The Experience of an Online Management Simulation Game to Foster Collaboration and Teamwork

Abstract

With a new degree on Management, a new course called Management Simulation Project was created and started in the summer semester of 2006-2007 at the Lisbon School of Accountancy and Administration (ISCAL). The teaching team wanted to explore ways to bring the realities of business decision-making and action into the curriculum. This chapter reflects on the concept of educational simulations and games and aims at describing how a web-based competitive management game helped to achieve that. The authors discuss their objectives and those of the game and outline their reasons for choosing it. They describe the context at ISCAL and the game’s main features, showing how it is played over a semester. The authors consider, as online simulation facilitators of what is predominantly a student-led learning process, that the game helps students to gain a real ‘feel’ for collaboration, managerial decision-making and teamwork. An exploratory study was carried out. A questionnaire was designed to tap students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the use of a simulation/game as a new teaching method in five areas: career preparation, traditional educational goals, use of time, involvement and satisfaction, and a set of specific skill competencies. The results of the authors’ empirical study show that students perceive the simulation course as superior to the lecture-centered method. On the overall dimensions, the simulation course was seen as a better vehicle in helping students make career preparations, achieve educational goals, and utilize time. The results are presented and discussed.