The Decision Science Journal of Innovative Education

Several resources highlight the need to effectively use modern technology to gain more productive and rewarding education. In addition to the growth of information technology, the importance of hands-on practice and active learning has been highlighted in various resources. This teaching brief discusses the creation of the University of Missouri Virtual Enterprise (UMVE), which provides context for development of learning modules for enterprise management education. This approach improves the educational experiences of students by developing and introducing into the classroom a variety of real-world enterprise concepts developed in coordination with on-going research projects.

The University of Missouri E-Business Program (http://e-business.umsystem.edu/) supports a learning environment for understanding and enhancing the principles upon which today's global and complex enterprises are created and operated successfully. The objectives of the program are three-fold:

A main vision of the program is the University of Missouri Virtual Enterprise (UMVE), a multi-disciplinary, distributed laboratory supporting the university’s educational vision.

The UMVE facilitates a central virtual enterprise that emulates a real-world business environment and the complexities of a modern enterprise that integrates a variety of business processes. The UMVE creates a dynamic computer simulated environment utilizing available information technology that provides students with a hands-on and active learning experience. Academic classes, as well as businesses, play roles of various supply chain entities. Actions taken by one entity influence the decisions made by the other entities in the virtual enterprise, thus accurately emulating the dynamic nature of remotely located, yet coordinated, components of a virtual enterprise.

Classes and student learning revolve around the operation and management of the UMVE, which provides the background context for development of several cases arising from various business situations. For example, consider the following scenario:

A new system specified by a marketing class could be designed by Engineering Design students. The system would then be produced in an assembly cell operated by Manufacturing Engineering students, and Operations Management students would work with process planners to develop required policies. Accounting/Finance and Management students would participate in developing a business justification and planning and control mechanisms. Marketing students would be involved in developing a business and advertising/marketing plan. Information Systems and Accounting students would be involved in designing appropriate decision support and reporting systems to facilitate informed decision-making by the various functions. Computer Science and Computer Engineering students would be involved at several levels by developing computer applications and interfaces to support communications, control systems, data sharing and other integration needs.

Once the initial scenario environment is established, events will start unfolding over time resulting from the influence of the various partners in the enterprise. For example, a new partnership with an international company might be deemed necessary, and several questions may emerge that could be addressed by case studies.

This innovative approach creates a technology-based environment where students must react to the direct repercussions of decisions using appropriate tools in order to adapt to the continuously changing world. Further, this approach allows for the creation of (1) a teaching environment that both encourages and supports the on-going use of the student marketplace for teaching and decision-making, (2) a set of role-based, pedagogical materials for use in introductory, core, and advanced classes for undergraduate, graduate, and executive education in business, information systems, and engineering, and (3) a data warehouse of simulated, “real-world” information over a series of years that can be used to stimulate research and the development of new ideas.

The UMVE provides a unique opportunity for innovative and integrated curricula that address both technical and managerial skills and combines engineering with key elements of business management. The hands-on and active learning environment provides the culmination of transforming curricula where classes are taught in isolation into a multidisciplinary integrated environment (Figure 1), thus introducing students to all aspects of enterprise engineering and illustrating the need for integrative and dynamic curricula based on real-world scenarios. These scenarios utilize the real-world and real-time information provided through the UMVE, and students have the opportunity to formulate solutions to real-world problems and gain the ability to apply classroom models.

Additionally, simulations allow students to learn by doing in a non-destructive, time-compressed, and risk-free environment, and enable faculty to control environmental conditions and fully debrief the students after the experience in order to ensure everyone draws sound conclusions from the experience.

