Virtual Game Method in Higher Educationec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/project-result... · Chocolate Game Method in Higher Education 2014-1-PL01-KA203-003548 • the eco index

Virtual Game Method in Higher Education Training session I

Huelva, January 2015

Aleksandra Gawel

Poznan University of Economics

Agenda

Game Method in Higher Education 2014-1-PL01-KA203-003548

1. Logic of the old and new scenarios

2. Logic of the training sessions

3. Strategic management games on scenario Chocolate

4. Brainstorming session

5. Batch of parameters

6. New scenarios

Logic of the old and new scenarios


• Old scenarios – production companies:

– Factory (production line)

– Inventories (stocks)

– Sales offices

– Transfer of products

• New scenarios – service providers:

– Production and sales are combined

– No inventories

– No transfer

Logic of the training sessions


• 1st training session (Huelva):

– „digital native” as students, „digital immigrant/ ignorant” as teachers

– Playing the virtual strategic game

– Brainstorm on the new game (both engine and scenarios)

• 2nd training session (Parnu):

– Organization of teaching with virtual games

– Testing and improving own games

Strategic management game Chocolate


• The aim – to establish and run a virtual company producing and selling chocolates

• 4 geographical markets (Bern, Vienna, Bucharest, Warsaw)

• Decision areas: • Establishing a company

• Production

• Selling channels

• Price strategy

• Promotion strategy

• Human resource strategy



• 4 different target groups with different expectations and needs concerning both price and quality

• 10 decision rounds. After each decision round players get feedback on the results of their virtual company.

• The results depend on two factors:

• Quality of virtual company’s strategy – the level to which products, prices and promotion meet costumers needs,

• Quality of competitor strategies – how well competitors meet clients’ needs.



• Each company designs its own brands of chocolate which can differ the price and quality,

• Designing process - to determine the value of product attributes (1 to 10) which are of different importance for customer groups.

• Products should consist of 3 attributes:

• the eco index

• the ing index

• the pck index



• the eco index – natural vs chemical ingredients, the more of “eco attribute” in a given brand of chocolate, the more natural the product is,

• the ing index – ingredients used in chocolate production, the higher value of “ing attribute” is in a given brand of chocolate, the more unusual or interesting flavor is.

• the pck index – packaging of the chocolate bar, the size, type, colours and graphics of packaging. The higher value of “pck attribute”, the more interesting and attractive it looks on the shop shelf.



4 different target groups:

• Sweeters

• Normals

• Foodcarers

• Tasters



• Sweeters - eat a lot of sweets, at low quality, the most important - the lowest price of chocolates.

• Normals - both the quality of chocolates and price should be at reasonable levels.



• Foodcarers - the quality of food, including chocolates, is extremely important, they are willing to pay higher price, but not the highest.

• Tasters - love to eat high quality chocolate, but not much, they are able to pay very high price.



- Teams

- Roles

• Time to start!

Strategic management games


Strategic Management Games:

• present in the business environment of the United States for over 50 years

• combine education and entertainment

• they make it possible to test various strategies and assess their outcomes

• to a large extent they reflect reality



The nature of Strategic Management Games

• an experimentation, simulation or model of either the whole or a part of a business organisation

• having fun while assuming different roles

• The players put themselves in the position of business managers in various aspects of company management.




• Students’ their task - make decisions within their area of competence

• A sequence of managerial decisions and later the players receive feedback regarding the consequences of those decisions. During the game the players receive incomplete information about the impact of their decisions on the result of the game




• a trial-and-error method

• Unstructured learning

• Reflective learning

• Active learning

• Team work




• formal in character - the rules of conduct which the players have to follow and the immediate response to the decisions made

• abstract - they do not represent specific real-life situations, though they do provide a close imitation of real-life conditions.




Factors influencing the development of the SMG:

• The experience of war games

• The development of game theory

• The availability of computers



The essential components of Strategic Management Games (1):

• Rules (the types of decisions make and the restrictions placed on those decisions)

• Structure (the fixed and variable parameters and the relationships between them)



The essential components of Strategic Management Games (2):

• Competition (the decisions made by one team influence the results achieved by all the other teams)

• Feedback (the decisions and their results in one round influence the future strategy and decisions made in subsequent rounds)

Brainstorming sessions (1)


• Advantages and disadvantages from students’

perspective

• Advantages and disadvantages from teachers’

perspective

• Pedagogical approach of games

Brainstorming sessions (2)


• How the game and its presentation can be

improved (what is missing?)

• How to develop the game and implement the

service logic?

Batch of parameters


• Production capacity

• Sales capacity

• Development costs

• Markets

• Transfer costs

• Consumer groups

• Consumer group preferences

Batch of parameters


• Ad channels

• Global ads

• Benefits

• Trainings

• Suppliers

• Production lines

• Sales offices

• Events

New scenarios


• Draft of scenario – Fitness club

• Which decison areas should be removed?

• Which decision areas should be developed? How?

• Which decision areas should be added?

Documents

Virtual Game Method in Higher Educationec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/project-result... · Chocolate Game Method in Higher Education 2014-1-PL01-KA203-003548 • the eco index