Online Team-Based Simulations (OTBS)

Latest Publication

Davidoff, Y. & Jayusi, W. (2024). Effective Online Teaching and Learning Strategies: Interdisciplinary Research of Student Perceptions in Higher Education. Education and Information Technologies. 10.1007/s10639-024-12958-8

Abstract

Higher Education has serious challenges regarding academic online teaching-learning-evaluation methods and tools. This study examined 980 students from diverse disciplines about their social-emotional-psychological (SEP) perceptions. We also examined the presence and desirability of 14 TLE (teaching-learning-evaluation) tools in the online learning environment. Findings indicate that current academic online learning does not meet students’ social-emotional needs and reveals a significant demand for practical and engaging methods like simulations and interactive platforms. Diverse disciplines expose different needs (e.g., business and engineering students reported a greater lack of empowerment and lowered acquisition of skills than students from disciplines characterized by higher engaging online learning, such as education and social sciences). Diversified teaching methods, interactive platforms, group support and assessment are needed to address diverse needs. This study extends the international understanding of SEP and TLE theoretical and methodological concepts and suggests practical solutions for effective online teaching-learning and evaluation for diverse disciplines.

for Virtual Real-World Engagement Skills in Engineering, Business Management and Entrepreneurship

Interdisciplinary Research

Executive Summary

Covid-19 created a reality where effective online training and education has become a base requirement. In the post-Covid era, online communication is likely to remain a fundamental demand for both university curricula and professional life. Too many organizations approach virtual teams as if the dynamics are the same as those for co-located teams. A comprehensive look into updated academic research has failed to find studies dealing with implementation of online simulations in training programs and academic courses worldwide. To be effective, team members in a virtual environment must be especially sensitive to interpersonal, communication, and cultural factors to overcome the limitations of distance. Organizations need team members who are comfortable with technology and have the interpersonal skills required to effectively lead in a virtual environment. To address these needs we propose the use of simulated virtual environments focused on achieving the following outcomes. 

• Experience in achieving goals in virtual environments.

• Understanding how others perceive you in a conference of this nature.

• Understanding the importance of running an egalitarian discourse 

• Learning to convey empathy towards all the parties involved. Taking into account, screens, language, and cultural barriers.

• Practicing dealing with disagreements and trust building

• Video conference etiquette.

• Video body language and its impact. 

• The effects of all the above on motivation and psychological empowerment when working across boundaries and on urgent topics.

the need

Covid-19 created a reality where effective online training and education has become a base requirement. In the post-Covid era, online communication is highly likely to remain a fundamental demand for both university curricula and professional life. The main objective of this interdisciplinary mixed methods research is to identify the long-term effects of online team-based simulations (OTBS), on engineering, business management and entrepreneurship students. The two key constructs to be examined are psychological empowerment (PE) and long-term behaviours (conducts) that, according to research, predict productive and effective teamwork in engineering and business projects. 

A comprehensive look into updated academic research has failed to find studies dealing with implementation of the tool of online simulations in training programs and academic courses worldwide (La Velle 2020; Ran and Yosefsberg Ben-Yehoshua, 2021; Ran and Dalal, 2020).

Studies on academic training indicate that in light of the new reality where most learning occurs online, the simulation tool should be examined in the new context of academic e-learning. Such an examination is called for, specifically, in the context of implementing new communication skills that are significantly necessary in this age, such as flexible thinking, the ability to adapt to changing situations, and the skill of question asking and active listening (La velle 2020; Ran and Dalal, 2020).

Implementing social-emotional skills

The use of online simulations can potentially implement social-emotional skills such as managing positive discourse, empathy and conflict management. This enhances the singularity, importance and necessity of the current study to this academic research area, considering the effect of simulations on students' learning and on their psychological empowerment. Thus students will be better equipped to cope with challenges related to their future functioning in teams of engineering and business projects in their field of training. Furthermore, since in this age most learning and business communication in "the real world" takes place online globally, there is a need to examine the effect of strategies that allow for operative tools for promoting and empowering significant communication (La velle 2020; Ran and Yosefsberg Ben-Yehoshua, 2021).

