1 / 11

Experiential Learning with Online Business Simulations: Challenges and Opportunities

Experiential Learning with Online Business Simulations: Challenges and Opportunities. Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning November, 2008. Agenda. Background Market Research  Design Principles Development Model Demos Looking to the Future Questions. Background.

moira
Download Presentation

Experiential Learning with Online Business Simulations: Challenges and Opportunities

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Experiential Learning with Online Business Simulations: Challenges and Opportunities Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning November, 2008

  2. Agenda • Background • Market Research  Design Principles • Development Model • Demos • Looking to the Future • Questions

  3. Background • Harvard Business Publishing • Publishing division of Harvard Business School • Distribute Harvard Business Cases, eLearning products, Harvard Business Review, etc, to academic and corporate institutions • Higher Ed unit recently started developing our own eLearning products based on market needs • Why simulations? • Seen as an extension of the case method & participant-centered learning • From a content perspective: build upon lessons learned from sims developed on campus • From a distribution perspective: build upon lessons learned from our publishing history

  4. Market Research  Design Principles • Rigorous & Relevant • The content criterion • Perspective: the product • Teachable & Usable • The experience criterion • Perspective: the user/administrator • Professional & Deliverable • The support and delivery criteria • Perspective: the channel between product & user

  5. Rigorous & Relevant • Key components: • Quality – “brand-worthy”; designed based on principles of learning science • Focus – topical within a discipline; short seat-time • Lessons learned: • Not trying to make a “one size fits all” capstone sim – market survey reveals that majority of all sims used were those used by less than 5% of respondents • Syllabus space is tight – faculty willing to swap 1:1, case for sim • Too many sims achieve this then stop

  6. Teachable & Usable • Key components: • Usability, intuitive and engaging interface • Consistent framework for how sims are structured • Robust teaching note and support materials • Lessons learned: • The administrative burdens of running sims is the barrier to adoption for never-users and the reason for abandonment by former-users • Students increasingly expect engaging and sophisticated interfaces • Beware the “complexity = reality” trap

  7. Professional & Deliverable • Key components: • Delivery/publishing architecture that supports the unique purchasing and access models for higher ed • Robust simulation platform engine for re-usability & scalability • Technical support team • Lessons learned: • Don’t build “one-off” applications – support nightmares • The delivery experience can kill a good sim • Sims are complex software – they require support

  8. Development Model • Harvard Business Publishing • Selects topics • Manages project & guards product line vision • Forio Business Simulations • Provides sim platform & business simulation expertise • Models & codes simulation • Faculty Author(s) • Creates simulation ‘cover story’ & pedagogy • Determines learning objectives & assessment

  9. Demos

  10. Looking to the Future • Refine the Development Model • Testing, testing, testing • Continue to enhance the design framework and keep abreast of learning sciences research • Develop Additional Simulations • Scale up production • Productize existing sims (looking for business sim examples – from you??) • Cultivate an Experiential Sim Community • Enable faculty to build, host and distribute sims

  11. Questions? Denis Saulnier Assistant Director, Educational Technology Harvard Business Publishing dsaulnier@hbsp.harvard.edu simulations.hbsp.harvard.edu saulnier.typepad.com

More Related