1. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 1 Suffering or Having Fun - Importance of perceived workload in teaching with computer simulation

2. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 2 POON, Tat Hong (Ted) Department of Management The Hong Kong Polytechnic University mstpoon@polyu.edu.hk

3. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 3 Background The project covers an experiment relating to 200 final year Business students in PolyU. The subject involves is Strategic Management II - the second part of a one year Strategic Management course.

4. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 4 The old game  This course was traditionally taught with a lecture-case study approach and the students usually complain that the materials are too abstractive and not realistic enough.

5. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 5 The New game A computer based management simulation, The Marketplace, was first introduced in 2000

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8. 8 This project studies the management of the students’ learning experience when computer simulation is used in problem-based leaning approach Objective of the project

9. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 9 Issue 1 discussed today Is workload of a subject (defined as the time a student is spending in that subject) correlated with Contact hours and assigned tasks?

10. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 10 Issues 2 discussed today How perceived workload of a subject affect attitudes of students toward the subject?

11. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 11 Research strategy and data collection techniques After the 4 th session of the simulation, questionnaires were distributed to all the students in the simulation program Interview at the end of the semester

12. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 12 Data presentation and analysis In both rounds, about 94% of the students who registered for the subject returned usable questionnaire forms

13. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 13 1. Workload In every week, how many hours do you spend in the Marketplace? (Excluding lecture and seminar)

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15. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 15 Average Hours spent in the simulation Range: 0.5 ~ 40 hours per week Average: 6.1 hours per week Standard Deviation: 5.1

16. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 16 How many hour do you spend in this game per week? “Many, many hours. Sometimes I cannot sleep at night, I will switch on the computer (to take a look at the game). I believe I spend about 2 hours per day. It is just like playing a computer game.”

17. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 17 2. Attitudes of the students The questionnaires used in Round 2 tested also the attitudes of the students by asking whether the students would recommend the subject to other students.

18. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 18 Attitudes of the students 59% of the students selected either 'definitely yes' or 'yes', 23% 'neutral' or 'don't know', 17% 'no' or ' definitely no'. 'heavy workload' was the typical disadvantage cited

19. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 19 Attitudes of the students Strong correlation between the amount of time a student spends in the game and how he/she feels about the subject. The Pearson Chi-square test shows an Asymptotic Significance (2-sided) of 0.008. Most of the students who spend less than six hours per week in the game tend to favor the subject.

20. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 20 Conclusion 1 Perceived Workload of a subject is a very personal thing: it shows great variance among different students who should have the same contact hours and assigned tasks. it may not correlated well with Contact hours and assigned tasks.

21. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 21 Conclusion 2 Perceived workload shows strong correlation with the attitudes of students toward a subject

22. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 22 What can we do? To improve the attitude of the students toward the subject/teaching approach, the perceived workload of the students should be carefully managed by Administrative arrangement Perception shift

23. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 23 Student’s advice “ You should be more committed to the subject. Do not treat it as an assignment or homework. Treat it more like a game and it will become more interesting/fun. You will be more devoted and be willing to spend more energy in it. You will not feel you are suffering because you have to do an assignment just to earn some marks.”

24. seminar/seminar060720 02/ted.ppt 24 THANK YOU! Any question?