The main focus of OTBS is to provide students with virtual communication skills in global working teams, which they will use at work, in a safe, reflective and enjoyable environment. 

The process will include online experimental workshops (Simulative Role-play) in a virtual environment using Microsoft Teams/Zoom online communication platforms.

Simulations for communication skills

There is empirical support suggesting that the use of simulations improves communication skills in dealing with project challenges. Simulations have been proven to empower workers' motivation, improve workers' efficiency and productivity as well as lead to a higher project success rate (Davidoff, 2016; Davidoff and Shapira-Lishchinsky, 2019; Duhigg, 2016; PMI, 2013; Kwanghyun and Soyeon, 2016; Sprietzer, 1995). This proposal aims to extend these findings into an online environment. According to research on  project success predictors, there are five main behaviours (conducts), derived through communication, which predict productive and effective teamwork: the degree of showing empathy toward each other; the level of equality in discourse in terms of the time given to each speaker and the importance attributed to the speaker by the other participants; the extent to which participants share difficulties they experience (psychological freedom); disclosures of empowerment and motivation. These five objectives are predictors of efficiency and productivity at work in general, as well as of project success (Abudi, 2013; Davidoff, 2016, Davidoff and Shapira-Lishchinsky, 2019; Duhigg, 2016; Kumar, 2009; Kwanghyun and Soyeon, 2016; PMI, 2013; Seibert, Wang and Courtright, 2011; Sprietzer, 1995). 

Online communication skills in Project management

Communication Technology has opened up a wide range of options for organisations using virtual teams to tackle their most significant projects and has become central to post-Covid business (Forbes, 2020). Even pre-Covid-19, an IWG (2018) study found that approximately 70% of professionals around the world worked remotely at least one day a week, while 53% worked remotely for at least half of the week. According to Deloitte, (2020), 75% of workers globally define work that combines working out of the office and at flexible hours “The new normality”. As organisations have rapidly evolved to make use of virtual teams in these changing times, the need for effective virtual communication skills has become increasingly important.  Delottie (2020) emphasises that in order for businesses to grow, team members must be qualified with excellent remote communication skills to become empowered, efficient and productive workers and managers.

In order to be effective, team members in a virtual environment must be especially sensitive to interpersonal, communication and to cultural factors, to overcome the limitations of distance (IWG, 2018). In addition, according to Onpoint, (2019), organisations need team members who are comfortable with technology and have the interpersonal skills required to effectively lead in a virtual environment. Organisations spend more than a trillion dollars a year globally on digital transformation projects to change their business and products and refine their customer and employee experience. However, up to 84% of those transformation projects fail, mostly, for lack of the right skills and capabilities of their people and leaders (Forbes, 2016). Unfortunately, companies often tend to move forward into the virtual working space without training employees in the specific skills essential in this medium, approaching virtual teams as if the dynamics were the same as those for co-located teams. This tendency creates communication difficulties (Forbes, 2020; IWG, 2018; Onpoint, 2019). 

Experimental learning in project management 

Agile business management approach emphasises experiential learning as being far more effective than traditional lecture-based learning, owing much to the interactions between the learners (Jennings and Wargnier, 2010). Within the safety of a simulation environment, active learning makes participants much more likely to internalise the learnings (Greaves and Laing, 2020; Hefley and Thouin, 2016). Ultimately, the simulations train students to cope with real-world engagements and challenges in PM, in a safe online environment (Hefley and Thouin, 2016).

Simulations and authentic learning 

Online Simulations (Simulative role-play) were chosen as our central method, as they provide learners with the opportunity to "step into the shoes" of different entities involved in real-life situations. Experiential simulations that belong to the field of "authentic learning", are considered to be social microcosms. Learners interact with real-world scenarios and experience the feelings, questions, and concerns associated with their particular role. That is, the learner is immersed in a complex, evolving situation in which he or she is one of the functional components (Bar, 2011, Barsalou, 2008; Davidoff, 2016; Masats and Dooly, 2011; Ran and Yosefsberg Ben-Yehoshua, 2021).

