Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning(Texas Digital Library - TDL E-Journals)
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Managing Expectations in a Pandemic and “Getting Back to Normal”
No full textFaculty around the world are getting back to teaching in ways that resemble life before COVID-19 closed everything down in March 2020. Still, many things involved in teaching are far from “normal.” This paper explores the residual negative effects of faculty delivering and students receiving instruction exclusively via online, remote, or hybrid delivery modes for multiple semesters. Student and faculty professionalism behaviors changed dramatically, and expectations shifted as everyone tried to roll with all the changes. We discuss the stress and well-being issues faculty continue to face as they navigate managing expectations while a new normal emerges, including setting boundaries to offset the always-on feeling that became normal during the pandemic. We share observations from two business professors at different universities in the United States and discuss our strategies and suggestions from research that are aimed at helping faculty find a healthier, more sustainable balance. This paper extends our previous work on student professionalism behaviors. At the conference, the authors will use part of the presentation time to engage attendees in a discussion about their own experiences with this important topic
The Role of ECareer Readiness Portfolios in Professional Development: An Experiential Process with a Genuine Outcome
No full text"This presentation describes a three-course professional development sequence culminating in an electronic career readiness portfolio developed by undergraduate business students preparing for their careers. During the process, students initiate career planning through self-discovery and determining a vision for their future by systematically assessing their competencies, soft skills, and interests. In subsequent modules, they are asked to tell their story, recognize opportunities, learn how to leverage and negotiate, build a personal brand, develop a social network, and cultivate professional relationships. Further, they explore contemporary issues, including financial literacy, values, inclusivity, forward-thinking business behaviors, and societal impact factors. In the final module, the students consider major life decisions, entrepreneurial behavior, financial considerations, leadership, and their grand plan. Resumes, cover letters, interviews, and job search plans culminate the experience.
The hallmark of this professional development experience is the student’s electronic career readiness portfolio. Throughout the process, students build an online career portfolio accompanied by a web link that they can share with anyone, especially prospective employers. The portfolio requires the students to provide a site menu with the following minimum items: about me, resume, career plan, personal plan, academic plan, community service, and contact information. The topics covered during the professional development process provide the raw material to build the electronic portfolio.
During this process, faculty act as facilitators, advisors, and mentors. Students take responsibility for their experience by engaging as individuals in a series of web-based modules from the program entitled Exploring Your Potential™. The students use the results of the web-based modules to build their electronic portfolios systematically. Each eCareer Readiness Portfolio is unique to the individual according to their academic emphasis area. As the student’s portfolio matures, faculty specializing in the relevant academic area guide the student to ensure the portfolio is relevant to their professional future.
The three courses occur at the sophomore, junior, and senior levels, respectively, so the portfolio development process can be as long as two years. During this time, the portfolios are assessed and mature into products that students are proud to show prospective employers. Even more importantly, the experience provides evidence to show that students have systematically and thoroughly thought through and prepared for their prospective careers. The professional development process is thoroughly and systematically assessed through learning goals, including self-awareness, problem-solving, informed decision-making, career orientation, strategic planning, and execution. The College of Business uses the program to assess whether its graduates are ready to succeed in their careers and make a positive societal impact. The authors will show actual student eCareer Readiness Portfolios during this presentation.
Assessing the Role of Assessment in Business Simulations
No full textThis study looks at the role that simulations play in assessment
Risk Management Simulation Game for City Councils. The Case of Poland.
