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Distance learning can provide students with an opportunity to obtain international experience through long-distance co-operation with foreign universities, institutions and students. This paper deals with a very specific simulation programme which is designed to allow marketing students apply their theoretical marketing knowledge in a more practical (simulated) environment. Although the game's developers originally created it for playing at a single site, it is also possible to use it in an international context: Different student groups from different countries can play a simulation together using modern communication media such as the Internet. The following case study shows the advantages/disadvantages and the experiences with this distance learning project.
Two trends of importance to the future development of society are the process of globalisation and the growth of the information society. Education has to take such changes into account - students should be given the skills they need to meet the new challenges these trends present. One way of doing this is to introduce distance-learning tools into education. Another approach is to use simulation programmes to make education more vocational, more practically orientated. Simulation programmes have a long tradition of successful use in education. Kotler and Schultz (1970, p.237), for example, were already able to write a review of marketing simulations in 1970. It seems sensible to combine the advantages of such simulation programmes with the distance-learning opportunities offered by the Information Superhighway. Using a case-study from marketing education, this paper seeks to identify the advantages and disadvantages of such a combination.
Distance-learning refers to teaching methods which involve the use of appropriate information technologies to bridge a physical distance between teachers and students. Their physical presence at a common teaching site is no longer required.
As part of the dynamic changes in the home and working environments, the role of personal education is increasing in importance. It is clear that distance-learning can play a part in this development by removing geographical constraints to participation in education; teaching is no longer site-dependent. This site independence and the diverse range of information which can be carried on the internet are the key factors in the success of distance-learning. The communication opportunities presented by the internet are numerous: data transfer through FTP, terminal emulation (TELNET), message sending (E-mail) and real time conversations (Hansen, 1995, p.32; Maier and Wildberger, 1994, p.13). The availability of teaching support or study materials (lecture notes etc.) through the net and, in particular, the opportunity to search for, and select, information without supervision1 also play important roles in distance-learning. Thanks to navigation programmes with user-friendly graphical interfaces, like Mosaic or Netscape, even inexperienced internet users can make effective use of the wide range of national and international information sources available on the net.
It is no surprise that distance-learning methods have been, and continue to be, most widely applied in countries such as Australia or Scandinavia, where geographical realities mean that students and educational centres are often separated by great distances. In such countries, distance-learning has established itself as a recognised alternative or complement to traditional teaching methods. Of course, distance-learning has not made as much progress in countries where such geographical difficulties are of less importance. This is despite the existence of some successful examples of distance-learning in these countries, such as the Telehaus initiative in Austria (Haas, 1997, p.3) or the Open University in the UK, which has increased access to education for people in rural areas (Clayton, 1997, p.102).
Regardless, a general increase in the use of the internet and other electronic information and communications technologies is to be expected. According to the Internet Society2, the leading country in terms of internet use (defined as the number of hosts3 per 1000 inhabitants) is Finland, followed by the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway. Austria occupies 12th place in this list, an average rank for an industrialised nation (Anon, 1995a, p.17).
Another important advantage of distance-learning is the opportunity to make use of non-local expert knowledge. The University of Cambridge language centre in the UK, for example, has been using electronic communications technology for a long time in order to give students more opportunity to make contact with native speakers of foreign languages, for example in France. The institute has always had problems finding an adequate provision of such native speakers locally. Accordingly, E-mail was provided so that students could practice their foreign language conversation skills through communication with students overseas (Makin, 1997, p.319). The outstanding advantage of this teaching approach, when compared to traditional language training using video and audio cassettes, is interactivity. "Well-designed audio and videotape material can ... provide a pseudo-interactive environment where the language learning student can interact with the contents of the audio and videotape in order to develop oral and aural skills" (Jennings, 1995, p.26). Electronic communication, however, offers genuine interactivity - there is no need to simulate it4 . It is relatively simple to make use of expert knowledge without the physical presence of the actual expert. Information technology can be of great help where budgetary restrictions make it difficult to provide students with an adequate supply of local expertise.
