Mixing Case Method with Business Games: Student Evaluations

This article explores students' perceived learning from using either a complex business game or a simple one, along with some case studies in business policy courses. The pedagogical differences between the case method and the game method are discussed. The criteria important to teaching business policies are identified. The course pedagogy involves a mix of cases, computerized business games, readings, lectures, and student presentations, with the principal emphasis on cases and games. This experiment was designed to compare the perceived effectiveness of applying a simple versus a complex game as supplements to the case method in a business policy course. There were 159 students in a business policy course who participated in the study. The results seem to indicate that the complex game is pedagogically more effective than the simple game, that the students using the complex game gain more insights into business environment and various functions of the firm, and that the complex game is as effective as the case method along some important pedagogical dimensions.