Teaching supply chain management to industrial engineering students: mixed vs. Pure approaches in simulation based training

• Autores: Avinoam Tzimerman, Yale T. Herer, Avraham Shtub
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 31, no. 6 (Parte A), 2015, págs. 1688-1700
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • We investigate two approaches incorporating two types of intragroup interaction (cooperative and competitive) using simulationbased training (SBT) with teams—a pure and a mixed approach—within the supply chain management domain. SBT commonlyrefers to the use of simulation in the context of education. We examine how a combination of these two interaction types wouldwork in situations wherein both are used in succession. Our purpose is to improve teaching and establish better ways to educateindustrial engineering students using SBT. The first hypothesis is that from a pedagogical perspective, it is more effective to use amixed approach for intragroup interaction when using SBT techniques for engineering education than a pure approach. The secondhypothesis is that when using a mixed approach, the order of the two interaction types affects the learning outcomes. The studyexamined the effects of a new advanced SBT computerized simulation environment on two classes of freshman undergraduates inan Industrial Engineering program in a premier technical university. Each student completed four exercises, of which the first andlast were individual tasks and the middle two were done by teams of two students. The students’ performance was statisticallyanalyzed. The results, rendered as guidelines on how to use SBT for team training, indicate that when teaching using SBT, a mixedapproach for intragroup interaction is better than a pure approach. Moreover, if a mixed approach is used, the order is significant.In particular, we found that it is preferable to start with competitive interaction and then move to cooperative interaction. Ourfindings suggest that at the training stage, it is better to train teams using both types of intragroup interaction, starting with acompetitive interaction followed by a cooperative one.