EBIZ GAME: A SCALABLE ONLINE BUSINESS SIMULATION GAME FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING

Transcription

1 EBIZ GAME: A SCALABLE ONLINE BUSINESS SIMULATION GAME FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING Yue Poh LAI Ngee A Polytechc [email protected] Ta Log SIAU Ngee A Polytechc [email protected] ABSTRACT Ths artcle exames how a scalable web-based busess smulato game was evolved ad developed; ad how t ca be used as a exercse etrepreeurshp trag ad as compettve platform. The use of smulato offers etrepreeurshp educators may structoal opportutes that would be uavalable to studets wthout the use of smulatos. The ebzgame smulates the compettve ad dyamc busess evromet ad allows studets to role-play o a teractve bass as drectors of a small busess. Through smulato, studets ca sharpe ther busess acume, develop desrable process sklls ad demostrate problem solvg ad thkg sklls; ad creatvty ad ovato. Ths artcle exames how the game was evolved, developed ad used for etrepreeurshp trag ad compettos. XML, N-ter archtecture ad load-balacg techques are used to mplemet ths web-based game. INTRODUCTION The ebzgame offers a smulato that ecompasses may of the factors that occur day-to-day busess operatos of a small busess. It has bee used for trag at least sx batches of etrepreeurshp studets sce July 997. It has also bee ru successfully as a competto for the past 3 years. At the Award Presetato Ceremoy o 24 th March 200 of the competto orgazed for secodary schools, the Guest-of-Hoor, Mss Leog Yop Poo, Deputy Drector, Humates ad Aesthetcs Brach, Currculum Plag ad Developmet Dvso, Mstry of Educato, hghlghted to all partcpatg teams that techology was eutral. Uless the key busess cocepts, prcples ad processes were uderstood, appled ad tegrated to the busess operato, the most sophstcated hardware ad software would be effectve. Ultmately, etrepreeural sklls ad busess acume were stll largely resposble for the log-term success of ay busess. Her commet emphaszes the eed to fully corporate the smulato to all aspects of the etrepreeurshp course. Busess smulato games should ot stad aloe classroom use. They are of lmted effectveess f ot successfully corporated to all classroom strateges ad evaluato methods. Although wg s mportat ay games, studets should be costatly remded that the prmary objectve of playg the smulato game s learg. I fact the loser of the game has more to lear f he draws lessos from the mstakes made the game. Welldeveloped smulato games should be cluded ad corporated to all class dscussos ad lectures. If ot, studets may vew stad-aloe smulato games as tmefllers ad as rrelevat materals. Thus studets must be gve a overvew of the topcs before playg the smulato game ad a debrefg whe the game s over. It took almost a year to complete developg the game ad the developmet process could be dvded to two phases. The frst phase volved formulatg the basc structure of the game ad gatherg the vast amout of backgroud, techcal ad facal formato eeded to ehace the game s realsm. A major requremet of the game s that t must sophstcated eough to expose the studet who s playg the game to prepare hm for busess stuatos; ad yet ot too complcated (or complex) for hm to uderstad ad apply the basc maagemet prcples. The secod phase cossted of developg the game to a form that could be hadled by the departmet server ad wrtg all the ecessary software. At the secod phase, the varous documets to be used the game were also wrtte. The prototype game was thoroughly plot tested by the July 999 Semester studets order to elmate ay obvous flaws. I cojucto wth the lauch a teral competto was orgazed. Oly the were the fal documets produced ad the go-ahead gve to ru the 270