It should not be forgotten, that the use of new technology in educational programmes also encourages students to become more closely involved with such technologies. Familiarity with technology has never been so important as now, and a prerequisite of any modern education is the opportunity to develop this familiarity. If students learn to accept new technologies during their education, then this encourages them to apply the technologies at work, something which is seen by the information society as an important factor in business success. This is because, "organisational integration and the social environment (acceptability) [our italics] are critically important to the success or failure of information systems." (Hansen, 1993, p.212). The importance of the active use of information technologies during education is clear when the growth rates of technologies like the internet are considered. "No communications medium or consumer electronics technology has ever grown as quickly; not the fax machine, not even the PC" (Anon, 1995b, p.5). While the number of internet users worldwide was estimated to be around 20 million in 1995, the equivalent figure now is put at over 30 million (ob cit; unfortunately only estimates are possible for these figures since there is no central directory of registered internet users). The number of on-line connections in Germany, which has similar market characteristics to Austria in this field, is expected to rise from 1.6 million in 1996 to almost 8 million by the end of 1997 (Anon, 1996, p.119).
As is clear from the following diagram, it is possible to differentiate between different levels of student involvement in the learning process. Bad experiences have the biggest long-term impact, while knowledge retention is lowest for read material. Simulations are so useful in education because both the level of student involvement (i.e. their interest in the information [Kroeber-Riel, 1995, p.89]) and learning success are high. The quantity and quality of knowledge retained depends very much of course on the quality of the simulation. If a simulation can be found that comes as close as possible to reality, while at the same time communicating the theory normally acquired from lectures or books, then it can be assumed that involvement will be high. The low involvement generally associated with traditional methods of learning is converted into high involvement using new, unusual teaching methods.
Figure 1: The degree of involvement associated with different learning methods
Source: Anon (undated): http://cross.net/start*x/sims.htm
In the past, the search for a successful simulation was handicapped by this requirement that the simulation be close to the real thing. Many simulation models for marketing were developed in the 60s and 70s (Kotler and Schultz, 1970, p.237). However, most of these models were either too complex, or failed to adequately reflect reality, with appropriate limitations on their usefulness. This encouraged numerous scientists and technicians to work on the improvement of existing models during the 80s. At the same time, more advanced computer soft- and hardware was available to help make complex models more user-friendly. Indeed, technical developments in computer science have made simulations available to educators which do not require students to have a particularly high level of technical knowledge. A German language example is the simulation software "CABS" (computer aided business simulation; http://www.cabs.de). Simulation software for marketing (developed in France) is featured in the following case study: the marketing simulation game, Markstrat.
Larréché and Gatignon (1990, p.1) answer the question, "Why a simulation?", in the first chapter of the participant's manual; "In general, the purpose of a simulation is to test alternative actions without incurring the cost or the risk of implementing them in a real setting". Students are more likely to give proper consideration to decisions in later life if they are made aware of the costs of poor decisions during their education (assuming they remember the lessons they learn). In this context, the advantages of Markstrat are as follows:
Students work in groups and must learn how to cooperate with one another within a team environment.
Individual groups compete against each other - so all decisions have wide repercussions.
The main emphasis of the simulation is on target groups and adequate product development; the programme demonstrates the importance of recognising and understanding one or more target groups and of using appropriate advertising, price policies and product development to address these groups.
As the simulation is primarily concerned with marketing, aspects such as company personnel policies etc. are given relatively little attention. The simulation is, therefore, highly specialised. This is an advantage, given the purpose for which the simulation is used. All the key decisions required in marketing can be fully included in the simulation, while a few factors (such as the quality of sales personnel) have to be held constant. The most important decisions that each group has to take for a number of game periods are:
With all groups operating in a highly competitive environment, the marketing budgets available to a group for any one period are determined during the previous period not only by the quality of its own decisions, but also by those of its competitors. The simulation is run at the end of each game period when the budgets for the following period are calculated.
