PANEL DISCUSSION: ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF USING THE INTERNET FOR BUSINESS SIMULATIONS TO INPUT DECISIONS, PROCESS, AND PRESENT FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC DATA OUTPUT Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 34, 2007 67 PANEL DISCUSSION: ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF USING THE INTERNET FOR BUSINESS SIMULATIONS TO INPUT DECISIONS, PROCESS, AND PRESENT FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC DATA OUTPUT Panel members: Kenneth R. Goosen, Micro Business Publications, Inc. Joseph Wolfe Experiential Learning LLC Steven Gold Rochester Institute of Technology Computers technology has advanced so rapidly and has become so complex that these changes have profoundly affected business simulations. In the last 20 years, business simulations relied heavily on students submitting decisions using 3 ½ disks. Now with new computers no longer containing 3 ½ disk drives and alternatives input means such as the flash drives using USB ports commonly available, business simulation authors and developers have had to recently again revise their simulations to accommodate these new developments. The latest challenge is the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web to receive decision inputs, process decisions, and to distribute the results. Some simulations are now solely Internet based. The use of the Internet may solve many current problems concerning simulation development and administration, but it also has created some new problems. Web-based simulations require less involvement by the user. How much less involvement at this time is not clear and whether the less involvement is a plus or minus is also not that clear. Less interaction between users and the student participants may not be all that desirable. The design and development of web-based business simulations is also far more complex and also more costly in terms of time and money. Consequently there are two major points of view regarding web-based simulations: 1. A designers/developers point of view 2. An administrative/user point of view. From a designers/developers point of view a number of questions arise including in the following: 1. What new programming skills are required? 2. What new problems, if any, arise from simulations that require both client side and server side programming and interaction? 3. How much additional time and cost is required to make a simulation web-based? 4. Does the development of web-based simulations from a publishing point of view require a much greater adoption based? 5. Will the availability of web based simulations increase the usage in simulations in collegiate education? 6. To what extent can simulations be partially web based? From a users/administrative point of view likewise a number of questions arise: 1. By how much does a web-based simulation really reduce administration time involved in such former activities as collecting decisions, inserting decision disks, processing decisions, and returning returns to students including returning of decisions disks with updating results files? 2. Will users of web-based simulations spend less time in coming to an understanding of a simulation’s scenario including an understanding of a given simulation’s strengths and weaknesses? 3. What new problems, if any, will the lack of a printed simulation manual at the beginning create for students and administrators? 4. Will the requirement for each student to register online and use a credit card to register cause new problems? 5. Will the requirement that students create and use passwords create new problems? 6. Does a web-based simulation simplify or make more difficult the correction of processing errors and decision entry errors? Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 34, 2007 68 In addition to these two major areas of concerns, several question arise in other areas including the following questions: What time commitment is required to maintain the web simulation server and to administer the operations of a web-based simulation? Will the authors/designers of currently used traditional simulations be able to convert their simulations to being web-based? Will the current technology complexity of business simulations result in less new business simulations being developed and made available for general use? Will publishers be more likely or less likely to want to publish business simulations because of the increased cost of publishing and maintaining a web server dedicated to a given simulation? A number of web-based simulations now exist. However, very few if any papers at ABSEL have addressed the above questions. There now it appears to be three routes to simulation administration: (1) Fully web based, (2)[partially web based, and (3) traditional processing. This panel is designed to provide a way of identifying the more important issues and to identify the pros and cons of different alternatives for processing simulation decisions. Table of Contents Volume 34, 2007 Experiential Teaching May Lead To Experiential Learning The Role Of Learning Versus Performance Orientations When Reacting To Negative Outcomes In Simulation Games: Further Insights An Analysis Of The Interaction Of Firm Demand And Industry Demand In Business Simulations Consistency Of Participant Simulation Performance Across Simulation Games Of Growing Complexity Assessing And Incentivizing Learner Contribution And Performance Excellence: Creating Win-Win Evaluation Options The Technological Impact Analysis: A Research-Based Exercise To Heighten Learners' Technological Sensitivity Beginnings: How We Start the Semester and Individual Classes : A Roundtable Discussion Simulation Performance and Its Effectiveness As A PBL Problem: A Follow-Up Study The Use of Multimedia Learning Tools to Facilitate Online Learning of Business Statistics Forecasting Accuracy And Learning: A Key To Measuring Business Game Performance Panel Discussion: Alternative Ways of Using the Internet for Business Simulations to Input Decisions, Process, and Present Financial and Economic Data Output Absel Research -- One Additional Perspective On Where We Are And Where We Have Come From Assessing participant learning in a business simulation From Case Presentation To Case Facilitation: How Assessment Changed The Capstone Course The Use Of Computer-Assisted, Interactive Role-Play Simulation In Hong Kong Corporate Positioning: A Business Game Perspective Demonstration Of A Computer-Assisted Global Business Simulation Applying .NET Remoting To A Business Simulation Assessing Emotional Intelligence: The EQ Matrix Exercise Outcomes And Observations Of An Extended Accounting Board Game The Use Of Learning Styles Questionnaire In Hong Kong Forming Teams For Classroom Projects Online Budgeting And Marketing Control With The Proforma Analysis Package The Effect Of Experiential Learning Experiences On Management Skills Acquisition Students' Perceptions on the Individual Managerial Performance Orderness: A New Definition Of Alignment An Exploratory Study Of The Efficacy Of Servsafe® Online Team Behavior And Team Success Results From A Board Game Simulation Telecommuting Internships - Do They Work? The WEE GAME: A Pre-Game Effects On Learning When Students Have Information About Games And Their Outcomes When Playing Them Assessment And Simulations: Measuring The Academic Learning Compacts Within Dangerous Business: An Interactive Ethics Case Activity The Paradise Islands Assessing And Applying fiAppropriatefl Conflict Management Styles Distance Learning In Communication: Blended Or On-Line? Developing An On-Line Advanced Communication Course World Café: Simulating Seminar Dialogues in a Large Class The Programming Game: An Exploratory Collaboration Between Business Simulation And Instructional Design The Canary Principle: An Alternative Model for Providing Real-Time Coaching in an On-Line Discussion Environment Assessing Character Development Using A Direct-Approach Business Ethics Exercise Persistence Of Decisions By Simulation Game Participants The Invalidity of Profit = f(Product Quality) PIMS Validation of Marketing Games A Study of The Applicability of The Perceptions of Organizational Politics Scale (POPS) For Use in The University Classroom The ROI Of Connected Projects: A Payroll Example Initiation of Research on Gaming Simulation in Japan Inappropriate Use of Citations and Corrupting the Body of Knowledge: Accepting Urban Legends as Truth An Exploration Of The Perceived Value Of Highly Socio-Inductive Learning How "Whole" Is Whole Person Learning? An Examination Of Spirituality In Experiential Learning Modeling Outsourcing and Strategy Alignment into a Business Game Successful Integration Of Webct Into A Small Business School The Thinking Steps Model In Game Theory: A Qualitative Approach In Following The Rules The Application Of Means-End Theory To Understanding The Value Of Simulation-Based Learning Armchair Travel: An active learning approach to increasing global awareness and participant self-efficacy Goldratt's Thinking Process: Is there a place for it in the Total Enterprise Simulation Assessing And Developing Student Skills Using a Group Exercise Computer Business Simulation Design: Novelty & Complexity Issues