Title: Simulations, assessment and student learning

Authors: Harm-Jan Steenhuis; Brian Grinder; Erik Joost De Bruijn

Addresses: College of Business and Public Administration, Eastern Washington University, 668 N. Riverpoint Blvd., Suite A, Spokane, WA 99202, USA ' College of Business and Public Administration, Eastern Washington University, 668 N. Riverpoint Blvd., Suite A, Spokane, WA 99202, USA ' School of Management and Governance, University of Twente, PO Box 715, Enschede 7500 AE, The Netherlands

Abstract: This paper reports on the use of a simulation in an introductory operations management course. Much of the literature on simulations treats them as a teaching method. In this paper, the simulation is used for student learning assessment. It was found that student performance was not very good and that financial performance in the game was not related to performance on tests. As a result of these findings it is proposed that simulations assess a different type of student learning. This is called the ability to interpret in a largely unfamiliar context. An additional exploratory experiment with an extra simulation round was conducted. Evidence from this additional experiment indicates that simulations might be an excellent method to assess this new indicator.

Keywords: simulation; student learning; student assessment; Bloom’s taxonomy; operations management education; higher education; student performance; introductory operations management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIOME.2011.042663

International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education, 2011 Vol.4 No.2, pp.99 - 121

Published online: 07 Feb 2015 *

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