Suffering or Having Fun - Importance of perceived workload in teaching with computer simulation

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Suffering or Having Fun- Importance of
perceived workload in teaching with computer
simulation
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POON, Tat Hong (Ted)

• Department of ManagementThe Hong Kong
  Polytechnic University
• mstpoon_at_polyu.edu.hk

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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.

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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.

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The New game

• A computer based management simulation, The
  Marketplace, was first introduced in 2000

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Objective of the project

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

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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?

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Issues 2 discussed today

• How perceived workload of a subject affect
  attitudes of students toward the subject?

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Research strategy and data collection techniques

• After the 4th session of the simulation,
  questionnaires were distributed to all the
  students in the simulation program
• Interview at the end of the semester

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Data presentation and analysis

• In both rounds, about 94 of the students who
  registered for the subject returned usable
  questionnaire forms

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1. Workload

• In every week, how many hours do you spend in the
  Marketplace?
• (Excluding lecture and seminar)

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Average Hours spent in the simulation

• Range 0.5 40 hours per week
• Average 6.1 hours per week
• Standard Deviation 5.1

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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Conclusion 2

• Perceived workload shows strong correlation with
  the attitudes of students toward a subject

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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

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Students 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.

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THANK YOU!

• Any question?