A Review of Experiential Exercises in ABSEL's Published Proceedings 221 Developments in Business Simulations and Experiential Learning, Volume 37, 2010 A REVIEW OF EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES IN ABSEL’S PUBLISHED PROCEEDINGS Peter M. Markulis SUNY Geneseo markulis@geneseo.edu Sandra Morgan University of Hartford morgan@hartford.edu Daniel R. Strang SUNY Geneseo strang@geneseo.edu ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to present an historical review of experiential exercises presented at ABSEL since 1974. The authors believe that this is the first attempt to categorize the 176 experiential exercises presented at ABSEL from 1974 to, and including, 2009. The paper first defines or describes what an Experiential Exercise (EE) is, then provides several tables, graphs and charts showing the number of experiential exercises per year; the principal subject or topical areas of the experiential exercises; the main activities used in experiential exercises; and, the major contributors to experiential exercises. Finally, the paper develops a standard set of protocols and recommends its use for future submissions of experiential exercises to ABSEL. INTRODUCTION The ABSEL mission statement states, ABSEL is a professional association whose purpose is to develop and promote the use of experiential techniques and simulations in the field of business education and development….Currently the organization is on the leading edge of developing and assessing business simulations and experiential exercises (http://www.absel.org/) A visitor to the ABSEL website might assume that equal consideration is given to simulations and experiential exercises in ABSEL and, the visitor might be correct. However, if this same visitor reviewed the articles in the ABSEL Proceedings since ABSEL’s inception in 1974 to the present, the visitor might be surprised to find that only a small percentage (about 8%) of the total articles published by ABSEL were actual experiential exercises (EEs). This is not to say that in addition to articles that simply present experiential exercises there were not also articles that focused on the value of experiential exercises or the benefits of using an experiential exercise approach. There were a number of these, including articles where an experiential exercise was used as part of a research design to conduct research on one or more leaning goals (Cormany & Feinstein, 2008; Macintosh, Gentry & Stoltman, 1993). For example, there have been several articles about the benefits and pedagogical value of using experiential exercises (or, an experiential exercise approach) to teaching (Gosen & Washbush, 2004; Gentry, et al., 1996; Graf & Kellogg, 1986; Burns & Gentry, 1977), as well as many articles where an experimental or quasi-experimental design was used to test one or more learning goal(s), (Wheatley, et al, 1994; Macintosh, Gentry & Stoltman, 1993; Crino & Hoover, 1980; Basuray, et al., 1979). Conversely, there have been several articles published in the ABSEL Proceedings on specific simulations, and on research issues related to simulations. There also have been several ABSEL articles reviewing and/or categorizing ABSEL’s research efforts in the area of simulations (Faria, 2000; Butler, Markulis & Strang, 1985; Wolfe, 1981; Wolfe, 1998). Nonetheless, little has been done to review, catalogue or evaluate experiential exercises. The principal purpose of this paper is to take a first cut at cataloguing experiential exercises presented at ABSEL since 1974. The paper first defines or describes what an experiential exercise is, then provides several tables showing the number of experiential exercises per year, the principal subject or topical areas of the experiential exercises, and the main activities used in experiential exercises. The paper also provides some information about the major contributors to experiential exercises. Finally, the paper develops a 222 Developments in Business Simulations and Experiential Learning, Volume 37, 2010 standard set of submission protocols. This set of protocols is based on what the authors believe are the “best” structured and formatted experiential exercises presented at ABSEL. The authors recommend that future submissions of experiential exercises use these protocols. EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE DESCRIPTION & METHODOLOGY The authors spent considerable time trying to determine exactly how to define or delimit an EE. Several textbooks and readers were consulted (Marcic, 1995; Pfeiffer, 1985; Hall, et al.,1982). Unfortunately, most of these works were not helpful in providing a succinct or precise definition or description of an experiential exercise, probably because of the large and varied field of experiential exercises. Nonetheless, the authors felt some kind of definition—or at least a set of parameters--was needed as a way to start a classification scheme. It was decided that for an exercise to be classified as an EE, it needed to meet at least 5 criteria. They are: 1. it had to be conducted within a single class period; 2. there must be a stated learning