Abstract:

One of the challenges faced by university education programs at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (UFV), and particularly those within the scope of Business Administration, is to enable students to develop a comprehensive set of skills and knowledge that Excellent professional results in the future. At the same time, they must develop solid human values as well as personal skills that enable them to change society.

Sometimes university education is criticized for being overly theoretical, uncreative and innovative and far from the real world.

We are faced with challenges that we must face using innovative teaching methods, more closely to the business world and to develop the skills and comprehensive knowledge that students need. At the same time, in their application, these methodologies must be integrative in ways that enhance the coherence of the different subjects within a comprehensive curriculum. Gambling solutions (serious games and simulators) respond to these three needs: they are transversal, practical and innovative.

The use of simulators allows students to better understand concepts that are difficult to explain, such as the investment in advertising adequate to achieve a certain level of sales of a product, Currently the use of simulators is very common in individual disciplines (marketing, finance, operations), but are not used transversally to ensure a comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of the business from a person-centered perspective.

Our experience is based on a business simulator that achieves four objectives of student development:
1. Practical, global and integrative knowledge of the management of the different business functions (corporate strategy, financial management, social responsibility, commercial and marketing direction).
2. Development of individual skills and competences such as analytical capacity, strategic vision and decision making in a way consistent with the values of the person and the company. To achieve this, the students face, through the simulator, real decisions in a competitive environment, which push them to decide by analysing the impact and consequences of each action.
3. Development of the ability to work in a team. This simulated management of business situations is carried out by students organized in teams. This allows them to put their leadership, flexibility and service at stake.
4. Overview. In this transversal experience, the students will put in value knowledge and technical skills of different subjects. In an apparently commercial decision they must consider the financial impact or possible ethical background. This vision will also be evaluated jointly by the teachers of the different subjects.

In addition, using simulators students learn by doing, through interaction with a computer tool. This facilitates their degree of motivation and involvement which increases the possibilities of learning. It is convenient to emphasize that the learning can proceed as much of the success as of the failure in the game.

The use of the business simulator was carried out by the third course students of ADE + MARKETING of the UFV. These were organized into six teams, each of which was incorporated into a company. Each member of the company assumed one or several roles in each management. A group of 13 teachers from each of functional area were involved.

We get quantitative and qualitative results using the metrics of the software as well as a rubric created on that purpose.

Keywords:

Business games, serious games, simularators, business administration simulators, educational serious games, blended learning, flipped classroom.