BUSINESS SIMULATION

Business Simulation

Business Simulation

There are many methods of management training. Books, lectures and case studies represent forms of training alone. Business simulations are a form of competitive learning in which students pit their business skills and those formidable opponents under the watchful eye of coach training. Simulations can assist students build up an almost perceptive understanding of the business, including a seamless integration of marketing and how marketing should work in the rest of the organization.

Despite the enormous potential for learning deep, simulations have played a relatively minor role in business education. Adoptions have fallen short of expectations because the simulations have not always been easy to use. Students are often faced with endless tables to analyze, little guidance on how to put the pieces of the puzzle, and no real story to keep their interest from beginning to the end of the year.( Banks 2005:54) They are virtually left to their own legacy to trace their way through the maze of information and decisions.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to adoption was the faculty perceives simulations as requiring too much work. It is usually hard to manage, to run the programs and data to print and distribute. Also, teachers do not teach as much as they coach. They must help students understand the market, in which they compete, the options available to them, and the implications of their choices. All this takes time and effort. In an environment where research and publication is the number one objective, less labor-intensive learning options prevail.

As a developer of simulation tools for learning, I tried to address these limitations gradually over the past 15 years. Recently I had the opportunity to completely rebuild my market simulation from scratch. (Benedettini 2008: 43) The impetus was the complete overhaul of the curriculum for undergraduates at the University of Tennessee. Jan Williams, dean of the Faculty of Business Administration, asked me to create a flight simulator business for our students who were not only relevant but also exciting and stimulating, and easy to use. He gave me the resources and helped to recruit a team of tremendous development to push the limits on simulation learning.

Given this opportunity Greenfield, I took the time to carefully choose my educational objectives, formulate a development strategy and create a well thought out set of features that would benefit students and instructors alike. The overall objective was to create a learning experience that far exceeds the previous exercises.

Another "event experience SimVenture held at Sheffield Hallam University in May 2007 was a huge success for all parties concerned.

A near full house of over 40 delegates from universities, colleges, schools and business in the UK heard how the software was to benefit students and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

organizer of the event, Peter Harrington said: "I was very pleased that so many people wanted to hear about SimVenture and how it is used in places such as Sheffield Hallam University and Craven College in Skipton. allowing teachers and professors to learn from their colleagues in other schools and ...