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Management studies have been criticized for lagging behind the actual needs of organizations, ignoring experiential dimensions. We address this issue by applying experiential learning theory using an accountancy-oriented board game designed to help participants learn about cost management. The game was played in a pricing course with an enrolment of 104 accountancy students. We examined the impact levels of game entertainment and comprehensibility on the course material comprehension as well as the game's impact on the final grade in the course. Results show that game participants had significantly higher grades than students that did not participate in the game, and that entertainment and comprehensibility of the game predict the understanding of course material. We also found that managerial employment capability can be predicted by level of challenge participants derive from the game. This study addresses the gap between traditional management education and practice. It provides empirical evidence of the value of hands-on gameplay experience for assimilation of course concepts and strategies. The results confirmed the importance of exposing players through an entertaining game simulation to challenges that arise in the business world. In addition, we lay the ground for future studies on the novel usage of the game as a tool to assess management skills.

Management studies have been criticized for lagging behind the actual needs of organizations, ignoring experiential dimensions. We address this issue by applying experiential learning theory using an accountancy-oriented board game designed to help participants learn about cost management. The game was played in a pricing course with an enrolment of 104 accountancy students. We examined the impact levels of game entertainment and comprehensibility on the course material comprehension as well as the game's impact on the final grade in the course. Results show that game participants had significantly higher grades than students that did not participate in the game, and that entertainment and comprehensibility of the game predict the understanding of course material. We also found that managerial employment capability can be predicted by level of challenge participants derive from the game. This study addresses the gap between traditional management education and practice. It provides empirical evidence of the value of hands-on gameplay experience for assimilation of course concepts and strategies. The results confirmed the importance of exposing players through an entertaining game simulation to challenges that arise in the business world. In addition, we lay the ground for future studies on the novel usage of the game as a tool to assess management skills.

Experiential activities are a powerful pedagogical tool that have grown in popularity. But there are a series of ethical issues (the "shadow side") that such activities raises. These include (a) inadequate (informed) student choice, (b) bias in what is covered, (c) lack of adequate debriefing, (d) personal exposure in class and community, (e) issues of deception, (f) role behavior being personalized (by self and others), (g) the negative impact of feedback (planned or spontaneous), and (h) the degree of "boundedness" of experiential activities These problems are not inevitable, but with instructor awareness can be lessened. This article also suggests other ways to address these issues.

In this paper, we describe a case study of an undergraduate course on research methodology, in which lecture was reduced to a minimum and replaced with experiential learning activities. The course design was project-based and spiraled through four phases: a mini-lecture on a given research method, an "early practice" activity, and "reflection on practice" tutor-guided small group collaborations which led to deeper understanding of the given research method. This particular course design constitutes a paradigm shift in comparison to the predominant in Greek higher education didactic pedagogical model. How this paradigm shift was received and experienced by the participating students? In order to get rich insights into the lived experiences of the participants (N=15), we adopted a blended qualitative research approach: thematic analysis combined with students' critical reflections on their experience, aiming to produce a thick description of our intervention. The course design and implementation positioned students and their tutors as knowledgeable actors able to contribute research insights through their transactions.

In recent years, many researchers have reported positive outcomes and effects from applying computer games to the educational process. The main preconditions for an effective game-based learning process include the presence of high learning interest and the desire to study hard. Therefore, educational game design has to tailor gameplay to the psycho-cognitive abilities, attitudes and skills of an individual player, in order to foster the player's motivation and creativity. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to draw a parallel between learning and playing styles, and to investigate the correlations between these types of constructs. The article presents a new playing style family based on Kolb's experiential learning theory that is appropriate to be used for educational games. This family is composed of four playing styles: Competitor, Dreamer, Logician and Strategist, and corresponds to Honey and Mumford's learning styles. To measure the four playing styles, a 40-item questionnaire was designed. In order to verify the consistency, validity, and reliability of that questionnaire as an accurate tool for recognizing the four suggested player styles, a pilot study was conducted. The article reports the results obtained from the study, along with their analysis and applicability. ; This study is part of the RAGE project. The RAGE project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644187. This publication reflects only the author's view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

In this article, we describe a way to encourage students to envision "real utopias" through the Global Village experience at the Heifer Ranch in Arkansas. The Global Village experience introduces participants to issues associated with global hunger, poverty, environmental sustainability, and resource consumption and provides opportunities to experience simulated poverty and resource inequality. Using student journals recorded during the experience and participant observation, we demonstrate how students' learning is enhanced by temporarily living outside their typical comfort zones and closer to the global averages of consumption. We find that the Global Village experience is an effective and unique tool for engaging students in global and transnational issues and for encouraging students to imagine other possible worlds.

This article explores the shadow dynamics of experiential learning using a psychodynamic perspective. It reviews the concept of shadow at the individual, group, and intergroup levels and draws on a short case from the author's experiences to consider how shadow dynamics may arise quickly and unexpectedly to take over the experiential learning classroom. It considers what the author learned about the shadow from the experience and how he conducts the experiential learning activity differently now to facilitate greater self-understanding and deeper learning.

ABSTRACTTo date, more than 650 university presidents across the United States have become signatories of the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). A central goal of being a signatory is for a campus to achieve carbon neutrality. This article suggests that bringing the practice of experiential learning to the college classroom is a mechanism to help students understand and become involved in campus carbon-neutrality efforts. More specifically, it discusses the practical realities of using an undergraduate environmental-policy course to create policy proposals for our campus's 2020 carbon-neutrality goal. The findings support a growing body of literature that demonstrates the value of experiential learning by enabling students to move from theory to practice.

ABSTRACTUnderstanding bottlenecks is an in‐class experiential learning exercise designed to improve students' understanding of production system capacity issues. After an introductory teaching session on capacity and constraint management, students are formed into groups of six to assume the roles of one raw material handler, four production workers, and one finished goods receiver and are asked to produce 20 units of product beta. Prior to the start of the exercise, the students are asked to predict the completion time of the 1st, 10th, and 20th units of product beta. When all 20 betas are completed, students compare their predicted completion times to the actual completion times. The results of the game show that while students can easily identify the system's bottleneck, they often have difficulties distinguishing the practical implications of the process time of the system versus the process cycle time; thus, their predicted completion times of the 10th and 20th units are typically overinflated compared to actual completion times. A debrief session is then used to solidify students' understanding of the relationship between bottlenecks and capacity. The exercise is well‐received and highly rated by students; furthermore, it is not resource‐intensive, requiring 40‐45 minutes of classroom time, 20‐25 strips of paper per group, and a visible stopwatch.