THE SBI CASE AS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING Exploring Experiential Learning: Simulations and Experiential Exercises, Volume 5, 1978 223 THE SBI CASE AS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING Linda J. Coleman Ernest F. Cooke Thomas J. Maronick University of Baltimore One of the most successful Small Business Administration (SBA) Management Assistance projects is the Small Business Institute (SBI) program (1, p.1). The SBI program uses students as consultants to small businesses in the local community. Properly used, these SBI cases can be an effective type of experiential learning. INTRODUCTION There should be no doubt that experiential learning, or reality training, as it has been called (2, p.109), is an important technique in the education of a business student. Experiential learning is defined here as learning by doing. It is the unstructured learning of real-world experiences. Exercises, cases, simulations, role playing, internships, consulting, cooperative education, research, and competitions are some of the methods that can be used to increase teaching effectiveness and make the learning process more interesting for both the students and the teacher. All of these forms of experiential learning enable teachers and students to become involved in learning processes without giving it the name or perhaps recognizing the full implications of what they are doing. Given this background, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of SBI cases for experiential learning with emphasis on how to get the most out of this specific learning technique. THE SBI CASE The SBI case requires regular, periodic visits to a small businessman by a group of students under the general supervision of a faculty member/instructor. The situation involves identifying problems, determining realistic solutions, and making recommendations for implementing those solutions. The heavy doses of reality and active student participation increases the value of this experiential exercise. The SBI case provides a living laboratory (4, p.11) where the student can apply what he has learned in previous courses, observe the results of actions and make adjustments. He learns not because he has been told but because he has seen. He sees that there is really uncertainty in the decision making processes Exploring Experiential Learning: Simulations and Experiential Exercises, Volume 5, 1978 224 of operating businesses. He finds himself in a situation where he must study, analyze, and assess a living, functioning organization -- an operating business. He has to propose practical solutions and he has to sell those solutions to the client! entrepreneur, to his instructor, and sometimes to his partners and/or classmates. The personal involvement in solving real problems which is found in SRI cases and other forms of real-world consulting (4, p. 11) can surpass most other methods of experiential learning in teaching effectiveness. THE USE OF SBI CASES Stahlecker and Papst (3) have done a survey of how cases have been used. The results of the survey suggest that the SBI cases have not been used for maximum effectiveness, as far as student learning is concerned. According to the authors this is due to the fact that faculty do not always visit the client, sometimes faculty do not spend enough time meeting with the students, and the nature of the problems often do not materialize until after the case has been assigned. For these reasons Stahlecker and Papst question the use of SBI cases as the sole or primary part of courses in Small Business Management or Business Policy. At the University of Baltimore the format for SBI cases is rather consistent, being specified by the Director of the Small Business Institute. However, even within the format different faculty use the cases in such a variety of ways that they get mixed results. Some of the different ways SRI cases have been used at the University of Baltimore include: as a substitute for a term project done on either an individual or group basis, as part of a total experiential learning package including computer simulation and Harvard-type cases, as a requirement of the course in addition to either other cases or a term project. Other faculty have used the SBI cases as non-graded, extracurricular activities that students could elect to participate in. THE BENEFITS Several benefits flow from the use of SBI cases. The greatest benefit is filling gaps of the educational experience of classroom and text. A more rounded educational experience is provided when the impact of reality is present. Second, the personal involvement in problem-solving through group interaction deals with the important issue of group dynamics and its role in arriving at group decisions. Third, the students get a better understanding of how the Exploring Experiential Learning: Simulations and Experiential Exercises, Volume 5, 1978 225 the various jobs and/or departments of a business affect each other. The conduct of the experience gives the student exposure to small businesses and the limited resources available to their owner/managers. The students also get practice in selling their ideas after theory and its application have been established. In addition, the constraints of any business as well as its management bias must be overcome or taken into account when drawing up the final report. The effect of this realization better prepares the student for entering the business world upon graduation. STUDENT REACTION An important consideration in the SBI case method is student reaction. The students view experiential learning as active participation in the learning process and an enhancement to the educational system. As far as SRI cases are concerned, there seems to be general agreement that due to the fact that the focus is on realism, it is a more beneficial learning experience. The diversion from the traditional lecture and/or straight case study approach adds necessary variety for skill development and conceptual understanding to the education of business students. Most students are eager to participate in SBI cases and those that have done more than one under different instructors claim that they got more out of it when the instructor limited his involvement in the case. