Integrating business simulations software into learning environment of technical university

Abstract

The development of active learning approaches and the need in raising economic competency of the people within all the age groups brings business simulations software to the front of the appropriate tooling lists. The aim of the study considers the ways and approaches to introduce and effectively integrate business simulations software into learning environments of technical university. The object of the study is the learning environment of Technical University. The subject of the study is using business simulations software in the learning environments of technical university. The result of the study: several approaches of integrating business simulations software into a learning environment of technical university were analyzed and discussed. The paper is dedicated to generalizing practical experience of the authors in technical and logical implementation in the pedagogical practice, usage of business simulations software as students and users with theoretical research of broader set of approaches used to integrate business simulations software into educational software-based and organizational environments. Conclusions and future plans based on the results of the experiments were made. Main conclusions and recommendations: the range of approaches between deep integration with the learning management tools used in the learning environments and independent usage of business simulations software is possible to implement. Choice of approach depends on the goals, ICT-related maturity of the learning infrastructure and the percentage of active learning cases in the syllabus of the class. Future experimentation is needed to collect extensive data on integration possibilities, efficiency and effectiveness of the level of integration of business simulations software into learning environment of technical university.