Studies indicate that usually a simulated role-play does not involve an accurate and identical reconstruction of situations from reality and is characterised by participants' focus on key aspects that influence (or can influence) their behaviour in similar occurrences in the future (Atance and Hanson, 2011). These simulated scenarios serve to neutralise cognitive disruptions caused by elements of surprise and unfamiliarity, which may evince discomfort and overprotectiveness (Bar, 2011). Simulations are also more likely to commit learnings to participants' long-term memory (Bar, 2011; Davidoff, 2016; Kwanghyun and Soyeon, 2016; Shapira-Lishchinsky, 2013; Walter and Adam, 2014). Thus, an important advantage of simulations, from a learning perspective, is that they provide opportunities for students to solve ill-defined problems. Specifically, ill-defined problems are those in which either the givens, the desired goal, or the allowable operators (steps) are not immediately clear (Barsalou, 2008; Gredler, 2004).  

Simulations and the brain

Studies in the field of neuroscience define a simulated role-play as a model of reality. The role-play involves the use of body and mind and is constructed according to the goals defined by its planners (Bar, 2011; Jenkins, 2012). Research by Bar (2011) has shown that when the brain categorises entities and events from a real-world experience (or a simulation of a real-world experience), conceptual knowledge of these categories is stored in the long-term memory across the brain’s many systems for perception, action and introspection. These stored categorisations ultimately become an active part of the ability of the brain to predict what is likely to happen next. The implication of this research is that by simulating real-life situations, students’ fundamental behaviours (and future pattern recognition in similar situations) will be changed for the better.

Simulations require participants to apply their cognitive and metacognitive capabilities in the execution of a particular role. The simulative process includes an internal and an external phase. The internal phase is characterized by a process of introspection. This process creates an internal representation of similar situations, and elicits motivational processes that include long-term memory storage, thinking and planning for the future. The external phase is characterised by processes of planning and predicting – practical options for the brain's future use of similar relevant situations (Atance and Hanson, 2011; Barsalou, 2009). Due to their stimulation of the pre-frontal cortex, simulations also increase the brain’s ability to imagine possible future real-life scenarios (Barsalou, 2008). Moreover, through the use of group simulations, participants develop capacity for mutual assistance and willingness to share their difficulties and weaknesses with other team members (Davidoff, 2016; Shapira-Lishchinsky, 2013).

Simulations and Psychological Empowerment 

Evidence also shows that the use of simulations contributes to the development of a person's emotional abilities. Among them – heightened empathy for all parties involved; heightened awareness of the terms needed to create respectful/egalitarian discussions; openness to a wider variety of possible solutions to problems (Atance and Hanson, 2011; Bar, 2011; Jenkins, 2012; Panichello et al., 2012). These outcomes include better team cooperation in confronting ethical challenges and dilemmas (Lin, Baruch, and Shih, 2012), significant increase in participants' psychological empowerment in learning (Bui and Baruch, 2012), knowledge sharing (Baruch and Lin, 2014) and improved ability to handle real-world challenges (Bar, 2011; Davidoff, 2016; Kwanghyun and Soyeon, 2016; Shapira-Lishchinsky, 2013; Walter and Adam, 2014).

We could conclude that practicing real-world engagements in engineering and business management projects using online simulations is expected to empower one to achieve project goals confidently. Vice versa - the raise in one's empowerment is expected to improve the level of his/her engagement and contribution to projects.

the academic workshops

Stage 1: Opening discourse – challenges and skills dealt with in the workshop

Stage 2: Exploring a scenario in breakout rooms

Stage 3: Group enrichment – coping strategies with the scenario

Stage 4: Simulative role-play

Stage 5: Group video-based reflective discussion 

Stage 6: Occlusive key principles and conclusions