A TALE OF TWO SHEPHERDS OR USING SIMULATION IN A CLASS WITHOUT WALLS Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 15, 1988 248 A TALE OF TWO SHEPHERDS OR USING SIMULATION IN A CLASS WITHOUT WALLS Peggy A. Golden, University of Louisville Jerald R. Smith, University of Louisville Peter Holland. Massey University ABSTRACT Decreasing enrollments, non-traditional students, and recent innovations in continuing education have forced administrators and educators to consider innovative pedagogical methods Two options have traditionally been ordered: courses by correspondence and educational television auspices of public universities. Both of these methods have had limitations due to the one-way method of communicating course material; in addition, these methods tend to be content rather than process oriented focusing on written or verbal lectures with written responses. Proponents of experiential education methods balk at the lack of process involved In the learning process. The problem is more than lust pedagogical; it has a competitive connotation. Continuing education in management is being supported by the American Management Association, AACSB, and some States in which traditional classroom technology is economically or practically Infeasible. The ho-hum technology of television lecture or printed material has already been replaced by satellite supported interactive teleconferencing and electronic mail. However, weaknesses still exist in the area of decision processing. A solution has been proposed by manage-went faculty in a “down under’ country that is largely rural with isolated sheep carriers as the primary students of management. MANAGEMENT SIMULATIONS TN DISTANCE LEARNING Far out In the South Pacific, in New Zealand, Massey University in Palmerton North has pioneered the use of management simulations in distance education in undergraduate management courses. New Zealand, with a land mass of some 100,000 square miles, about three- quarters of the size of Pennsylvania, has a population of only three million people, although it sports 85 million sheep! The population, outside a few major cities, is dispersed into small urban and rural communities in the North and South Islands. To serve these communities Massey University, under a special Extramural Statute, offers distance education undergraduate courses. Each course covers the same content as the equivalent full- time internal course but is taught in a different mode. Students unable to attend full- or part-time undergraduate courses at Massey or other universities in New Zealand, owing to work or other commitments, may enroll for these courses. The courses, when taught In the distance mode, are referred to as extramural courses. Usually the same Course Controller Is in change of both the internal (face-co-face~ and the extramural course. This helps to ensure comparable course content. As a result of a visit to the States in 1985 by a senior academic from the Department of Management and Administration at Massey University, management simulation exercises were introduced into both internal and extramural second and third year management courses in 1986. Since the courses had traditionally followed the same content regardless of the mode of teaching, It was decided to introduce management simulations into both internal and extramural courses. The introduction Into Internal courses followed the conventional pattern used in many universities In the States. The introduction into extramural courses, however, soon proved to he more experimental. No immediate precedents were found to guide the interaction. The students taking extramural management courses have an average age of about 29 years and many have at least five years work experience. While students van on both extremes of that age range, the name of the game is very definitely Andragogy rather than Pedagogy. Great variation in the lever of professional experience and normal school education exists among the students. Many students will not have received secondary educator. beyond 10th Grade. Such adult students are, if over the age 0c twenty-one, admitted on a provisional basis and are allowed the opportunity to prove their academic ability. The simulation chosen for trial in the basic management course was Manager-A Simulation (Smith, 1984). It was chosen since it was: * readily available from the States; * comparatively simple to operate requiring only eleven decisions to be made by students ~or each exercise; * offering, in addition, a range of incidents requiring ethical and socially responsible decisions from students: * designed for processing on an IBM PC, which was readily available: * not so culturally baser) on the States that the conditions used in the exercises could not he applied to New Zealand business; * complete with well documented student and instructor manuals. To undertake the simulations students were required to form company management teams of three persons. The students enroll with the University by mail some months before the beginning of the course. The Course Controller In charge of the course requires that each student registered in the course must form a tear’. A team mate may be a spruce, a farmhand or the manager of the local grain cooperative (or a duly registered student, but this is less common). The team process is a requirement of the course hut the selection of a simulation teammate is up to the individual participant. Students are required to send a completed decision form with each set of lessons and are provided a printout prior to the next decision period. Student-faculty contact takes place only at a beginning o’ semester briefing and an end of semester debriefing. Favorable student response Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 15, 1988 249 has resulted in increased enrollments, increased student performance (on exams) and increased student satisfaction as evidenced by retention. GENERALIZABILITY The Massey University extramural program is a lock-step diploma program that requires courses in entrepreneurship and business policy. These applied topics present similar pedagogical demands to those presented by a management