goal and/or theme; 3. there must be some type of student involvement; 4. the exercise must have been developed by the authors (or, at least most of the exercise). This criterion is specific only for the purpose of classifying experiential exercises for ABSEL; and 5. there must be a basic description of how it works and/or how it is to be conducted. The authors acknowledge that criterion one is rather arbitrary, if not controversial. The five criteria were established simply for classification purposes and do not ipso facto exclude exercises which would require more than one class period. Given that exercises longer than a single class period are still bona fide experiential exercises, the authors simply classified them as quasi-experiential exercises (QEEs) and, for the most part, treated them as a distinct category. The reader should be aware that for this research effort the authors did not analyze QEEs as extensively as they did EEs. Given these parameters, it was found that of the 2,225 articles that have appeared in ABSEL Proceedings from 1974 to 2009, 176 were EEs and 100 were QEEs. Figure 1 below shows the number of EEs, number of QEEs and the total number of articles published by year in the ABSEL Proceedings. The figure shows that in 1990, the year in which the highest number of ABSEL articles were published, there was a total of 96 articles, while only five of these were EEs and 3 were QEEs for that year. In 1995, there were more EEs published than in any other year, with eleven, while the total number of articles was 87 for that year. A second figure was generated to compare the number of EEs published expressed as a percentage of the total number of articles. This information is presented in Figure 2. Total Articles, EE Articles and QEE Articles Figure 1 223 Developments in Business Simulations and Experiential Learning, Volume 37, 2010 As can be seen, to the extent that interest can be expressed by percentage of articles, years 1983 and 2001 were years of peak interest with 16% of the articles that represent EEs in each of those years. With the exception of 1975 (ABSEL’s second year) there has continuously been at least one article each year devoted to an EE. In terms of averages, the mean and median percentage of articles per year is 7.9 and 8, respectively. Clearly, EEs have been an important feature in the published ABSEL Proceedings albeit relatively small when expressed as a percentage. As noted above, criterion 2 states that an exercise must address some type of theme, topic and/or learning goal(s). The authors reviewed all the EEs and, based on the experiential exercise authors' self-reported goal or goals, tracked these over the years. Table 1 shows the many topics listed by the experiential exercise authors. One of the problems of categorizing experiential exercises by theme or topic is that experiential exercise authors may list several topics or only one topic as the primary topic or theme of the experiential exercise. While this is their prerogative and may well represent what the exercise is attempting to address, our categorization schema lists all the principal topics or themes that were covered in the exercise. It turns out that 78% of all the experiential exercises listed more than one topic or theme as a major one. The reader should note that a number of topics appeared four or fewer times in our compilations. For the sake of simplicity these were not included in Table. The topics which appeared four or fewer times listed alphabetically include: careers, entrepreneurship, getting acquainted/networking, motivation, organization change, storytelling, and time/stress/meeting management. In their review the authors observed several articles on EEs for which the primary topic was simply unclear. As can be seen in Table 1, the topics most frequently addressed by EEs are many of the traditional topics that are covered in organizational behavior and business strategy courses. It is perhaps a little surprising that many of the topics that the AACSB would include in the common body of knowledge and which are covered in business courses other than organizational behavior and business strategy, do not make the list. For example, typical marketing topics, finance topics, and quantitative analysis do not appear in the list. The authors infer from this that the typical ABSEL faculty member who developed an EE most likely would have found his/her teaching duties to include organizational behavior and business strategy and those ABSEL faculty members who teach in other areas have not focused their attention on EEs. Clearly ABSEL has many active members whose teaching focus is other than organizational behavior and business strategy. The fact that this subset of ABSEL scholars has not chosen to utilize experiential exercises and report the results in ABSEL proceedings is noteworthy. Another important way to view experiential exercises is by activity utilized. For example, did the students take a test or inventory of some type and were debriefed as to the results, did the students engage in a role-play or did they EE Articles as a Percent of