Are you on the fence about integrating a business simulation into your lesson plan for the upcoming semester? Here are eight reasons why both you and your students will benefit from using online business simulations in the new year.
1. Expose students to realistic business situations
Business simulations help prepare students for decisions and situations that are commonly encountered in real-life business. As a result, students grasp the key business concepts quicker and understand the results of their actions better.
2. Easy to use for both you and your students
Marketplace is a web-based application, which you and your students can access from any computer or tablet with internet connection without the need for downloads or installation. An easy-to-use interface guides your students every step of the way. A comprehensive help file system ensures that the information your students need is always only a click away. The Marketplace support center handles the mechanics of running the simulation, allowing you to focus on teaching.
3. Help students understand the big picture
Our simulations integrate all of the functional disciplines of business, helping students grasp the big picture of how a business operates. These exercises help students understand the nuances of marketing, operations, finance and accounting, and management. The exercises teach the connection between these unique areas of business, demonstrating how a decision in one area can cause an effect in another.
4. Add excitement to the classroom
Shouldn’t learning be as much fun as playing a game? Business simulations are interactive and challenging business games that keep students engaged throughout the entire learning process. The strategic virtual business environment entices them and adds a whole new level of excitement to your classroom.
5. Team collaboration
Improve your students’ interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills through real-time team collaboration. With the chat, email, and a teamwork monitor built directly into the student software, Marketplace business simulations make online collaboration easy and enjoyable.
6. Increase knowledge retention
Research shows that students remember only about 20% of what we tell them in the classroom. But when they learn-by-doing, they retain 80% of the knowledge. When your students make realistic business decisions in a business simulation and immediately see the results of their actions, the important business principles become a part of their natural thinking.
7. Hands on, experiential learning approach
Through the experiential learning approach, Marketplace Simulations enable your students to develop hands-on skills in marketing, management, accounting and finance, and manufacturing. These skills will serve as a huge advantage for students when it comes time for them to enter the workforce and start their careers.
8. Automated grading
As an instructor, you probably spend enough time on grading. Marketplace Simulations come with an automated grading feature that will save you time. Our simulations allow you to pick from three levels of grading difficulty – easy, intermediate, and difficult.
2018 is just around the corner, and the beginning of a new year is always a great time to try something new – so what are you waiting for? If you feel that your class needs a shot in the arm, incorporate our award-winning business simulation into your classroom this spring semester.