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR USING SBI CASES Based on our experience we would make the following suggestions concerning what may be the best way to use SBI cases: (1) Do not assign one student to a case. On the other hand, do not use too many students. More than one student means you get important synergism, Too many students means that some get a free-ride. One of the authors feels that four are too many, all feel that five are too many. (2) An SBI case should not be the total content of a three credit-hour course. At the University of Baltimore, for the majority of courses, the case value varied from twenty to forty percent of the final grade, depending on the course and the number of students working on the case. Even with a two- student team the tendency is to be closer to twenty percent than Exploring Experiential Learning: Simulations and Experiential Exercises, Volume 5, 1978 226 forty percent. (3) Do not use the SBI case in an introductory course, regardless of academic discipline. We use only graduate students in advanced and intermediate courses. If undergraduates are used they should be the better students, preferably seniors. (4) Even when using graduate students they should be carefully selected. It isn’t just that the better students will do a better job, which is obviously important to the client, but they will get more out of the experience. Where SBI cases are a limited resource as they seem be be in most schools, this becomes a very important consideration. It would be nice if everyone could do a case, but it would not be fair to the more capable students, to the client, to the faculty, or to the SBA to use students without regard to their capability. (5) Limit faculty involvement. This is the hardest part. The danger, and it is a very real one, is that the case ends up being an experience for the faculty member not the student. The faculty member has two jobs to do. First, he is an important resource to the student, being available to discuss the case and provide advice and assistance. Second, he must evaluate the students’ progress and their final report, sending them back to redo it, if necessary, before presentation to the client. Faculty should certainly be available to visit the client if the students or the client so desire. In fact, in addition to making acall to confirm the client’s interest, it is often beneficial to the success of the case for the faculty member to visit the client to explain the program, the students role, and to let the client know that he, the faculty member, is there and available to resolve any difficulties that may arise in the course of the case. After the first call and visit, however, the case is the students’ and the faculty should not interfere. Of course, the relationship of the faculty to the students and the client during the course of the case will depend on the complexity of the problem, the quality of the students selected to the counseling team, and the degree of cooperation from the client. If the results of the survey by Stahlecker and Papst(3, p.3) are correct, many of the suggestions made in this paper are not being followed by most of the schools using the SBI case method. There are certainly valid reasons for using SBI cases in other ways, but we would suggest that if the goal is to maximize experiential learning these points warrent serious consideration. SUMMARY The SBI case method is proving to be a most effective learning tool (1, 3). The key ingredients to this educational approach which constitutes its uniqueness are (1) dealing with real-life, unresolved business problems that are truly in need Exploring Experiential Learning: Simulations and Experiential Exercises, Volume 5, 1978 227 of answers, and (2) active participation by the students in dealing with and resolving these problems. To one extent or another, there is some artificial element in most types of experiential learning. Done properly, there is nothing artificial about an SRI case. It is real-world consulting experience. REFERENCES 1. Leach, James A., “An SBI Program for Community College Students,” Collegiate News and Views, Spring, 1977, pp. 11-12. 2. Sims, Jr., Henry and Hand, Herbert, “Simulation Gaming: The Confluence of Quantitative and Behavioral Theory,” The Academy of Management Review, July, 1976, pp. 109-13. 3. Stahlecker, Winston D. and Pabst, Alfred A., “The Small Business Institute Program - A Man for All Seasons,” Collegiate News and Views, Winter, 1976-77, pp. 1-4. 4. Welch, Joe; Gordon, Dave, and Halper, Dave, “A Methodology for Business Consulting in the Graduate Management Classroom,” Collegiate News and Views, Fall, 1977, pp. 11-13. Table of Contents Volume 5, 1978 Debriefing: The Key to Effective Experiential Learning A Kiss Before Debriefing Debriefing with Serialized Theory Development for TaskTeam Learning Insights Into Debriefing Experiential Learning Exercises The Two-Step Flow of Experiential Learning: A Preliminary Investigation Programmatic Experienced-Based Learning in an MBA Program The New Research Focus: An Analysis of the Simulation Game User An Analysis of Performance in Simulation Games Compared to Performance on Structured Course Criteria: A Case Study Le's Simplify the Administrative Requirements of Computerized Educational Simulations Assessment of Sex Stereotypes Within Task Group Simulation The Use of Program BAYAUD in the Teaching of Audit Sampling The Effectiveness of Progressively Complex Accounting Simulations in Increasing Decision-Making Performance The Natural Learning Project The Application of a US-USSR Trade Simulation to the Reaching of Business Russian The Use of Semi-Autonomous Work Group in Graduate Management Education: An Australian Experience Evaluation of an Experimental Course in Organizational Behavior for Managers of Japanese Banks Berkshire II: An Experiential Decision Making Exercise: An Exercise in Hegelian Inquiry Creating a Responsible Managerial Experience A Framework for Determining the Pedagogical Value of Simulation Gaming: Implications for Future Simulation Gamin Research Emergent Simulations in Administration Courses Measurement of Administrator Role for Feedback on Structure and Goals An Experiment in Assessing the Theoretical Recognition and Application Leaning Skills of Student Case Writers Some Game Information Systems Experience Using Job Control Language (JCL) for Group and Individual Simulation Considerations for the Use of Computerized Business Simulations Assessing the Effectiveness of Learning Styles as Predictors of Performance within Three Distinct Pedogogic Methodologies Learning Style and Performance A Psychometric Analysis of Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory Learning to Identify and Satisfy consumer Wants: A Classroom Game An Experiential Exercise in Product Benefit Segmentation Sales and Sales Management: A Case/Simulation Approach The SBI Case as Experiential Learning The Use of a Live Case in Teaching Organization Theory and management Principles to Graduate Students The Residency in Hospital and health Administration as Experiential Learning The Extended Live Case Approach to Teaching Marketing Research Experiential Learning in Marketing: Student Consultants The Brazil-Columbia Coffee Marketing Negotiations: An Experiential Exercise Aimed at Highlighting the Dynamics Involved in the International Business Negotiation Process Educational Values of Simulation Gaming Business Simulation Re-Revisited Simulation and Experiential Learning as Human Subject Research An Experiential Evaluation of a Didactic - Experiential Apporach for Teaching personnel Management Experiential Learning in Wage and Salary Administration Integrating Structured Experiences into Personnel Simulation Locus of Control and Performance in a Management Simulation Correlations Between Academic Achievement, Aptitude, and Business Game Performance Suggestions for Student Input of Decisions in General Management Simulations An Exploratory Investigation of Student Perceptions of Computer Simulation as an Educational Tool Time to Sell?: An Experiential Learning Approach to Stock Market Decisions through Interactive Gaming