Business Simulators in the Educational Process: Comparative Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Use

Abstract

There is considerable mobility in the educational services market: stakeholders’ requirements, the forms of organizing the educational process, and the training tools used are changing. Testing of changes requires monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of improvements and the impact on changes in content parameters, the quality of learning materials and the demand for formed managerial competencies. There is a surge in researchers ‘interest in developing methods for evaluating and justifying the increase in improvements from introducing changes to the educational process. This work reflects the results of an experiment conducted by a research group to expand the tools for teaching students of management training programs. The hypothesis is put about a higher rate of information assimilation and the formation of managerial competencies in groups of students in which classes are organized using business simulators, in contrast to those groups of students who master the course using traditional means - problem solving and case presentation. The authors believe that simulators based on the principles of gamification, to a greater extent satisfy the Generation Z students’ needs for mobility, rapid feedback, change of impressions and locations. The proof of the hypothesis is based on the differentiation of the student group into two subgroups, with a preliminary assessment of students ‘ academic performance in economic and management disciplines and input testing of knowledge in Unit Economics.