Workshops
Williams, Russell: Hull University, UK
Appraising the Use of Simulations in Business Education
Business simulations have been around for several decades now offering considerable benefits to both the participants and stakeholders of education. By presenting problems that need to be solved (problem-based learning scenarios), simulations provide the possibility to develop the higher order skills of critical thinking, independent decision making, self-directed learning, collaboration and team-building, pragmatism and application. Achieving all or at least some of these outcomes by organising learning around a problem (via simulations) will of course go a long way to address the argument frequently forwarded by employers that the gap between theory and practice is widening.
However, achieving these highly desirable outcomes, moving from teacher-centred responsibility and thinking to student centred learning, from rote memory to application, from answering questions to developing questions, and from taking responsibility to giving responsibility requires generating a sense of engagement and intrinsic motivation.
Drawing on the presenter’s own experience in the use of computer-based simulations - at three Higher Education Institutes, leading over one thousand students through a simulation - the workshop sets out to first appraise the use of simulations in business education in terms of the outcomes that may be achieved through their use. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, through discussion the workshops sets out to consider effective strategies to achieve these outcomes, focussing notably on the problem of generating engagement and intrinsic motivation within learners. In short, the workshop sets out to generate a better understanding for the effective utilisation of problem-based learning via business simulations in terms of an understanding of both outcomes and processes.
KEYWORDS: business simulations, management games
