Simulation-based training as a teaching and learning tool for management education

ABSTRACT

Nowadays the business world is characterized by vertiginous changes making work environments more complex and uncertain. This scenario requires professionals with practical experience. While students and new graduates often gain practical experience through internships or part-time jobs, universities can play an active role in developing the required student skills. Within this context, instruction aimed to promote learning based solely on memorization as a mechanism to ensure cognitive sufficiency is certainly outdated. Simulation-based training (SBT), an active learning methodology, is the approach used in this study. Both surveys and focus groups were performed to assess the impact of SBT on the students’ learning process to understand how productive processes affect business profitability. The sample included students from two cohorts attending a business school. Our results show that this technique is useful in bringing students a step closer to understanding how a company works while interacting in a controlled environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Active learning
• productive processes
• simulation-based training (SBT)
• business education
• meaningful learning

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the students who participate in this experience.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no funding to report.

Notes on contributors

Liliana Neriz

Liliana Neriz is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Management Control and Information Systems at University of Chile. She has a Bachelor Degree in Business from the School of Economics and Business at the University of Chile, in Chile, and a PhD. in Economics and Business from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, in Spain.

Alicia Núñez

Alicia Núñez is an assistant professor in the Department of Management Control and Information Systems at University of Chile. She completed BA Information Systems and Management Control, BA Accounting Auditor, and Master in Finance in the School of Economics and Business at the University of Chile, in Chile. She received a PhD in Public Health from Oregon State University Department of Public Health in Corvallis, Oregon.

Veronica Fuentes-Caceres

Veronica Fuentes-Caceres is an assistant professor in the Department of Management Control and Information Systems at University of Chile. She completed BA Information Systems and Management Control, BA Accounting Auditor, and Master in Management Control in the School of Economics and Business at the University of Chile, in Chile. She received a Ph.D in Health Policy and Administration from Pennsylvania State University, USA.

Francisco Ramis

Francisco Ramis is a professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering, and dean of the Engineering School at the University of Bio-Bio in Concepcion, Chile. He received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from U. of Concepcion, Chile. M.Sc. and Ph.D IE from the Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S.A.

Oscar Jerez

Oscar Jerez is a Doctor in Psychology and Education from the Universidad de Granada in Spain. Master in Education from the University of Chile, and B.A. in Philosophy from the Università Pontificia Salesiana di Roma and from the University of Chile.