No full textThe public sector around the globe has faced many radical challenges. The Public Finance Act of 27 August 2009 imposes an obligation on public sector finance entities to implement risk management policies. The essential aim is to improve the overall performance. A qualitative study conducted in city councils in Poland has shown that they find it problematic to introduce risk management within their structures. The author recognized four factors which determine the success in implementing this process: top management support, leader, internal communication and process continuous improvement. This paper explores further a risk management simulation game that was originally designed in 2012 by the author. Multiple game scenarios and solutions will be described. The simulation game will be a step-by-step guide to implementation of risk management into the structures of city councils
Relationship Building In The Online Classroom
No full textAs the educational arena develops and changes, the concept of relationship building is becoming increasingly difficult. The necessity of building relationships is going to be clearly established in this paper through the review of current research which promotes the notion of connection between teacher-student relationship and student
Assessing Competitor Strategic Business Units with the Competitor Analysis Package
No full textThe Web-based Competitor Analysis Package enables competing participant teams to assess the strength of each element of the marketing mix for one or more strategic business units (SBUs) of one or more competitors during each decision period. This decision support package extracts the EPS of each competing firm, together with the price, quality, advertising media budget and copy used for each of the nine SBUs, as well as regional salesforce size, salary and commission for each company from the simulation results. Users can configure the package to analyze one or more SBUs of one or more competitors. The package ranks and color-codes each element of the marketing mix for the selected SBUs and competitors, and can be used to evaluate specific SBUs of specific competitors, implement the external analysis component of SWOT analysis, and/or develop a comprehensive strategic market plan
A Differences Way of Analyzing Simulation Results
No full textThis paper presents the advantages of using a simulation?s results or output statements as the primary source of information for making input decisions for the ensuing periods. This methodology uses difference equations, using the changes in variables from period to period. Economists tell us to do marginal analysis to better understand the relationship between input decisions such as price, promotion, etc. and the results of these decision. Then they use differential equations to equalize the rates of change between decision inputs and the resulting outputs. However, the seen to never explain how to determine the needed functions from which to determine the derivatives! As a result the needed differential equations are impossible. Thus, difference equations are an approached of attempting to equalizing the marginal rates of return for many decision variables in business simulations
Computer-Assisted Total-Economy Simulation: A Workshop Proposal
No full textThis session will enable participants to engage with an adaptable simulation, GEO, that I developed for use in multiple business courses and settings. Courses where GEO has been used include Principles of Management, International Business, Global Economic Environment, and Strategic Management. Settings include on-site, online, and hybrid classes, as well as single-day online competitions. GEO is distinguished by its computer-assisted design, which enables participants to engage with each other in trade, employment, and financial transactions through digital markets; and by its total-economy scope, which requires participants to account for the global economic consequences of their individual decisions.
GEO is built on roles rather models. Participants assume individual roles on both sides of transactional relationships, such as buyer vs. seller, superior vs. subordinate, company executive vs. shareholders, and citizens of one nation vs. citizens of another. As participants encounter other participants on the other side of transactions, the way for participants to win is to adapt to the intelligence and emotions of other participants. The game is therefore computer-assisted, rather than computer-directed, computer-based, or computer-controlled, and therefore truly real.
Computer assistance and total-economy scope makes GEO adaptable to a wide range of courses and setting. For an introductory business course, for example, the instructor can limit the game to one nation and disable trading in shares. For a single-day competition, the administrator can set the clock to advance time automatically every 10 minutes. Limits also can be placed on roles, so that students enrolled in different courses can be engaged in the same game at the same time. Thus, students enrolled in a finance course can be limited to ownership of banks whereas students enrolled in a marketing course can be limited to ownership of businesses that are not banks. The student enrolled in both the finance course and marketing course at the same time would register under a different alias for each course, thereby participating as two different identities in the same game
An Innovative MBA Class in Organizational Behavior and its Relationship to Experiential Learning
No full textABSEL’s emphasis on experiential learning (EL) provides a vehicle for discussing a wide array of pedagogical practices, from specific tools to broader approaches. In this article, we present a pedagogy, or more appropriately an andragogy, that thematically drives a graduate class in organizational behavior (OB). This course systematically integrates a wide array of experiential aspects such as self-assessment, reflection, skills application planning, execution of skills plans inside and especially outside the classroom, evaluation of skills planning, and case analysis, following Whetten’s (2020) text Developing Management Skills. While each of these activities are common EL tools, their overarching integration in one MBA curriculum’s OB class is discussed here. The class design is described, related to experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984), whole person learning (Hoover et al., 2010), and Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom et al., 1956), then concludes with three different instructor reflections on the approach’s benefits and some practical limitations and implications
Assessing the Development of Knowledge and Attitude for Sustainable Leadership through Simulation-based Learning
No full textThis empirical study aims to fill the gap in higher education for sustainable development research by studying the use of an online business simulation (Leading Change for Sustainability) in a graduate business degree program in Thailand. The main objective of this empirical study is to assess the extent to which the Leading Change for Sustainability simulation, or LCS, impacts student\u27s knowledge and attitude in the domains of change management and sustainability science (e.g., Chappin, Bijvoet & Oei, 2017; Gericke et al., 2018; Shephard, 2008)