SYMBOL RECOGNITION AND CORRELATION FOR EVALUATING DECISION MAKING IN COMPUTERIZED AND EXPERIENTIAL SIMULATIONS Experiential Learning Enters the Eighties, Volume 7, 1980 1 SYMBOL RECOGNITION AND CORRELATION FOR EVALUATING DECISION MAKING IN COMPUTERIZED AND EXPERIENTIAL SIMULATIONS William Rice, College of William and Mary Theodore F. Smith, Old Dominion University ABSTRACT Rather than being merely an accessory to the learning process, symbols can become an integral part of that process with important additional learnings. By helping students to more effectively employ symbols, simulations can further improve student thinking and decision making skills. INTRODUCTION The use of computerized business simulations in the business curriculum is an excellent tool, if the student is able to establish decision making relationships rather than emphasizing the procedures of the computer program. Too often the user decodes the system and manipulates the simulation to obtain results rather than analyzing key decision points and evaluating their impacts. The business simulation should be designed to present a real life situation in which the student can learn decision making, establish internal/external relationships, define cause/effect situations, and perform under multi-variable conditions Aiding the student’s analytical abilities is the primary reason for incorporating symbols into a business simulation. WHY USE SYMBOLS? The reason for using symbols is that they are compact, quickly recognized, and can be displayed in quantity in a small visual area. The symbol cuts across semantics, misrepresentations, and syntactic confusion. The symbol gives the business simulation flexibility to bring together decision relationships without requiring over simplification or over complexity in textual explanation. Some of the other reasons symbols aid evaluation are: Identification Ease Symbols are a type of shorthand, representing specific names, descriptions, or ideas without excessive explanations or space requirements. They are a visual summary of meaning, communicating the distinction and individuality of identification needs. Parallel Vs. Serial Thinking Symbols can be positioned in abstract or nonpartitioned space. They are not read like a sentence nor do they have style requirements like paragraphs or outlines. They can be put into clear style requirements like paragraphs or outlines. They can be put into closer proximity with one another and still remain unique in themselves. They can be positioned in any variation of spatial sequence: size, diagonal, see-saw, circular, diamond shape, and so on. This type of random display is not possible with normal terms or definitions. Symbols have defined boundaries, are complete within themselves, and connection to another symbol will make little sense. The student can identify each symbol at a single glance and mentally establish its uniqueness as to resources, capacity, and past track record. Serial reading or separate identification of descriptors or terms required individual concentration on each part of the presented material. Symbols provide a parallel identification process which gives the student a momentary awareness of all variables at the same point in time. The Puzzle Approach The use of symbols also gives the decision maker a dimensional placement in solving the problem. Rather than a checklist approach, the student sees a positional puzzle with each symbol having a place relationship to all other symbols/variables. The decision maker can then establish a mind’s eye placement of the symbols (flowchart or hierarchical structure) in the position or flow pattern which best fits his analysis or decision priority. When the student is limited to a checklist, it gives him a chance to establish order priority but not a position or dimensional priority. (For example, a specific variable might not fall into a strictly numerical ranking with a previous variable. It could hold a parallel priority.) Use in Graphs, Diagrams, and Tables When referencing a specific variable on a graph, diagram, or table, some sort of coding system or catalog system must be used to aid identification because of space limitations. With symbols, this type searching is not required. The symbol itself is placed as the value marker on graphs, diagrams, or tables. This replaces the plotted point and identifier with a single symbol, which is identified and used throughout the simulation. this decreases errors in referencing codes or numbers, and the confusion of extra detail, explanation, and unfamiliar notations is eliminated. Hidden Agendas Where prior learning presents problems of proactive inhibition, this impediment to the learning process can sometimes be overcome by camouflaging the nature of some of the simulation elements through the use of symbols. In this way, students will tend to be less constrained in their perceptions of relationships; that is, freer to try other than conventional solutions. During the post game discussions (debriefing) alternative interpretations of the symbols are then solicited to facilitate learning from the experience. SYMBOL ALLOCATION Symbols should be allocated to areas which