The Smartsims Simulation Game Mike's Bikes is a simulation of a real-world business scenario. Players are tasked with making decisions involving production, marketing, research, and pricing, with responsibilities and scope of management increasing each week. The decisions made each week directly affect the game, giving players instant feedback on their actions.
Smartsims Business Simulations. (2017, Feb 07). Experiential learning coming alive at Drexel University [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/10k06pReh68
Case Study: Smartsims Simulation Game
Experiential Learning Coming Alive at Drexel University
Drexel University has employed the use of a simulation-based game to encourage freshman business students to expand their knowledge and gain valuable hands-on experience in a business environment. Rather than a traditional freshman seminar, Drexel uses the Smartsims Business Solutions simulation game known as “Mike’s Bikes” to translate standard concepts and theories into practical application. In the simulation, various problems and issues need to be solved, decisions need to be made, and assessed in a great example of the learning engagement strategy of the use of games to enhance learning.
Authenticity
Drexel University's freshman introductory business course focuses on the use of the Mike’s Bikes simulation to give students hands-on experience solving business problems and making decisions (Smartsims Business Solutions, 2017. The game uses a simulation of a real-world business scenario, offering the players an authentic learning experience that can be directly applied (Smartsims Business Solutions, 2020). This idea of authenticity is a key element of a successful game-based curriculum, the game must be rooted in realness and offer an authentic experience, where game players can use their knowledge of concepts and apply them in a practical and hands-on way (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018). The learner is able to gain a sense of realism and relevancy through the use of the simulation, and relevancy is an important factor in engagement and the motivation to learn (Hilliard & Kargbo, 2017). The simulation game Mike’s Bikes encourages engagement by gradually expanding the control and decision making of the participants as the game progresses, it scaffolds learning to provide an engaging and authentic learning experience (Smartsims Business Simulations, 2020).
Feedback
One of the key elements of the simulation game Mike’s Bikes is that the learner receives decision feedback as the game progresses, enabling them to learn from their mistakes, and apply new knowledge to make the next set of decisions (Smartsims Business Simulations, 2020). The Drexel University students that use this game have the opportunity to encounter realistic business decision-making, gaining valuable feedback on the positive and negative impacts of the decisions that they make (Smartsims Business Simulations, 2017). Reiser and Dempsey (2018) note that “learning should incorporate feedback” as a key element to a success game-based learning strategy (p.281). The feedback can occur as an immediate reaction to a decision made, or in a regularly scheduled update to the available information and impacts of the decisions. The availability of feedback allows both learner and teacher to assess the information, ensuring that learners are understanding the principles, and reaching the competencies needed (Hilliard & Kargbo, 2017). Drexel University students receive valuable feedback each week on the impacts of the decisions made, giving them hands-on experience in a real-world scenario (Smartsims Business Solutions, 2017).
Active Learning
The last key element of a game-based learning strategy is that the game must be both active and interactive (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018). The Drexel students participate in the simulation, interacting with the fictional company Mike’s Bikes, making decisions that impact the next stage of the game. This allows them to get a hands-on look at how decisions made can impact the future trajectory of the company. Instead of being passive participants in a lecture on business theories and models, they are actively applying the knowledge in a real-world and authentic scenario-based game (Smartsims Business Solutions, 2017). Research has shown those game participants that are able to actively participate in the game are more engaged and moves them beyond a simple assignment of reading and writing and into deeper learning that encourages critical thinking and problem-solving skills (Hilliard & Kargbo, 2017). The use of the business simulation game by Drexel University encourages freshmen to be more hands-on and active participants in their own education (Smartsims Business Solutions, 2017).
Conclusion
Drexel University has successfully applied the strategy of game-based learning to its freshman introduction to business courses. Through individualized feedback, active participation, and interactive elements in an authentic business scenario they have encouraged students to take a more active role in learning. The Drexel students learn not just the theory, but how to apply that theory through the simulation game, giving relevancy and authenticity to their business knowledge.
References
Hilliard, A., & Kargbo, H. F. (2017). Educationally game-based learning encourages learners to be actively engaged in their own learning. International Journal of Education and Practice, 5(4), 45-60
Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2018). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology. New York, NY: Pearson Books.
Smartsims Business Simulations. (2017, Feb 07). Experiential learning coming alive at Drexel University [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/10k06pReh68
Smartsims Business Solutions. (2020). Mikesbikes intro to business simulation. Retrieved from Smartsims Business Solutions: https://www.smartsims.com/business-simulation/mikes-bikes-intro/
I like to imagine the future. What will it look like? What role will technology play in it? Simulations allow students to manipulate variables and witness the effects in real time; whereas non simulation experiments can take days, weeks, or months to collect data, analyze the results, and form a conclusion (Lockett, 2019).
Authenticity
Simulations have an immeasurable impact on the field of instructional design and development. Professionals in various fields often use simulations in different contexts to build an ever-expanding repertoire of knowledge (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018). The simulations explicitly connect these learning experiences and the skills and knowledge that will shape the careers of the future.
Active Learning
Two factors make simulations irresistible to students: They move at…
Realism rests more in the mind of the learner than in the media incorporated into the learning environment. It is more important to focus on creating tasks and environments that are "cognitively real" (e.g., simple descriptions and images of realistic problems) rather than trying to recreate realistic and immersive computer-based simulations and serious games.
Instead of following and recreating a concept that already exists, Mike's Bikes is a computer simulation that is focused on creating tasks and environments based on a preexisting concept. The technology that is infused into this instructional strategy is not what makes this exercise real for the students. Mike's Bikes has taken the underlying business model of the real-world and has transformed it into a teaching…
The implementation of “MikesBikes,” developed by Smartsims Business Simulations, in Drexel University’s Foundations of Business course, provides an “experiential learning” environment for freshmen students (Smartsims Business Simulations, 2017). Students apply business theory in their interactions with the simulation as they learn, allowing them to experiment with, adapt, and evaluate principles that will make them more effective in a real business setting. It effectively activates learning by combining principles of authentic learning theory in a game-base, evidence-centered designed package.
Authentic Learning
Herrington and Reeves (2018) present nine elements of authentic learning. A primary aspect of these elements is establishing a learning environment that matches a real-world environment as similarly as possible (p. 296). MikesBikes accomplishes this by requiring business learners …
I think this is a perfect example of problem-based learning that engages students through feedback and active learning. Full immersion and interactivity are two of my favorite learning engagement strategies and simulators of any sort, whether they be reality based, virtual, or augmented, are excellent training tools for us to use as instructional designers. There is a blanket category for all of these, and it is called experiential learning. It has been shown that students increase their problem-solving skills and are much quicker with cognitive recall when they are taught through experiential (Hulaikah, Degeng, Sulton & Murwani, 2020). There are so many ways to engage students through experiential learning that we are only limited by our imaginations and this Sims…
The first question to ask is if there was a research study conducted upon the introduction of the game. Where a control group participated in a course with traditional teaching methods while a course is given utilizing the simulator. Post-class assessments and surveys should be given to conclude how effective the game is compared to the traditional classroom. Hernández-Lara & Serradell-López (2018) found that students learned what they deemed to be generic skills "such as information processing, decision-making, teamwork, dealing with uncertainty, and reaching agreements" (p. 426) and found that while managerial skills were taught, students did not feel they learned them as effectively as the generic skills. One other point of interest to me is seeing that the approach…