace passive lectures with hands-on tools. The teaching evaluations below show how these changes have played out.

Summer 2026 — Tulip Bulb Investment Game v2

Released a major rewrite of the Tulip Bulb Investment Game. V2 adds five historical bubble scenarios (Tulip Mania, South Sea Bubble, Florida Land Boom, Dot-com Bubble, Crypto Mania), full Buy / Sell / Hold trading with quantities, an inflation-adjusted Future-Value vs Present-Value breakdown, and a closing reflection that connects the simulation to today’s AI valuations.

Summer 2026 — Welfare Lab (Biggio Center Course (Re)Design)

As part of the Biggio Center Summer 2026 Course (Re)Design Program, I built the Welfare Lab, an interactive tariff and tax welfare-math sandbox in which students can change market parameters and watch consumer surplus, producer surplus, and deadweight loss update in real time. I built it after my most recent course, so it has not yet been used in a class; I plan to use it in my next Principles of Microeconomics course.

Spring 2026 — Midterm Survey Innovation

In Spring 2026 ECON 2030 (Principles of Macroeconomics), I introduced a multi-wave mid-semester survey system (4 waves, 42 total responses) to collect actionable feedback and adapt teaching in real time. After Midterm 1, students requested more practice problems and instructor-led problem-solving; I restructured the remaining sessions accordingly. The results:

  • 94% of responses (17 of 18) were satisfied or very satisfied with the post-Midterm 1 changes
  • 78% reported improved pacing
  • 56% felt better prepared for exams (only 6% felt less prepared)
  • 100% rated the additional practice problems and in-class solving as at least moderately helpful

Spring 2025 — Oligopoly (Prisoner’s Dilemma) Game

Developed an interactive Oligopoly game for ECON 2020 (Principles of Microeconomics). Students play repeated rounds against classmates and the computer, observing strategic interaction and Nash equilibria emerge from their own choices.

“I thought it was clever to use the news to apply our fairly basic principles to real world scenarios… I really liked the lecture where we changed teaching styles and used the game website and talked as a group.” — Spring 2025, ECON 2020 (Principles of Microeconomics), official course evaluation

Summer 2024 — Tulip Bulb Investment Game (Biggio Center Course (Re)Design)

As part of the Biggio Center Summer 2024 Course (Re)Design Program, I built a free, browser-based Tulip Bulb Investment Game for ECON 2030 (Principles of Macroeconomics) so students could experience speculative bubbles and boundedly rational decision-making firsthand instead of reading about them. Replaced an expensive publisher subscription.

Student Feedback

Selected comments from official Auburn eValuate reports. Each one names something I do in class; the full reports are linked above.

Principles of Microeconomics and Macroeconomics

“I liked how he always posted the class notes after class and how he went over the test questions after each exam… He was also very encouraging to ask questions.” — Spring 2025, ECON 2020 (Principles of Microeconomics)

“Professor Li is a really good teacher; his class is very structured, and he has helped me multiple times by going over previous tests and assignments, and by going over what I missed.” — Spring 2026, ECON 2030 (Principles of Macroeconomics)

“I appreciated the bonus problems and assignments, very helpful for exam prep.” — Spring 2026, ECON 2030 (Principles of Macroeconomics)

“I also felt that he paced the semester well and was agile in adjusting to meet our specific class’ needs.” — Spring 2024, ECON 2030 (Principles of Macroeconomics)

“I did enjoy the slide handouts and walk-through lectures.” — Summer 2026, ECON 2020 (Principles of Microeconomics)

Econometrics (Teaching Assistant)

“Zihang was a great TA. He taught us how to code in R every Monday and provided every material we needed to succeed in the course.” — Fall 2024, ECON 4600 (Econometrics)

“Incredibly knowledgeable and easy to talk to… knew how to answer students’ questions, even when the student had no idea what they were asking, providing feedback that removed prior doubts.” — Fall 2024, ECON 4600 (Econometrics)

“He was very flexible with his office hours and was very informative on research methods within the class and topics that we were researching.” — Fall 2024, ECON 4600 (Econometrics)

“He always answered questions, supported his students, and helped us to think critically about the material and our project.” — Fall 2025, ECON 4600 (Econometrics)

Mid-semester survey

“Gives plenty of practice problems and examples. I enjoy when you incorporate real news/events.” — Spring 2026, ECON 2030 (Principles of Macroeconomics), April 1 mid-semester survey (not an end-of-term evaluation)

Independent Instructor — Auburn University

ECON 2020: Principles of Microeconomics

  • Semesters: Fall 2023, Spring 2025, Summer 2026
  • Evaluations: 4.37/6.0 (Fall 2023, report), 5.33/6.0 (Spring 2025, report), 5.30/6.0 (Summer 2026, report)
  • Tool used in class: Oligopoly (Prisoner’s Dilemma) game
  • Full course responsibility: curriculum design, syllabus development, assessment, and grading (AACSB accredited)

ECON 2030: Principles of Macroeconomics

Module Instructor — Auburn University

ECON 5700/6700: Health Economics (Spring 2025)

  • Led instruction on Demand and Supply of Health Insurance and Organization of the Health Care Market
  • Taught undergraduate and graduate sections
  • Led session on data and statistical methods with empirical applications

Teaching Assistant — Auburn University

ECON 4600: Econometrics (Fall 2024, Fall 2025)

  • TA Evaluations: 5.39/6.0 (Fall 2024, report), 5.86/6.0 (Fall 2025, report)
  • Hold independent weekly recitation sessions: R programming, regression analysis, quantitative methods
  • Individually guide each student through their research thesis

ECON 2020 & ECON 2030 (Fall 2021 – Summer 2025)

  • ECON 2020 (Principles of Microeconomics): Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Summer 2025
  • ECON 2030 (Principles of Macroeconomics): Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022

Principles Office-Hour Team (Fall 2026)

  • Joined the coordinated office-hour team for a multi-section principles sequence serving approximately 1,800 students
  • Help newer TAs prepare for common student questions

Teaching Assistant — Konkuk University (2018–2020)

  • Environmental Economics, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, History of Economic Thought
  • Prepared course materials and graded assignments for 200+ students
  • Graduate Mentor, Research for Undergraduate Study program (Fall 2019)

Courses Prepared to Teach

Undergraduate: Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, Econometrics, Business Statistics, Data Analytics, Industrial Organization, Health Economics, Big Data Analysis

Graduate: Applied Microeconometrics, Econometrics, Health Economics, Business Statistics, Industrial Organization, Risk Analysis

Educational Tools

I develop free interactive tools to replace expensive publisher subscriptions:

  • Tulip Bulb Investment Game — Used in ECON 2030 (Principles of Macroeconomics) to illustrate speculative bubbles and boundedly rational decision-making
  • Oligopoly (Prisoner’s Dilemma) Game — Used in ECON 2020 (Principles of Microeconomics) to teach strategic interaction
  • Welfare Lab — Tariff and tax welfare sandbox built in Summer 2026 for my next microeconomics course (not yet used in a class)

Service & Outreach

Aris Education Foundation — Pro Bono Website Feedback

Provided feedback and consultation, free of charge, on the design and development of the Aris Education Foundation website. The foundation supports educational opportunities for children with disabilities in underserved rural communities in India through infrastructure grants, learning materials, teacher training, and scholarships.