Enhancing Business Education through Experiential Learning

• MonsoonSIM Experiential Learning platform is a cloud-based business simulation platform designed to deliver a comprehensive business learning experience.
• The platform covers various core business concepts including Retail, Wholesale, Warehousing, Manufacturing, E-Commerce, Marketing, Product Design, Accounting, HR, and more.
• It provides a risk-free environment for learners to experiment with various business strategies and understand their impact.
• MonsoonSIM has been adopted by many universities, colleges, and vocational schools across the Asia Pacific region.

Experiential learning is a concept that involves learning through “doing” and “experiencing” rather than just through academic instruction. It is becoming increasingly popular in the business world due to its effectiveness in developing important skills and enhancing employee performance. Here are some reasons why experiential learning is important in the business world.

The Power of Experiential Learning

Research shows that 70% of our working knowledge comes from experience. 20% comes from social learning and only 10% comes from formal education. In other words, experience is very important, and together with social learning, they contribute to 90% of our working knowledge. The Center for Creative Leadership, summarized by McCall, Lombardo, and Morrison in Lessons of Experience (1988, Lexington Press) asked 191 successful executives to respond to some version of the following question:

“Please identify at least three key events in your career, things that made a difference in the way you manage now.” The responses were summarised as follows

• 70 percent from tough jobs
• 20 percent from people (mostly the boss)
• 10 percent from courses and reading.

Let’s Take Driving as an Example

How can you drive if you were to just look at the books and look at the video? Because in real-life driving is quite different. So, to be good at driving, you have to go through the journey of experience build-up. You have to drive from normal roads, major roads, highways, and extreme weather. So how do you teach experience? Traditionally we have relied on PowerPoint. E-learning, Multimedia, and so on. But work is different. It requires multidisciplinary knowledge.

Introducing MonsoonSIM

MonsoonSIM is a cloud-based, experiential learning platform designed to teach concepts of business operations and supply chain management. It stands out due to its unique use of gamification and simulations to create an immersive learning environment. So back to our challenge, how do you teach experience? here we would like to show you Monsoonsim’s approach to this challenge.

Gamification: MonsoonSIM incorporates elements of game playing such as point scoring and competition with others. The competitive aspect of MonsoonSIM keeps learners engaged and motivated. Players score points based on the success of their business decisions, fostering an environment of competition and collaboration. This makes the learning process more enjoyable and encourages users to deeply engage with the material, thereby promoting better understanding and retention of concepts.

Simulations: MonsoonSIM provides a virtual business environment where learners can experiment with different strategies and decisions in a risk-free setting. The platform includes several interconnected modules that simulate various aspects of a business, such as retailing, procurement, warehousing, and more. These simulations provide hands-on experience in managing different aspects of a business and allow learners to see the consequences of their decisions in real time. They can experiment, make mistakes, and learn from these mistakes without any real-world risks.

Experiential Learning: Through gamification and simulations, MonsoonSIM offers experiential learning, where learners acquire knowledge and skills through direct experiences. This approach allows users to actively participate in their learning process rather than passively receiving information. It is a powerful way to learn business concepts as it bridges the gap between theory and practice.

Facilitator’s Perspective:

As a facilitator, MonsoonSIM provides a robust platform to effectively teach complex business concepts. The platform’s interactive nature allows facilitators to move beyond traditional lecture-based teaching methods and into a more engaging, practical style of instruction. Facilitators can monitor learners’ progress in real-time, identify areas of improvement, and provide immediate feedback. Furthermore, the platform allows facilitators to customize the difficulty level and focus areas of the simulation according to the learners’ needs, making it a flexible tool for a variety of learning environments.

Curious about how to make your first Monsoon Sim workshop a hit? We’ve got a video packed with 10 easy-to-follow tips that can help both new and experienced facilitators. From creating a fun, engaging atmosphere to using real-time AI insights, we’ve got you covered. Take a look-you might find just the tip you’ve been searching for!

Student’s Perspective:

For students, MonsoonSIM provides an exciting and engaging way to learn. The gamified elements of the platform make learning fun and competitive, enhancing motivation and engagement. The platform’s simulated business environment allows learners to experiment with different strategies, make decisions, and see the consequences of those decisions in a risk-free environment. This hands-on experience not only deepens their understanding of business operations but also helps them develop critical skills like problem-solving, decision-making, and teamwork. Furthermore, the AI-assisted guidance in MonsoonSIM provides personalized learning support, helping students navigate through the simulation and make informed decisions.

How MonsoonSIM Works

First, we have digitized hundreds and hundreds of business concepts and we have put them in a cloud. The concepts can be categorized into several typical business functions such as finance, procurement, human resource, production, maintenance, and so on. Then we allow you our facilitators, to configure Monsoonsim into various business scenarios. And you can allow your learners to learn them through gamification or simulations, or a combination of simulations in gamification. In other words, yes, learning by doing.

For example, you are the Configurator. You have configured a very simple business scenario where there are vendors and their retail stores buying and selling. Simple, isn’t it? Now in this case, what are the students? What other learners are going to learn? They’re gonna learn revenue, overhead, purchasing, profitability, capacity planning, and they learn through gamification. Now, when you think that they are ready, you could give them a loan feature. Then they will learn some more. They will learn the current ratio, credit rating, bankruptcy, and payables. And if you want them to learn some more, you give them, say, marketing, and then they will learn marketing ROI, competitors’ impact, market share, and so on. Let’s say you give them logistics. Then they will learn what our logistics, wholesales, and allocations. They learn without realizing that they are learning. It’s just like learning to drive the experiential learning journey will involve overcoming challenges such as making mistakes, building confidence, and dealing with unexpected circumstances.

The Big Picture

Again, here’s the big picture up of MonsoonSIM. At the very beginning, the learners will go through the most basic experience, such as running their retail business and progressing to a complex multi departments operation. Then, as the learners become more experience. They will develop a more holistic mindset. For example, they will even understand why they need teamwork and why they need data analytics. MonsoonSIM is designed with the experiential learning buildup in mind. The hands-on learning approach results in higher engagement and makes learning fun and rewarding.

Testimonials and Case Studies

MonsoonSIM is used by over 200 institutions in 12 countries. MonsoonSIM has been recognized by global IT companies and international academic conferences. For detailed curriculum or training case studies please peruse our news here. Or have a look at what facilitators have to say on our home page

Learn More about MonsoonSIM

Here’s a video to show the MonsoonSIM platform in more detail. Or check out our recent comprehensive article on the benefits of business simulation and gamification

For the latest company highlights, product updates, and industry news, make sure to follow us on LinkedIn. Don’t miss out on the future of experiential learning and business education with MonsoonSIM!

Originally published at https://www.monsoonsim.com.