principles course. As of Summer, 1987 (Winter term south of the equator) simulation games were being introduced into both of these courses. It was anticipated that some of the teams that were formed for the first simulation experience would remain in tact for the subsequent courses. As the demands on continuing education extend to the for- credit course domain, universities are going to be called upon to innovate in the non-traditional classroom. One of the benefits that is sacrificed in this environment is the process dimension of classroom Use of a simulation game requires group membership; this is a significant dimension of university education and can offset the education isolation frequency experienced by television and other “media” courses as well as programs without walls. In the domain of management education, it provides skill building activities as well as an emulation of marketplace competition. The use of 2 simulation game in a remote area also generates some potential research questions. It will he important to gain a greater understanding of the impact on decision- making by pre- and post-simulation assessment. Another area of interest is the comparative satisfaction with the course between simulation classes and other classes. A third area of exploration is the potential for using the class without walls concept in teach principles of management using the liberal arts large lecture/lab section; such an approach would extend resources for many colleges and universities. Table of Contents Volume 15, 1988 The Role of Experiential Knowledge and Human Information Processing in Decision Making A Semantic Differential Instrument to Evaluate Experiential Teaching Methods A Comparison of Two Approaches to Management Skill-Building in an Organizational Behavior Course: A Replication Integrating Simulations: A Model for Business Policy Success Capstone Renaissance = Simulation + Interaction + DSS A Hybrid Method of Executing a Management Simulation: Combining the Best of Mainframes and Microcomputers Providing an Experiential Dimension to Cost/Managerial Accounting Courses Utilization of Computerized Tax Research Services in the Tax Research Curriculum Using and Expert System Based Decision Aid in Accounting Information Systems Event-Extended Entity-Relationship Diagrams for Understanding Simulation Model Structure and Function Multiple Objectives in the Development of the Gordon Macro Game A Comparative Study of Strategic Performance Factors in Actual and Simulated Business Environments An Empirical Investigation of Integrated Spatial-Proximity MCDM-Behavioral Problem Solving Technology Group Decision models Computer Simulation of Human Interaction The Role of Experiential Learning and Simulation in Teaching Management Skills Expert Systems - The New Business Simulation Tool Integrating Prolog into and Undergraduate Logistics Course Simulating Material Requirements Planning on Lotus 1-2-3 Innovation in Management Education: The Impact of the AACSB Experiential Learning in the International Environment Educational Testing with the Microcomputer A Simulation of Investment Analysis, Portfolio Management and Reporting Using Lotus 1-2-3 The Use of an Expert System to Develop Strategic Scenarios Two Exercises for Teaching about Motivation Sex Roles and the Good Manager A Form and Process for Nonconfidential Peer Evaluations Simulation and the Recalcitrant Student Employee Rights-Student Rights: A Classroom Exercise Computer Simulated Competition: An Alternative to Team Play Management Simulation The Relationship of Locus of Control and Vividness of Imagination Measures to Simulation Performance Formal Planning, Simulation Team Performance, and Satisfaction: A Replication Experimental Analysis of Magnitude and Source of Students' Inequitable Classroom Perceptions in Three Reward Conditions Strategy Design, Process and Implementation in a Stable/Complex Environment: An Exploratory Study Matching a Strategy Simulation to the Business Policy Literature: A Black Box Approach to Simulation Development An Evolutionary Classroom Experiential and Computer Simulation Model of a Corporate Strategic Planning System Collective Bargaining in the City of Elson: A Public Sector Experience Should Students Play Games in Labor Relations? Applying Cognitive Educational Objectives to Business Management Cases Grading as a Teaching and Feedback Mechanism: Involving Students in the Grading Process Teaching Controversies: A New Approach to Computer-Assisted Instruction and Simulation Packages Simulating Demand in and Independent-Across-Firm Management Game Advertising Response in the Gold and Pray Algorithm: A Critical Assessment A Model for Pricing Decisions in First Period Marketing Simulation Games Jog Your Right Brain: An Exercise for the Classroom and for Research Six Thinking Hats: An Exercise to Combat Confusion and Develop Thinking Skills Communicating in Context: A Simulation for Learning Business Communication A Simulated Consulting Service for the Compete Marketing Simulation Game Action Exams in the Consumer Behavior Class Using Focus Groups to Teach Problem Definition in Basic Marketing Research The Use of Journals in Management Simulations: A Literature Review and an ABSEL Response An Initial Step Towards Developing and Using an Expert System with a Business Simulation Self-Managed Learning: An Experiential Course Design Using the QWL Paradigm A Review of Current Developments in Experiential Learning Bring the Real World into the Classroom Assessing Student Performance on a Business Simulation Experience Minimizing Startup Anxiety: Case Studies of Simulation Experiences A Tale of Two Shepards Or Using Simulation in a Class Without Walls Enhancing Business Simulations Through the Utilization of Experiential Activities Involving Local Community Executives Simulation with Integrated Spreadsheets: The Design and Development of a Conversational Marketing Concepts Decision Game Introducing INMART: An International Marketing Simulation Using a Computer-Based Business Plan Assistant in Conjunction with a Marketing Simulation Game Overview of the ABSEL Guide to Experiential Learning and Simulation Learning