require specific decisions as to quantitative inputs, sequencing, or priorities. Symbols should be required to be unique to each area of decision making. The design of the symbols should be chosen so as to (1) maximize total space occupation, (2) create the maximum difference between patterns, (3) establish a symbolically identifiable code which will be easy to relate to the variable (for example, “A” for advertising budget), and (4) be graphically distinguishable in its smallest Experiential Learning Enters the Eighties, Volume 7, 1980 2 form. BUSINESS SIMULATIONS Most business simulations were developed in order to present the student with problem environments in which to learn avenues of efficient solutions. With the advent of the computer the time and space requirements to utilize such a learning tool have diminished considerably. However, few utilize the computer to its fullest extent. Simulations do, generally, take less time, but the student still is forced to learn by a trial and error process most often. Utilizing symbols to decrease even more the redundancy of simulation activity can allow the process to incorporate both the quantitative decisions plus adding the evaluation of behavioral and structural constraints on the decision and the decision maker. Using symbols can help the student make tradeoff evaluations more quickly and with less identification distortion. Structural relationships of variables are easier to display and visualize. The systems concept can be presented so that any student can grasp the flow dynamics and three-dimensional nature of business decisions. The foundation of business learning is advancing beyond the memorization stage toward a spatial mode of requirements, priorities, and impacts. The business simulations can become vitally alive if the student can interreact with the system without unnecessary linguistic procedures and the serial input/output syndrome. Symbols present an alternative for such a solution. SYMBOLS IN EVALUATION The results of using symbols in a simulation produce a many-faceted array of output tools and measures. Evaluating a student on a simulation should not be done on merely his final profit/loss figure. It should encompass improvement, behavioral patterns, and ability to correct recognized faults. The following are a few of the output results which can be used from a simulation utilizing symbols. Decision mapping Mapping of the student’s priority changes in relation to actual importance ranking. Graphic depiction of variable input relationships and proper output results. A dimensional map showing the parallel development of each variable as to its ranking and output impact. Realtime evaluation The student can receive a visual display as to his correct or incorrect placement of variables as the simulation continues. This uses symbol identification and prioritizing to display the student’s results for each variable. Output values do not give the student all the feedback needed to make decisions. Bias or randomness of decision making also needs to be pointed out. Carryover Utilizing the symbols from the simulation in other material much as handouts, tests, worksheets, or presentations will reinforce the student’s recognition of decision areas. Simulations should not be viewed as a separate entity within the learning process. The impact of computer interaction for the students should be counterbalanced with visual and carryover material using symbols in other classroom activities. Patterns of learning The long-term use of establishing relationships among variables and of continued prioritizing will eventually reveal the student’s areas of preference of weakness. The use of symbols records and plots the students’ progress in a simulation, and thus will expose their biases or vulnerabilities in decision making. Symbol Usage in Student Reports Rather than relying solely on profit/loss rankings for evaluation purposes, some professors have effectively employed student reports, both oral and written, to assess the student understanding of the game parameters and the soundness of the strategy employed. The extent of correct symbol usage in these reports then provides a proxy measure of student understanding of the basic concepts of the simulation. SUMMARY The use of computerized business simulation can be cumbersome if (1) the tool is not understood, (2) it is used only as a quantitative measure of output efficiency, (3) the student uses it mainly as a trial and error device to obtain some given output, (4) the system is entangled in rhetoric, (5) input procedures are computer-oriented and not human efficient, and (6) the program is easily decoded or predictable in its outcome. The computer is not what is to be overcome -it is the decision making process! Business simulations should not be bound by hardware or software but by the students’ time frame of response and feedback requirements. Symbols can help expedite the simulation process into a sphere of information transparency and relationship conceptualization. Symbols can produce visual solidarity of identification, recognition, and correlation processes. They can add a dimension of time evaluation of students’ interactions never before captured. Table of Contents Volume 7, 1980 Symbol Recognition and Correlation for Evaluating Decision Making in Computer Aided Business Simulations Polanal: An Experiential Approach to Decision Support The Use of Time Contracts in Formal Education Indexing Simulation Model Response for Gaming Flexibility Moving Toward A Theory of the Use of Simulation Games and Experiential Exercises Use of Simulation Administration to Achieve Pedagogical Objectives Experiential Learning on the Job - A Business Internship Program Toward the Ultimate Experiential Exercise A Learning Through Managing Program Workshop Using Experiential Materials in Industry Training Sponsored Experiential Learning - An Opportunity Problems and Pitfalls of Externally Sponsored Field Research Projects Viewed form an Experiential Learning Perspective A Modular Approach to Experiential Learning: Classroom & Consulting Using Simulation & Experiential Learning In Industrial Settings Terminations: An Experiential Review Agenda Items -- Board of Supervisors' Meeting - Town of Jori The Objective-Setting Interview in MBO: An Experiential Approach The All-Star World Series Team Exercise: an Experiential Learning Exercise Dealing with Various Organizational Behavior Issues Progress Report on global, A Rich Multinational Gaming Environment Computer Simulation: A Tool to Teach Queuing Theory New Technology for Business Games Technological Frontiers in Computer Simulations for Business Education Simulating the Product Life Cycle on Interactive Terminals On Compensatory Demand Functions in Marketing Simulations The Use of Games at Different Levels in a Single Marketing Course to Increase Game Participation Sun Airlines: A Heterogeneous Consumer demand exercise Incorporating a Group Selection Test An Organization Development Approach to Teaching Organization Behavior CBID: Cognitive, Behavioral, and Interpersonal Development - A Skill Development/Social Learning Approach to Management Development Using a Live Case Via Video Tape A Town and gown Approach Development of Student Generated Cases Using Computerized Text Editing and Database Technology Interdisciplinary Approached to Problems in Utilizing Experiential Techniques To Use or Not To Use Experiential Techniques, That's is the Question Forming Participant Teams in Simulation Gaming The Problems of Motivating Students and Clients in Live-Case Projects Problems of Teaching Leadership Skills Through Experiential Techniques Conflict Style Measurement: Antecedent to Change - A Proposal for an Experiential Exercise Demonstration Fundamentals of Simulation for Newcomers An M.B.A. Orientation Simulation for Managing Time and the Areas of One's Life SimNet Workshop: The International Simulation Network Demonstrates Three New Business Games The Use of a Simulation Model in the Planning and Evaluation of Commercial Bank Operations Probability Assessment and Performance in Business Game Simulations WageSim: A Wage and Salary Administration Simulation Grading as a Teaching and Feedback Mechanism: Modifying Student's Self-Perceptions of Performance Can Business Games Effectively Teach Business Concepts? Development of Multiple Value Orientations in Conflict Resolution Behavior: An Experiential Teaching Paradigm in Labor-Management Relations Course Designing a Competency-Based Peer Assessment Scale for the Evaluation fo Teaching in Higher Education A Method for Evaluating Information for the Equipment Replacement Decision: An Application of Monte Carlo Simulation Simulation: A Method of Appraising Communication Networks in Managerial Decision Making An Evaluation of In-Class Student Involvement Evaluation of the SBI Program from an Experiential Viewpoint: Focus on the Student Differential Predictors of Academic Performance for White and Non-White Samples The Manager's Dilemma: An Unobtrusive Measure of the managerial Sex-Role Stereotype Are Computer Simulations Sexist? The Effect of Group Size on Attitudes Toward the Simulation Associations Between Individual Cognitive Processing Variables and Business Game Performance and Play Students' Perceptions on Managerial Functions After Exposure to Either the Case Method or a Simulation What Business Students Learn from Finance Simulations Attitude Toward Experiential Exercises, The Student-Teacher Relationship, Student Psychological Types, and Performance An Example of How to Design a Research-Based and Classroom-Effective Organizational behavior Exercise Some Issues in Game Design Untested Hypotheses: An Approach to Experiential Learning Evaluation of Simulation Games: A Critical Look at Past Efforts and Future Needs Is Self-Perception Predictable? - Some Laboratory Results An Exercise in Conflict-Handling Behavior The Relationship Between Group Size and the Learning Curve Effect in a Gaming Environment Learning About Organizational Management Through Organizational Management: Closing the Gap Strategies, Managerial Approaches, and Decision Making in a General Management Simulation A Comparison and Evaluation of Similar and Dissimilar Group Scenarios Generated Using Manual Simulation Games Weaknesses of Research Methods in Experiential and Simulation Studies