Since decisions are undertaken autonomously, and given the availability of modern information and communications technologies, the participating groups can be physically far apart from each other. This possibility can be seen as the key advantage of this simulation; the combination of distance-learning with the advantages of a simulation model (in terms of communication of knowledge) has a huge motivating effect on participating students. Students also learn how to use the internet for practical purposes and are able to practice their foreign language skills, in both cases often for the first time in their education - something that can be considered a secondary synergistic effect of this particular combination of teaching concepts.
The practicalities of running the computer simulation over the internet are fairly simple to organise. All the participating groups are connected to each other using a special communications programme5, and they remain on-line during the entire course of the game. The programme not only facilitates data exchange and communication of instructions from the game administrators, but it also stimulates communication and interaction between the groups themselves. English is usually used as the language of communication since the groups do not share the same first language, thereby bringing this secondary advantage (for those without native English) of practice in using a foreign language.
Fundamentally, the simulation consists of a repetition of the following process:
The groups are connected with each other via internet and receive the data files required for making the first decisions. These first decisions are taken, and include, among other things, whether the group wants to get any market studies in the following period and whether they want to develop any new products. The relevant data containing these decisions is then sent via internet to the game administrators. The marketing budgets for the next game period are then calculated using the data from all the groups. A new set of data is then sent back to the groups and the process repeats itself until the last round is reached (7-10 rounds are normally played). Following the last round of decisions, the game administrators prepare the end results and these are made available to the groups through an internet site (see, for example, http://www.boku.ac.at/iao/markstrat/example.html).
The groups remain on-line for the duration of the game, thus allowing the game administrators to provide support whenever required. The 'local' group is also on-line, even though they can get face-to-face help direct from the game administrators.
A basic consideration of the project was that the technical requirements of the game were to be kept as low as possible, so that (where possible) problems such as programme crashes and breakdowns in on-line connections would never occur. There were still, however, a number of not inconsiderable technical problems associated with the simulation and these were only solved with some difficulty.
Some clear positive and negative experiences can be identified using the huge volume of correspondence and conversations which were necessary to run this teaching course (see Meixner and Haas, 1997, p.117).
The central problem faced when trying to run this kind of distance-learning project is finding suitable partners in other countries. It is very difficult to find partners, and especially students, who are prepared to take part in an activity which is not a compulsory part of the teaching programme, especially when these partners may be a long way away (as far as Australia). This problem can be addressed very effectively if the international partner can be persuaded to incorporate the teaching project within their syllabus, although this can involve considerable bureaucratic difficulties. The following problems should also be seen in this context:
Knowledge transfer: It is difficult to transfer the knowledge required for running the teaching exercise and the simulation. This applies both to knowledge transfer to local instructors (whose existence is a prerequisite of participation) and to knowledge transfer via distance-learning to interested students. There is a very good participant's manual (Larréché and Gatignon, 1990), but it does not contain the answer to every question.
Software problems: Other institutions are often prevented from participating in Markstrat simply because they do not use the computer operating platform required for the optimal implementation of the simulation exercise.
Motivation of students: All these problems can lead to a further problem, that of motivating students to take part in the game in the first place. However, once the game has been successfully started, there is no problem with student motivation.
Time lag: Time differences are also a problem when running this distance-learning project. A time difference of 8-10 hours between Australia and central Europe, and one of at least six hours between central Europe and the USA, has to be accounted for. Simultaneous participation by groups in America and Australia is usually rendered impossible by the time difference problems.
A wide variety of positive experiences bear comparison with these negative ones:
A number of lessons for the future can be drawn from experiences to date. Overall, the positive experiences tend to outweigh the negative ones. Nevertheless, there is clearly potential for improvement:
Integration of the project in the teaching schedule of the international partners
It is much easier to find students willing to participate in the project if it is integrated within their own studies (for example, through the European Transfer Credit System, where participation is graded and counts toward the requirements of the home qualification).
Creation of a glossary in the form of an on-line databank
Since many participants do not speak English as a first language, one of the commonest problems is the use and understanding of specialist terms. This problem would be addressed through an appropriate glossary, made permanently available to all participants through the internet.
Test runs of the communication and simulation software
This is less concerned with testing whether the software is working properly and is more to do with giving local instructors the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the workings of the simulation. Tests allow software and organisational problems to be identified and solved in good time.
