Increasing the impact of a business simulation: The role of reflection

Simulation – is it all worth it? The impact of simulation from the perspective of accounting students

“…The rationale behind this comment was the embedding of assessment within the audit simulation, however given previous cohorts comments regarding workload there could be seen to be a relationship here. This supports comments with regard to student anxiety by earlier researchers where students may feel 'overwhelmed' by workload (Hughes and Scholtz, 2015;Bell and Loon, 2015).…”

“…Lean, Moizer, Warren (2015) contend that whilst there is a range of literature discussing the benefits of simulations, there is limited research evidencing the impact of their use. Earlier studies have focussed specifically on the link between simulation on experiential learning theories (Kachra and Schneitz, 2008;Hughes and Scholtz, 2015;Blackford and Shi, 2015). Aside from the use of practitioners within teaching of accounting course, the use of simulation is something which over the years has been said to increase performance and understanding of the accounting subject (Faria, 1987).…”

“…This supports the calls for real life within the curricula (Drake, 2011;Buckless et al, 2014;Springer and Borthwick;2004;Svenstrom, 2016). However, this finding then raises the issues of engagement by studentswhilst they appreciate the real life application benefits (Bell and Loon, 2015;Hughes and Scholtz, 2015;Blackford and Shi, 2015), they are, in majority of cases, either unable (due to conflicting time pressure) or unwilling to engage.…”

“…Feedback from students indicated that they enjoyed reviewing the case of real life documentation, however, engaging purely with documentation can be difficult to appreciate in light of real life 'career' sometimes. Reflection is seen to be a key part of the learning process within simulations (Hughes and Scholtz, 2015). Students enter higher education with expectations that their programme will "enhance career prospect" (Byrne et al, 2012).…”

Assessment and Students Alignment: The Case of a Portuguese Business Simulation Course

“…The Business Simulation Project (BSP) course is supported by information technology and incorporates new skills in the student's curriculum. This course is based on management simulation which stimulates reflection as a fundamental skill for potentiating the learning process 1 . Our purpose is to characterize the BSP course, analyse its assessment model and the importance assigned to each assessment component by students.…”