An International Meeting of the American Accounting Association 2005 Annual Meeting August 7–10, 2005 San Francisco, California Come to the City by the Bay!

Effective Learning Strategies Forum
Tuesday, August 9, 2005

Session 2
Providing "Hands-On" Experience in an Online Course Using An Interactive Simulation

Presenter:
Jay Holmen, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

Description:
A challenge in teaching a graduate-level asynchronous online class is to develop meaningful assignments that require students to interact. Students enter the course with a wide range of experiences and previous knowledge, but how do you encourage them to share that experience and knowledge? Constructivist theory posits that learning isn’t simply acquiring knowledge, but that it should be relevant, and the cognitive demands and tasks in the learning environment should be consistent with the cognitive demands and tasks for the environment for which the learner is being prepared.

To provide a relevant learning task, and to provide a vehicle for student interaction, an experiential simulation was chosen. In this simulation, the student assumes the role of the newly hired president of a software company. The student is responsible for making personnel, pricing, spending, and resource-allocation decisions. To guide these decisions, the students must construct a performance scorecard from numerous metrics.

Student reactions were very positive. Students were captivated by the simulation and continued to experiment even after the course ended. Students also commented that the interactions with their fellow students greatly exceeded their expectations.

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