An example implementation is from an Advanced Manufacturing Systems Integration course that aims to provide students with an understanding of the key concepts of manufacturing systems integration including information flow in manufacturing enterprises, organization of integrated manufacturing systems with focus of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The course followed the four phases shown in Figure 1. The semester was divided into four phases: Ph1) static/isolated, Ph2) static/integrated, Ph3) dynamic/isolated, and Ph4) dynamic/integrated. In Ph1, a static snapshot of an FMS was introduced to four groups of students, and each group was to manually implement a production plan using various scheduling rules, discuss the performance of the FMS, and conclude which scheduling rule performed the best. In Ph2, the groups discussed and critiqued their results with each other, and then reworked their model and improved the performance of the FMS. In Ph3, students converted their static model into a dynamic simulation model, which was used as a what-if analysis tool by testing the impact of different scheduling rules on the performance of the FMS. In this phase, the groups saw that the conclusions they had made for the static model were no longer valid due to the dynamic nature of production events in the system. By conducting a statistical analysis, they learned how to make conclusions on the performance of stochastic systems. At the end of Ph3, each group customized their model and had a unique FMS running on a different set of production data. In Ph4, each group was given the other groups’ simulation models and asked to explore how scheduling rules were developed in each model and to experiment with each model using different scheduling rules to test the behavior of the FMS. Ph4 included several brain-storming sessions, during which the students played different roles; as customers they demanded different products or as production planners they used different scheduling rules. At the end of Ph4, the groups generalized their conclusions based on all FMS models. The students in this course performed better than previous classes, but a statistically significant evaluation was not performed.

The learning environment may be replicated for implementation in a variety of classroom settings through dissemination of the pedagogical materials and data warehouse created through operation of the learning environment. Full implementation of a dynamic, integrated and interactive learning environment would require use of one of a number of available enterprise simulation packages.

In addition to the fundamental advantages of facilitating dynamic decision-making and interaction among decision makers, the data collected during dynamic interaction can be used as a series of snapshots to represent various perspectives of enterprise behavior. These snapshots can be converted into learning modules, which can be used as static, but integrated, or isolated, but dynamic learning modules for integration into current courses.

Throughout the curriculum, the pedagogical materials evolve from static problems that test the basic skill set and are appropriate for lower levels of learners, to dynamic open-ended case studies and simulated scenarios, which add depth and integrate all areas of the enterprise, and are appropriate for higher level learners. These materials contain lecture notes, figures, snapshots, multimedia presentations, and self-guided scenarios, including a variety of simulated scenarios, and reflect definitions and concepts of enterprises, the interface of and coordination between enterprise components and their effects on strategy, planning and operations, basic enterprise engineering management principles and application, and enterprise engineering analysis methods and the ability to develop and apply models in decision making. Assessment materials include homework, quizzes, knowledge maps, and other assessment tools. Advanced classes use the scenario-based cases to learn the complexity and interdependence of functions within an enterprise, and results of class and research projects (potentially industry sponsored) creates additional data that may be incorporated back into the learning environment.

Evidence of student learning outcomes is based on objectives for student learning (Table 1) and a mix of qualitative and quantitative measures. Evidence of learning outcomes has been demonstrated by improved performance of students.

Objective I: understanding of enterprises, including definitions and concepts.	Objective III: understanding of the interface of and coordination between enterprise components and their effects on strategy, planning and operations.
Objective II: understanding of basic Enterprise Engineering management principles and application.	Objective IV: understanding of Enterprise Engineering analysis methods and the ability to develop and apply models in decision making.

In addition to the standard instruments of evaluation, such as exams, homework, and laboratory assignments, knowledge mapping is used as evidence of learning outcomes. Knowledge mapping is a performance assessment that requires students to demonstrate their understanding of a content area by creating a network diagram, where nodes represent concepts and labeled arcs describe how concepts are related. Exercises that involve various enterprise management tasks of designing, planning, organization, and control are assigned to the students by the instructor, and students are asked to generate the knowledge map of the exercise prior to working in the computer-simulated environment. Upon completion of the exercise, the students are asked to reconstruct the knowledge map. The comparison of the two maps provides an indication of how students advance throughout the semester. By itself, reconstructing the map is a learning tool.

Academia strives to provide students with a rewarding and effective educational experience. This teaching brief presents the development of a computer-simulated enterprise management environment that is intended to be integrated into current curricula. The method utilizes modern technology and simulated scenarios to provide the fundamental advantage of facilitating dynamic decision making and interaction among decision makers. Creating such a learning environment is critically important in the fast-paced and technologically driven business that we l

Department of Engineering Management, University of Missouri – Rolla

E-business University Competency Center, University of Missouri

Introduction