Transcript NSF Science & Technology Center

Problem solving through
interactive video simulation
Harm-Jan Steenhuis
College of Business and Public
Administration
Eastern Washington University
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Title III
Contents
• Context
• Case background
• Learning objectives
• Sample
• Learning outcomes
• Findings
– Student perspective
– Instructor perspective
• Conclusion
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Context (1)
• Many business courses use case studies,
i.e. descriptions of business situations.
• These cases are for analysis purposes,
i.e. applying models etc. to ‘solve’ the
case.
• The information in these cases is by
necessity limited and the variety of
information is limited as well (typically 2030 pages).
• Typically, one case is handled in one class
session of 2-4 hours.
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Context (2)
• Innobus deviates from this type of case.
• It utilizes modern technology that allows much more
information.
– 7 video interviews (owner, CEO, VP Finance, VP Marketing,
VP Engineering, Plant manager, Planning manager)
– 2 video plant tours
– 30+ documents including: product information, market
information, newspaper articles, government studies,
planning documentation, financial documentation.
• Focus is on only one case for the entire quarter.
• With analysis on many different aspects of the
business.
 The focus is on in-depth understanding of the
problem, the methods to analyze the problem, the
different aspects etc.
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Case background (1)
• The situation:
– The Innobus company (Canadian bus manufacturer) is in
serious trouble
»
»
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It expects major losses during the current year.
The bank is asking for immediate payment of all outstanding debts.
Market is declining and competition is fierce
Briefly; bankruptcy may soon be faced
– Students are ‘hired’ as consultants to save the company
» They can access the information in any order they want to. (this can
affect their understanding)
» More real-life situation:
» Large amount of information
» Conflicting information
» Unreliable information
» Lacking information
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Learning objectives
1. Learning to analyse a company
2. Learning to acquire relevant information;
learning to cope with insufficient and
contradictory information
3. Developing integral managerial
assessment abilities
4. Solving integral management problems
5. Making decisions in uncertain
circumstances, based on uncertain
information and under time pressure
6. Bridging the gap between theory and
practice
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Sample material
• Interview fragment
– Susan Prescott (1:50-2:45)
• Document:
– Newspaper article (doc 7)
– Delcan report (doc 8)
• Sample assignment
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Part 2. External and internal analysis (assignments 3-11)
In order to gain more insight in the background of the problems of
InnoBus you are asked to make an external and internal analysis of
the company. The focus of this analysis is on the political,
economical and social context, on the competition and competitors,
on the stakeholders and customers, on the product and the market, on
the resources and the value chain of the company.
3. Political, economical and social context
How can you characterize the political, economical and social
context of bus manufacturing for public transport in Canada and
the USA.
4. Competition
What are the forces which drive the competition in bus building
and give a description of the main players in that competition.
5. Competitors
Describe the competitors InnoBus in terms of market share,
strengths and weaknesses.
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7. Customers
How can you typify the customers of InnoBus.
8. Market
What is the market like. What kind of market segmentations can
be made. Identify the order winning and qualifying criteria in
the market. State the importance of the diverse product
characteristics such as price, functionality, durability, appeal
maintainability, service, delivery time and reliability,
customisation, innovativeness
9. Products
Give basic information about every product group including
turnover, profitability, market share, market growth, economic
trends and technological developments
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Learning outcomes (1)
• First presentation (internal/external analysis and assessment
competitive situation)
– Groups didn’t use existing tools, i.e. used common sense.
– Groups moved ahead to solutions instead of focusing on facts
• First interim report (detailed problem description and analysis)
– Much trouble; students ‘just came up’ with issues rather than applying
analysis techniques from the MBA program.
• Second presentation (short term recovery plan)
– Much improvement. Students became more critical of their approach.
– Still missing; thinking through the consequences
• Second interim report (long term orientation)
– Fall back; problems with integrating, defending choices applying
techniques etc.
• Final report and defense
– Much improvement
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Learning outcomes (2)
• Issues: each improved over the quarter
– “Analysis”: Difficulties of breaking-up in parts and
motivating this break-up.
– “Information”: Typically handled well.
– “Integral assessment”: Typically handled
reasonably well (more towards the end).
– “Problem solving”: Difficulties in causal analysis
and using theories to get to solutions.
– “Decision making”: Difficulties with defending
choices.
– “Theory vs practice”: Difficulties of knowing
versus understanding/applying
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Results – student perspective (1)
• The Innobus class has facilitated a different learning process
than all the other classes in the MBA program. This one has
challenged us to apply our knowledge and not just restate it.
• Overall, the classes in the MBA program are about taking a
formula or theory and learning what it means. Typically, there
was a quiz or assignment over the material. However, in this
Innobus course our group was responsible for taking the theory,
explaining it, defending why we chose it, and ultimately applying
it. This was a new experience.
• In this Innobus course, it wasn’t enough to explain the use of a
model by saying that it was presented in our MBA courses. We
had to incorporate outside sources to support our decisions. We
searched for articles and books that supported the use of
particular models. The hands-on approach to applying these
techniques has not been an easy path this quarter. We would
not say that the models or formulas have changed, they have
just been used differently.
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Results – student perspective (2)
• Course evaluation (5-point scale)
– Difficulty
M: 5.0
A: 4.67
– Course overall
M: 5.0
A: 4.83
M: 5.0
A: 5.0
– Intellectual challenge
– Compared to other EWU business courses
you’ve had, how much have you learned in this
course?
M: 5.0
A: 5.0
– Time spent on this course including class time
M: 9-12 h
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Results – instructor perspective
• Main issue: students had severe
problems with applying the theories they
learned in other courses.
– Early in the course, students typically just
went ahead, i.e. didn’t delve into theory or
comparing/evaluating theories.
– Students had learned theories but had
severe difficulties applying them.
– Students had a lot of difficulties with
defending their choices.
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Conclusions
• The Innobus course differs from many
existing courses.
• The use of technology allows a more
practically oriented situation with a lot of
information.
• The course is oriented on application, not
knowledge/memorization.
• Due to this orientation, students learn the
practical value of their theories.
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PROBLEM
THEORY
Is this the real problem? Or is there another (underlying)
problem?
What do you know from the literature about this
type of problem?
 Provides insight into analysis
issues & analysis steps
ANALYSIS
Undisputable
Unknown ‘facts’ but
required to perform
analyses
Are you using the
right
‘tools/techniques?
FACTS
ASSUMPTIONS
Not integrated “thoughts” on issues of
analyses
PARTIAL
SOLUTIONS
These are feedback loops. They allow you to
determine how different assumptions and/or
different criteria change your outcome.
Note therefore that your outcome is flexible! The
key is a correct ANALYSIS.
How do you
evaluate
solutions?
CRITERIA
SOLUTION
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Evaluation
(appreciation)
Synthesis (create)
Analysis
(logical order, components)
Application
(independent problem solving)
Comprehension (understanding)
Knowledge (information/recall)
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