Early contact with international partners and timely sending of information material
Experience showed that the motivation of international partners to solve problems dropped rapidly when they were under time pressure. It is very important to allow sufficient preparation time and to ensure that information material is sent out as early as possible. Dependent on circumstances, it can take several weeks for information sent by post to reach far off destinations.
Where it is possible to incorporate these recommendations into the organisation of a distance-learning project, then the implementation of the project is likely to be simpler and more efficient.
It is certainly more difficult to run a simulation over the internet. Although long preparation times are required when undertaking the exercise for the first time, such problems are still overwhelmed by the positive aspects. Students were very enthusiastic about communicating with foreign colleagues. Once the teething problems were overcome, foreign universities also became convinced of the benefits of this teaching method. The problems of internationalisation, such as time differences, long delays between decisions, on-line support instead of face-to-face help etc. should not, however, be underestimated. Nevertheless, none of these problems are insurmountable and the positive aspects - particularly the intercultural exchange of knowledge and experience - more than compensate.
"Once the information infrastructure network is complete, a revolution is expected in the field of education. Teachers will be able to use multimedia texts to increase the effectiveness of education, connect to digital libraries, and show information or related data on displays during class, use a videophone to connect to distant experts for opinions, or connect to other classrooms for video-conferencing. Students who could not attend lectures will be able to access on-line databases storing lecture material and study at any convenient time" (Bouras et al., 1997, p.35). Even though technical constraints (particularly inadequate data transfer rates) mean video-conferencing remains a purely fictional concept, it is possible to say that most of the "revolution" cited in this quote has already become reality in marketing education thanks to the project described here. It is worth repeating that the clearest benefit of this game is the cooperation (or competition) between students from different countries and cultures. Given the globalisation of economies, these socio-psychological components of education cannot be given high enough priority.
Anon (1995a): Paradise by the modem lights. In: The Economist, 1995, 336:792, p. 16-17
Anon (1995b): The accidental superhighway. In: The Economist, 1995, Vol. 336:792, p. 5-8
Anon (1996): Goldgräber im Cyberspace. Internet (II): Das Geschäft der Zukunft - ganze Branchen werden sich ändern. In: Der Spiegel, 1996, 12, p. 116-132
Anon (undated): Strat*X's Design and Application of Business Simulations and Tools for Action Learning. Under: http://www.cross.net/strat*x/sims.htm
Bouras, C., Lampsas, P. and Spirakis, P. (1997): Superhighways for Open and Distance Learning. In: Melton, J., O'Reilly, B. and Playle, C. (Eds): 1997 EDEN Conference. Open and Distance Learning: a bridge from the 90s to the year 2000 and beyond: Achievements and perspectives. Milton Keynes, 1997, p. 32-36
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1
The huge pool of information available on the internet is not only of use to the students. Teaching staff can take advantage of this resource when compiling teaching and training material.2
Internet Society: An organisation dedicated to the co-ordination of the further development of the internet (Seidel and Haacker, 1996, p.485).3
Host: A powerful computer which can undertake different activities simultaneously and which can be accessed by many users via a network (Seidel and Hacker, 1996, p.484).4
Interactivity is useful for all subjects. New communications and information technology can be used to support and expand existing teaching resources in nearly all areas of education.5
The communications programme used by the Institute of Agricultural Economics, University of Agricultural Sciences, Vienna is one of the most well-known computer programmes of its kind, with over 1.3 million registered users world-wide ("PowWow"; see http://www.tribal.com). The programme also has the advantage of being Freeware, so that there are no legal problems concerning usage, licences etc. The required data exchange and on-line communication is all carried out over the internet using the communications programme. A so-called browser, which can read internet pages, is also required in order to be able to read the final results presentation (see http://www.boku.ac.at/iao/markstrat). Microsoft's "Microsoft Chat" has the same advantages stated for PowWow. It will be used in the future by the Institute. Both programmes are entirely suitable for the purposes of the simulation and are cited as representative examples of a range of programmes which could fulfil the same role.