Total Articles Per Year Figure 2 224 Developments in Business Simulations and Experiential Learning, Volume 37, 2010 construct something, or did the students engage in multiple activities for a given EE? There are many types of student involvement in experiential exercises. The next table, Table 2 attempts to capture the major activities of the experiential exercises. The reader will notice that the activity, do/make/assemble/build/draw, or the activity, role play, is the primary activity in almost half of the EEs published in the ABSEL Proceedings. Four other activities appear less frequently. They include read/listen/view, develop a plan, discuss, or assess/rank/complete a survey. In terms of authorship, many experiential exercises were solely-authored (approximately 53%) and many were developed by multiple authors (40% were duo-authored & Number of Citations by Topic of Exercise1 Table 1 Topic Number of citations Decision-making/problem-solving 33 HR tools and issues (incl. discrimination, 26 ethics, interviewing, performance appraisal, job design, pay) Negotiation/bargaining/competition 24 Teams, group dynamics, process 24 2 Perception/communication 23 Culture/diversity/international 19 Finance/accounting/math/economics/marketing 19 Creativity/critical thinking/discovery/ 15 knowledge/learning Gathering and compilation of information 14 Leadership 12 Operations/quality/manufacturing 12 Exam review/debates/class competition 11 Power/organizational politics 7 Attitudes, incl. attitude change 6 MBO/goals/planning 6 Organization structure and design/fit 6 Conflict 5 Footnotes: 1 78 % of exercises cited more than one topic 2 Many exercises use teams as a format for focusing on a topic, but only those exercises that actually focus on teamwork, group process or group dynamics are included under this category. Type of activity used in exercises 1 Table 2 Activity Number of times used Do/make/assemble/build/draw/play game 52 Role play (incl. negotiation)2 47 Read/listen/view or watch (film, demonstration, modeling) 29 Develop a plan or a list/allocate/calculate/decide 26 Discuss (a case, a video, etc.) 26 Assess/rank/complete a survey 22 Other or unknown 8 Dilemma 3 Footnotes: 1 A number of exercises employed more than one activity; these appear more than once in the table. 2 The assumption is that almost all the role plays will have observers. If students are observing a demonstration, then the observation is tabulated in “Read…” 225 Developments in Business Simulations and Experiential Learning, Volume 37, 2010 7% were authored by three or more authors). Rather than list the authors of each and every experiential exercise, it was felt that a more meaningful presentation would be to list authors who were significant contributors to EEs. To generate this list, an author was deemed to be significant if he/she met any of the following criteria: 1) was listed as the author of a solely-authored EE article; 2) was listed as one of two co-authors of an EE article; or 3) was listed as the lead author for an EE article with three or more co-authors. In order to show the era of involvement from 1974 to 2009, the contributions of authors were grouped in six-year time frames. During the period 1974 to 2009, 147 different authors made at least one EE contribution to ABSEL Proceedings as defined above. Since it would have been excessive to show all their names, Table 3 presents the EE contributions for those authors that had three or more EE contributions during the period. Table 3 shows that McAfee, Pittenger and Butler have been ABSEL’s most prolific developers of EEs, with their contributions at twelve, eight and seven articles, respectively. Boscia and Mills have contributed five articles each, with Boscia’s contribution occurring more recently, and Mills’ contribution occurring earlier in ABSEL’s history. If one looks at the records of the most prolific authors (defined as those authors with three or more EEs), a somewhat disturbing pattern appears to be emerging. In the six-year time periods from 1992 to 1997 and from 1998 to 2003 there were twenty-five total contributions by the most prolific EEs contributors. In the six-year period from 2004 to 2009, that number has fallen precipitously to eleven. There is a clear decline in the output of EEs by ABSEL’s most prolific EE developers. If this is a matter of concern, the solution may be to reinvigorate some of the “older” ABSEL scholars or to energize a new wave of ABSEL scholars to focus on the development and presentation of EEs. Further evidence of a decline in the prominence of EEs shows up if one looks at the percentage of EE articles in comparison with the total articles published in the proceedings when the data is grouped in six-year time periods. Six-year time periods were used instead of annual periods to smooth out spikes and troughs that appear in the data when viewed using annual data. In the six-year time period, 1992 to 1997, 10% of all articles published in ABSEL proceedings were EEs. In the six-year time period, 1998 to 2003, the percentage of all articles that were EEs dropped to 9%, and in the time