Teaching Introduction
I have developed a broad teaching portfolio, instructing courses across in-person, online synchronous, and online asynchronous formats. My experience includes being the instructor of record for 10 undergraduate courses across two subjects, mathematics and economics, with class sizes ranging from 15 to 100 students. I was honored to receive the University of Oregon Economics Department Graduate Teaching Award for Online Instruction for the 2024-2025 academic year, which is awarded based on cumulative teaching accomplishments and qualitative student feedback. My teaching style relies heavily on connecting with and getting to know my students. Through flipped classroom days, in-class experiments, and multiple assessment methods, I structure my classes to empower students to develop the inductive reasoning skills required to think “like an economist.” Below you will find information about the courses I have taught, example syllabi, and selected student comments.
Undergraduate
Economics - University of Oregon
EC201 - Introduction to Economic Analysis: Microeconomics
Terms Taught: Summer 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024
Terms Taught: Summer 2024
EC330 - Urban and Regional Economic Problems
Terms Taught: Fall 2024, Spring 2025
EC340 - Issues in Public Economics
Schedulued: Spring 2026
Mathematics - Ball State University
MATH 125 - Quantitative Reasoning
Terms Taught: Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021
High School and Middle School
Phillips Exeter Academy
Since 2023, I have spent my summers teaching at a middle and high school enrichment program at Phillips Exeter Academy by the name of Exeter Summer.
Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational residential high school located in Exeter, New Hampshire. During the summer, PEA/Exeter Summer offers non-degree seeking enrichment to more than 600 middle and high school students from the U.S. and more than thirty foreign countries.
As a Summer Faculty member, I am charged with adapting college-level curriculum to the high school classroom through the use of the Harkness Method. Harkness is a student centered style of learning where students teach one another through shared ideas and questions with minimal teacher intervention.
Teaching at Exeter Summer has allowed me to think, teach, and develop curriculum outside of the traditional chalk-and-talk format. Throughout my tenure, I have developed the curriculum for four summer courses:
Economics in the Labratory
This course teaches introductory economic theory to high school students through discussions, in-class experiments, and problem sets. A standard unit starts with students reading an article about an example of the phenomena or behavior we plan to study. Students are then given space to collectively generate a hypothesis to test related to the outcome. They then participate in an experiment selected to generate evidence students use to evaluate their hypothesis. From this point, students are given a hand out formalizing the mathematic notation of their hypothesis and asked to worth through other examples to solidfy their comfort with the math.
Investing in a Changing World
Every dollar we invest is a choice, not just about growing our wealth but about the kind of world we want to help build. In this course, we will explore how investment decisions can promote sustainability and social betterment. We will uncover ways to delivers returns and supports projects like clean water access, affordable housing, or climate resilience. We will constantly ask ourselves, “what should I do when my financial goals conflict with my values?” We will wrestle with this and many other questions through case studies, portfolio-building exercises, ethical dilemmas, and group discussions.
Rules We Live By: Economics in Daily Life
Why does the Katy Freeway in Houston, Texas with its 26 lanes still experience traffic? This course explores the often hidden reasons behind our daily experiences. Students will learn how to create models as a way to simplify society to make sense of how it functions. We start with a shared question and each student is tasked to propose a model to explain it. In class, students come together, debate the merits of their models, and identify a single model they believe best explains the circumstances with the fewest assumptions.
Marketing: Dignified Digital Design
This introductory marketing course explores how and why consumers make decisions. Students will learn the basics of identifying target markets, designing effective distribution and pricing strategies, and creating clear communication and promotional plans. The course also introduces tools for budgeting and evaluating marketing performance. By the end, students will be able to critically assess marketing practices and distinguish between those that are ethical and those that are not.
Evaluations
Selected Student Comments
“I really enjoy the lectures. They have all been engaging in how Eric delivers the information. There is plenty of opportunity for the class to have a discussion. I also like it when Eric allows us to use our intuition to drive some parts of the discussion. The open questions to the class allow us to use our own knowledge to understand the material.”
“He gave me so much support and always answered my emails quickly. Genuinely the best Econ teacher I’ve ever had. I like how he interacted with the students and actually made the lectures fun. He also did a really good job of explaining everything visually.”
“I think he is a great instructor, and his overall enthusiasm for the content of the course is a refreshing take on economics. Overall an amazing class and much better than the first one I took my freshman year and failed.”
“Mr. Wilken was always ready to help whoever needed it—all you had to do was ask. It’s obvious he truly enjoys his job and loves to help others. I never felt nervous to raise my hand because I knew that in his class, no question was a stupid question.”
“As someone who has taken MATH 125 twice before, Mr. Wilken is the clearest, most helpful, and most understanding professor I have had for this class. He’s extremely open to helping his students and is one of the most academically available professors I’ve had in my four years here. His in-class lectures are very helpful, and his time management of class is extremely organized and structured. The biggest thing, though, is that he is very understanding of every student’s situation—whether balancing other courses or adjusting to working from home. He’s been the best math teacher I’ve had in years.”
“I had taken a Ball State Dual Credit class in high school—exact same class but different professors—and I received two very different experiences. This professor has been understanding and went above and beyond to provide feedback on assignments and offered multiple resources for explaining content.”