Simulations through rEsource at the University of Phoenix
In November 2001 the University of Ph'enix launched rEsource, a platform for
the delivery of electronic course content. rEsource was built on a proprietary
LMS and is simply a Web site from which students access and download course materials.
At this time in some courses, digital content is largely in the form of readings
from eBooks. For other courses, a wider variety of content is used. The most innovative
of these other types of content is called Simulations.
Simulations are Flash-built interactive case studies. The initial batch of
Simulations covered ten domain areas of the MBA program (finance, business law,
statistics, operations, and others). Since then, the University has expanded
the use of Simulations to cover a multitude of topics in business, technology,
and health care. There are now over 100 Simulations covering such diverse areas
as critical thinking, epidemiology, and elasticity of demand. More information
on Simulations is available at http://www.ph'enix.edu/simulations.
Three Simulations can be run from this Web site.
How Simulations fit into the Curriculum
There are a few common threads to University of Ph'enix courses that make Simulations
a good fit. First, the curriculum is created centrally. Every student who is
in the ORG/502 Organizational Theory class is using the same course outline,
achieving the same learning goals, and using the same course materials. Second,
all of the classes are faculty led. Classroom-based and online courses are all
facilitated by instructors with expertise in the domain area.
Simulations are used to support distinct learning objectives in University
of Ph'enix classes. For example, an MBA course that is six weeks long may use
two Simulations over the duration of the course. In a graduate-level managerial
accounting class, Simulations are used to support goals around analyzing financial
statements. The introduction to this Simulation reads:
Analysis of Financial Statements
In this simulation, the learner analyzes the financial health of companies
through ratio analysis. S/he also studies the footnotes to the financial statements
to evaluate key accounting policies and disclosures. Finally, s/he evaluates
the companies on certain non-financial measures like employee satisfaction,
customer spread, and the like.
The Success of Simulations
Simulations have been very well received by students and faculty at the University
of Ph'enix. There are a number of factors for this success:
- Feedback: Simulations are run in cycles (months, quarters, years), and students
get substantive feedback at the end of each cycle. This helps to make the
connection between actions taken and the subsequent results.
- Real-world: The Simulations use real business scenarios to help students
see the applicability of the learning.
- Simple technology: There is no distracting technology that might take away
from the learning goals of the Simulations. The Flash applications don't use
audio and they can run smoothly over a 56K dial-up line.
- Engaging: Although Simulations are not games per se, the feedback and results
actively engage students and challenge them to improve their results.
Through surveying students, we noticed there was a tendency to re-run the Simulations
in an attempt to get better results. One student commented that the only problem
with Simulations was that there was no Back button so it was difficult to replay
the scenario. This shed light on the fact that the Simulations really were engaging
and our academic team was pleased to see that students would continually replay
the Simulation in an attempt to hone in on a better course of action.
What's Next
Simulations have been used for over two years in the University Ph'enix curriculum
and their use continues to expand. The academic and technology teams continue
to work on other innovative tools to help students achieve their learning goals.
These include:
- Virtual Organizations: Mock company Internet and Intranet sites that give
students access to real company data without having to use what might be privileged
information at their own businesses.
- eBook Collection: A new site for viewing, printing, and downloading electronic
versions of textbooks. University of Ph'enix employs DRM technology to protect
publishers' rights to the titles.
- Grammar and Plagiarism: Automated checking of papers for plagiarism and
basic grammar. Submitted papers are returned within thirty seconds.