The International Simulation & Gaming Yearbook
Volume 8 - Preview

Diffusion of Innovations is a phrase used to describe how new ideas spread, whether the innovation is the hoola-hoop, new work procedures, or the tongue-in-cheek invention, double-sided overhead slides. At the University of Wollongong in a class on business communication, students have the opportunity to experience the process of diffusion by reflecting on how new ideas strike them, their peers, and members of their personal networks. The activities that are used employ guided visualisation as part of an experience of innovation to stimulate observation, discussion, and analysis of the concept of diffusion.

The Animal Game is designed to use with students who have to attend courses in Animal Behaviour but who lack the scientific background in zoology. A better knowledge of the concepts of Animal Behaviour and the illustrative examples is expected from the use of the game. Groups of 3 to 5 students can play.

The paper is written as a case study of the management of change. The writer describes the transitions through which the team worked after organising an international management game competition in 1995. The study is offered as an example of the demands on managers for flexibility and innovation in a world of instant and mass communication technology, struggling to come to terms with the need to "think globally and act locally".

This paper aims to understand policy games from the perspective of learning. It addresses the question whether policy learning occurs in policy games and how it can be improved. Policy learning implies the presence of experiential learning, interactive learning, strategic learning and self-referential learning at the policy level. A case study is presented concerning a Dutch hospital in which the tailor-made policy game did not contribute much to policy learning. It is recommended that policy learning can be improved by taking into account the need for self-referential learning at the policy level.

This chapter develops the concept of problem based learning as relevant to accounting students specifically in the study of management accounting. It introduces new concepts of ‘basic knowing’ and ‘higher level knowing’ as applied to accounting studies. Basic skills for accounting students are seen as having expanded over time particularly with the need for new knowledge of the relevance of information technology to the subject. In addition higher level skills of critical appraisal and analysis are also needed by all students to achieve the requirements of ‘graduateness’. This need to develop basic skills while at the same time providing higher level skills causes intense pressure on accounting syllabi. It is considered that structured case studies over the life of an accounting degree provide a potential vehicle to develop both ‘basic knowing’ and at same time enhance higher level skills as an aid to resolving this dilemma. This chapter thus explores the development of case studies as relevant to the management accounting modules delivered over the three years of the Accounting and Finance degree at the University of Glamorgan.

As part of his dissertation for the Master’s degree in Education programme at the University of Huddersfield, the author conducted a detailed questionnaire survey which was targeted at a small number of adult-learners who also teach or counsel professionally. The questions focused on positive and negative attitudes towards highly experiential role-play, as expressed by survey respondents. This chapter records some of the negative opinions expressed, and makes an initial assessment of where trainers and teachers might focus their attention in order to improve learners’ experience of highly experiential role-play.

When asked if they are prejudiced, most students claim they are not. Those students who do acknowledge their prejudices generally convince the others that they do indeed have prejudices, that being human pretty much means having prejudices. Nevertheless, even the students who acknowledge that they have prejudices frequently do not want to believe that people are still oppressed because of the prejudices of the majority. Surprisingly, even the women in these classes rarely believe that inequalities between men and women still exist in the United States, much less racial inequality. In their defence, the majority of the students are white and come from middle class backgrounds. Most of them have never spoken with a black person, and few have spoken with other races (Hispanic or Asian, for example). Their interactions with non-whites have occurred primarily in their college classrooms, and their knowledge of them comes primarily from media. If only by highlighting this apparent misunderstanding of the treatment of minorities and women, this simulation appears to be valuable to students.

The paper considers the rationale for developing an alternative learning offer to the highly successful range of NCBG’s, which develop learning through competition.

This alternative learning offers participants a range of forced choice options designed to meet the range and depth of the business competencies required. Emphasis is placed upon determining the "most appropriate options choice" to given situations rather than to "what must be done to win".

The games are designed to satisfy the game mission statements concerned with developing personal and business competencies of the participants and through them the viability of the industry. To support this a culture of lifelong learning is encouraged.