period 2004 to 2009, the percentage of articles that were EEs further dropped to 7%. THE PROTOTYPE After reviewing 176 EEs and 100 QEEs, it became apparent that many EEs, as well as QEEs did not have a common format. Often, we had to read the articles about a particular experiential exercise several times to determine what the theme was, what the students actually did, or, even if it was truly an experiential exercise! On the other hand, several experiential exercises impressed us with their straightforward, precise and well-structured formats; for example, the exercises of Brenenstuhl, 1977; Halpin, 1999; Pittenger and Heimann, 2000; and McAfee and Boscia, 2004. In these exercises, it was clear what the experiential exercise was intended for, how it was to be used, how long Lead or Double Authored EE Contributions Table 3 '74-'79 '80-'85 '86-'91 '92-'97 '98-'03 '04-'09 Totals McAfee 1 2 3 2 4 12 Pittenger 4 4 8 Butler 1 2 3 1 7 Boscia 2 3 5 Mills 1 4 5 Graf 3 1 4 Markulis 1 2 1 4 Oppenheimer 2 2 4 Potosky 1 2 1 4 Dennehy 2 1 3 Faltot 3 3 Heimann 3 3 Hunsaker, J. 1 1 1 3 Morgan 2 1 3 Neves 1 1 1 3 Roberto 3 3 Somers 1 2 3 Strang 1 1 1 3 Stratton 3 3 Woodside 1 1 1 3 Total per period 2 14 9 25 25 11 226 Developments in Business Simulations and Experiential Learning, Volume 37, 2010 it took, and what materials and pre-prep were required. From these exercises, the authors compiled a list of requirements for how exercises should be structured and formatted for future ABSEL conferences. They are as follows: • purpose of the EE clearly spelled out at the outset; • topic or subject matter (primary & secondary) clearly stated; • approximate class time needed; • pre-prep for students (do they need to read something, prepare for role-plays, etc.); • pre-prep for instructor (special materials for exercise, reading or knowledge of specific topical areas, etc.); • special materials needed (or suggested substitute materials); • suggestions for debriefing (Markulis & Strang, 2003, Dennehy & Sims, 1993; McAfee, 1990); and • response of students to their experience with the exercise. CONCLUSION What can be gleaned from reviewing all these exercises? First, in the thirty-six years of ABSEL, there were 2,225 papers, articles, workshops, symposiums presented at ABSEL with 176 of these being experiential exercises, or 7.9% of the entire body of work. The number of exercises did not follow any particular pattern, although 1983, 1995 and 2002 represent the highest total as a percentage of total works published. From a thematic standpoint, the exercises encompassed approximately twenty-eight themes or topics, at least as classified by major topic or subject. There were more human resources-related exercises than any other category. Student involvement in exercises also covered a wide range of activities or ‘action learning.’ Many exercises had student co-authorship or involvement, although we did not tabulate this. In terms of authors, several authors were consistent in their development of exercises, while the total number of authors (including multiple authors) was almost as large as the number of experiential exercises published. For those advocates of experiential exercises, there seems to be a disturbing trend in terms of the frequency or number of articles categorized as experiential exercises in recent years. Some of ABSEL's most prolific experiential exercise creators have not been as active recently, and the percent of articles which can be described as experiential exercises has shown indications of a decline in the past decade. The present authors envision their second task as identifying the “best” experiential exercises from the ones published in the ABSEL Proceedings and publishing a stand-alone book of these experiential exercises, as well as additional ones collected from ABSEL members. We look forward to the ABSEL community in assisting us at determining selection criteria for these. REFERENCES Basuary, T., Gosenpud, J., & Scherling, S. (1979). Personality Development and Conflict Dynamics: An Experimental Design to Study the Effects of Teaching Methodologies on Conflict Resolution. Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Exercises, 6, 32-38. Reprinted in The Bernie Keys Library, 10th edition. Brenenstuhl, D. (1977). 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New York: West Publishing Company. Markulis, P. & Strang, D. (2003). A Brief on Debriefing: What It Is and What It Isn't. Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Exercises, 30, 177-184. Reprinted in The Bernie Keys Library, 10th edition. McAfee, R. B. (1990) Experiential Learning Exercises: Sources and Specific Examples. Guide to Business Gaming and Experiential Learning, Ch. 11, 179-191. Reprinted in The Bernie Keys Library, 10th edition. McAfee, R. B. & Boscia, M. (2004). Exercise: How Should Merit Money Be Allocated? Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Exercises, 31, 116-199. Reprinted in The Bernie Keys Library, 10th edition. Pfeiffer, J. (1985). Reference Guide to Handbooks and Annuals. San Diego: University Associates, Inc. Pittenger, K. & Heimann, B. (2000). The Ball Point Pen Assembly Company. Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Exercises, 27, 235-238. Reprinted in The Bernie Keys Library, 10th edition. Rausch, E. (1999). The Missing Ingredients in Experiential Learning. Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, 26, 130-132. Reprinted in The Bernie Keys Library, 10th edition. Ronchetto, J. R., & Johnston, W. J. (1993). Linking Cognitive Styles, Teaching Methods, Educational Objectives and Assessment: A Decision Tree Approach. Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, 20, 93-98. Reprinted in The Bernie Keys Library, 10th edition. Wheatley, W., Maddox, N., Bennet III, R., and Anthony, W. (1994). Teaching Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Decision Making with Envisionary Experiential Exercises. Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Exercises, 27, 147-149. Reprinted in The Bernie Keys Library, 10th edition. Wolfe, J. (1998). Business Games Teach: Thoughts on the Sources of Conflicting Conclusions on Their Effectiveness. Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Exercises, 25, 151. Reprinted in The Bernie Keys Library, 10th edition. Wolfe, J. (1981). Research on the Learning Effectiveness of Business Simulation Games – A review of the State of the Science. Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Exercise, 8, 82. Reprinted in The Bernie Keys Library, 10th edition. Table of Contents Volume 37, 2010 A Simulation in Organizational Behavior: Development and Beta Test Simulating Networks: An Experiment Pick Your Group Size: A Better Procedure to Resolve the Free-Rider Problem in a Business Simulation The Impact Of Playing A Marketing Simulation Game On Perceived Decision Making Ability Among Introductory Marketing Students If the Games Work, Why Aren't More Faculty Willing to Play? Modeling Cascading Demand: Accounting for the Effects of Captive Consumer Relationships Issues In Simulation Implementation: Lessons From a Freshman Seminar ENDURANCE: A game for current economic times Simulating Processes: An Application In Supply Chain Management Another Look At The Use Of Forecasting Accuracy On The Assessment Of Management Performance In Business Simulation Games The Effect Of Advertising On Demand In Business Simulations The Relationship Between Learning And Performance In A Total Enterprise Simulation: Revisited And New Data. Is the Gold /Pray Simulation Demand Model Valid and is It Really Robust? Mission Possible - Using Simulation Games For Management Training In A Transition Economy Business Game Modeling For The Negotiation Between General Contractor And Subcontractors The Relationship Between Goal Orientation And Simulation Performance With Attitude Change And Perceived Learning: A Follow-Up Study The Invalidity Of "Natural Market Structure" Pims Validation Of Marketing Games Examining A Beta Test An Experiment On Group Decision-Making Using A Business Game: An International Comparison Of Mba Students In Japan; China; And Russia A Platform for Business Games - From Game Playing to Game Making: The Case of Yokohama National University Checking Financial Balance of Target Brand Portfolio with the Strategic Market Plan Cash Flow Package About Simulations and Bloom's Learning Taxonomy Managing Complexity: Applying the Conscious-Competence Model to Experiential Learning Using Accumulated Profits to Assess Performance in Simulations And Now Let's Really Innovate: The Notion of Perpetual Online Courses Distance Learning: A Game Application Web Based Total Enterprise Simulation Learning Business Administration Using Simulation Software A Review of Experiential Exercises in Absel's Published Proceedings Moving Outside the Classroom: An Experiential Exercise Involving Video Clips Peer To Peer: A New Tool for Student Peer Evaluation Continuing To Assess Project Management: What's Been Done? What's It Means? Looking At New Twists Strategies for Promoting Knowledge Formation and Dissemination in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning Introducing Experiential Exercises To Inexperienced Faculty Members Conveying Concepts Through Cartoons: Preliminary Results From Software Engineers In An Industrial Organization Theory Class Utilizing Institutional Problems as an Experiential Learning Opportunity for Students Considerations in the Design of Vicarious Learning Environments Enhancing Critical Thinking Through Service-Learning As A Consultative Process Encouraging "Established" Faculty to Adopt a "New" Games and Simulations Pedagogy IMA Candy Company: An Experiential Exercise in Managerial Accounting Mustard Seeds as Means for Creative Problem Solving, Ethical Decision Making, Stakeholder Alliance, & Leader Development through Experiential Learning in Management Education Interactive Classroom Technology: Adding a Benefit to the Traditional Classroom Excelling in the Capstone Simulation: An Application of Spreadsheet Technology as a Decision Support Tool GEO: An Entrepreneurship-Oriented Computer-Assisted International Strategy Simulation ERP Simulation Game: A Distribution Game to Teach the Value of Integrated Systems