Assessment of performance can be made by profiling the results of option choices made by participants in each round of the game against benchmark requirements or by the summation of participant results. An element of competition can be introduced, if required, through the comparison of the summation of the differences of candidate's performance from the benchmarks for each round of the game.

Whatever the structure of a company’s organisation, there are always situations where work cuts across organisational boundaries. This work might entail parts being assembled in a factory, patients being treated in a hospital or calls being processed in a call centre. In many cases, this work might occur on an occasional or unpredictable basis. Managing workflow therefore requires stakeholders to try to balance local objectives against global ones. In particular, when they are problem solving, they need to understand the wider implications of any changes they may make.

This chapter will describe how the use of group workshops can improve the design of business process workflows. In particular, it will show the potential for using computer simulation models within these workshops. Computer simulation has often been considered as just a specialist tool for designing the technical aspects of business systems. However, simple simulation models can also provide vital insights into the social aspects of many business systems. Such insights can be critical for the stakeholders responsible for trying to improve the system.

This paper argues that games and simulation, which have now achieved widespread use in education and training at all levels, will have an even more important role to play in the new Millennium - complementing computer-mediated self-study by providing opportunities for learners to interact with one another face-to face. It begins by presenting a broad review of the game/simulation/case-study field and describing the key educational characteristics of exercises of this type, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. It then looks in detail at some of the main ways in which games, simulations and case studies are likely to make a significant contribution to education and training in the new Millennium, illustrating these numerous examples drawn from the author's own extensive experience of the genre.

Four years of experience in using business games (BG) in various Lithuanian educational institutions has shown that ways should be sought to adapt them to meet a variety of educational needs. A survey was conducted which polled lecturers and students from several institutions about the specifics of a game application and its relevance to reality. The survey also attempted to obtain student opinion and suggestions on further uses for the game "HARD NUT". Results of the survey enabled researchers to develop strategies for further use of this game in the educational process. Several strategies for organising the game were developed and suggestions for further improvement of the game by making it more relevant to real world conditions were specified.

The goal of social process mathematical modelling is to attempt to describe social processes in a mathematical language and to build a system of differential equations describing the global evolution of society. A model of social process has been constructed with a periodic (cyclic) stable solution.

This paper outlines the construction of a model of the society in order to describe global processes in society.

The society is viewed as a definite structure, composed of bio-, ethno- and sociospheres. The model describes the behaviour and interaction of these social structures. This model is based upon the ides of American sociologist, Talcott Parsons (reference needed), on the cyclic evolution of society.

The InterAttica hotel, Ascan, a role-play business game discussed in this article was used as an integral part of an elective in the final semester of a 4 year undergraduate degree course in hotel management. Its purpose was to teach business decision making by enabling students to make informed decisions and implement operational plans appropriate for a hotel supposedly located in the United Arab Emirates. Students were able to compare the decisions they made with those of another student group. Its fulfillment would require students to utilise knowledge gained over the 4-year course. It also provided an environment for teamworking across traditional management disciplines and functions. It formed a small part of the students' assessment within the coursework total of the elective.

The article describes the game with details of feedback from students and the problems encountered.

The use of simulation as an assessment technique is widespread throughout Higher Education, and arguably, one of the standard methods adopted to measure learning. However, at a time when there is growing pressure on Higher Education (HE) to become more work-related, should HE be reviewing its almost automatic use of simulations for assessment? This paper explores the growth of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and the development of HE interest in Work-Based Learning (WBL), and considers the validity of simulation within these new awards.

The main objective of this paper is for the author to pass on his experience of writing a case study so that potential case study writers are encouraged to produce interesting marketing case studies. The author has written a number of mini-cases and large cases, all of which have a management or business orientation, and it is his view that case studies are fascinating, and can stimulate staff-student interaction. This paper reinforces a number of points ranging from the selection of the topic; collection of the data; and writing for various audiences.