2 game as a school competto durg the comg academc year. THE SIMULATION GAME OBJECTIVES HOW THE EBIZGAME WAS EVOLVED A wdely accepted defto of smulato descrbes t as a pedagogcal method of attemptg to reflect actual stuatos through use of games, scearos, role-playg, soco-drama, ad decsos-makg expereces (Ades 983; Lodo 970). Ths defto provdes us wth a broad base from whch smulatos may be developed ad does ot lmt etrepreeurshp educators to the cotemporary oto that all smulatos are computer based. Ngee A Polytechc started usg smulatos etrepreeurshp courses July 99 whe t set up the campus as a practce outlet a retal shop wth a shop space of about 300 sq meters, called The Studet Shop. The shop was completely ru by 70 studets the Small Busess Maagemet course. Ths was where they got hads-o trag o how to start ther ow busess, how to keep vetory, take a loa from a bak, keep accouts ad geerate proft ad loss statemet at the ed of a semester. They also leart how to promote ad make sales. Ths experetal approach allows the studet to obta a level of compreheso ad skll developmet rug a small busess that s seldom attaed through tradtoal teachg methods. However, as the umber of etrepreeurshp studets doubled to more tha 300, t was foud dffcult, f ot mpossble, to roster so may studets to ru The Studet Shop. Thus July 994 The Studet Shop was dssolved ad replaced by m-stores the atrum of the Admstratve Block. Ths busess format offered greater flexblty to studets, as they were o loger lmted by space ad tme. They could ope ther stores beyod the scheduled tutoral hours as log as space was avalable ad they had o more classes. However, oe ma set back of these smulatos s that studets would cur huge moetary losses f ther goods were ot movg fast as they had oly about te weeks to clear ther goods. They were so obsessed wth sales that they eglected proper plag ad developg effectve strateges. I early 998 Mr Khoo Ch Hea, Prcpal of Ngee A Polytechc, floated the dea of developg our ow computer-smulated busess game for etrepreeurshp trag as the IT frastructure the campus was suffcet to cater to mass partcpato of ay computer smulato games. Oe ma advatage of a computer-smulated busess game s that t ca smulate a real lfe stuato where studets could experece rug a busess; ad yet do ot have to worry about currg persoal moetary losses. The tmele of rug the busess could also be made loger by the smulato so that studets ca practce log-term plag ad strategy formulato. Thus ths led to the developmet of the ebzgame ad July 999 the m-stores operato was dssolved ad replaced by the smulato game. Although t was always hoped that the ebzgame would be fu to compete, t was teded that t should meet several serous ad mportat educatoal objectves:. fosterg etrepreeural sprt studets by provdg them the experece of rug a busess whe workg as a team for a compay a smulated busess evromet; 2. develop creatve ad crtcal thkg sklls by provdg them the opportuty to pla ad formulate wg strateges; 3. hoe aalytcal sklls through the aalyss ad terpretato of facal formato ad applcato of busess cocepts for decsomakg; ad 4. promote teamwork amog studets. I addto to these objectves, the smulato also helps studets to () stregthe oral ad wrtte commucato sklls, (2) develop strog problem-solvg sklls, ad experece applcato of busess theores ad cocepts. The game must also meet the followg desg objectves:. A smple-to-use, easy-to-uderstad user terface for player ad game admstrator. 2. Adequate resposveess (web page loadg tme) for the game-play frot ed used by the players ad game admstrator. 3. A game that s capable of supportg ulmted umber of users ole cocurretly; oly lmted by the hardware archtecture. 4. Adequate flexblty the database desg to accommodate future ehacemets. 5. Itegrato wth the departmet s overall Eterprse Archtecture. The followg secto lsts some of the mportat busess cocepts that ca be leart from the smulato whch are essetal to the etrepreeurshp currculum:. Methods of sales forecastg, e.g. expoetal smoothg or smple tred aalyss 2. Factors fluecg sales volume, e.g. promoto ad R&D spedg 3. Stock ad producto plag 4. Cash flow ad budget plag 5. Dfferece betwee profts ad cash 6. Market research ad compettve aalyss 7. Tred aalyss for opportutes 8. Breakeve aalyss ad sales 9. Proft plag ad prce 0. Ecoomc ad maagemet cocepts lke shape of a cost curve, law of dmshg returs, ecoomes of scale. Rato aalyss ad bechmarkg for motorg 27

3 performace 2. Iterrelatos of departmets mportace of coordato ad proper plag DESCRIPTION OF THE SIMULATION ebzgame smulates a olgopolstc dustry. Three to eght compaes compete a sgle-product market sellg a cosumer good. At every perod, the partcpats submt decsos o prce, producto, promoto, plat vestmet, R & D, trag ad developmet, ad market research. The smulato automatcally grats repaymet or borrowg of loas. Each perod represets a quarter. The ecoomc evromet of the dustry s cotrolled by a umber of parameters cludg R&D, prce ad promoto sestvty factors. Thus the ecoomc evromet ca be chaged every perod by the game admstrator by adjustg the parameters. At the begg of every perod, each compay receves varous reports cludg the cost parameters report that cotas values of some cost parameters, e.g. plat purchase prce, credt lmt ad terest rate. Lkewse, at the ed of each perod, each compay receves varous reports cludg a dustry report o dustry bechmarks, market statstcs such as producto, sales ad vetory, ad market research data. A summary table of the varous reports s show Table. Studets ca eve use the bult- graphg program to draw charts for some of these market statstcs. Table :Varous Reports Geerated by the Smulato Idustry Report Plat Ivestmet Report Compay Report Labor Report Maagemet Report Marketg ad R & D Report Decso Aalyss Report Ivetory Report Face Report Cost Parameters Report Producto Report The usual competto cossts of two rouds, wth each roud made up of usually seve perods. It operates o a kock-out bass whereby the wers of the prelmary roud wll go o to compete the fal (ext) roud of play, ad the wer evetually emerges. I each roud, the teams are grouped to dfferet clusters of three to eght teams each. Each cluster plays a game, whch s depedet from the other games. However, all clusters beg each roud wth a detcal busess backgroud. At the ed of a roud, the performaces of partcpatg teams are evaluated o a set of crtera. The wg teams the proceed o to the ext roud of play. The wg crtera clude accumulated proft, sales growth, et proft marg, product attractveess, retur o equty, market share, ad plat capacty. As a learg exercse for studets takg the Maagg a Small Busess module, studets oly play oe roud ad tradtoally the smulato s ru mmedately after seve weeks of lectures coverg all the aspects of startg ad rug a small busess. It s also mportat to make studets go through a admstrator s brefg ad a tral ru before playg the game as certa aspects of game-play mght prove too complcated for a frst tme player. Before the game starts the role of each team member should be decded ad chose from oe of the followg:. Maagg Drector resposble for co-coordatg the decsos of the other team members 2. Sales Drector resposble for sales forecastg, break eve aalyss ad settg the prces 3. Marketg Drector resposble for market research, promoto ad R&D for product developmet 4. Producto Drector resposble for producto ad vetory cotrol 5. Facal Drector resposble for terpretg the accouts ad forecastg cash flow 6. Plag Drector resposble for plag plat capacty, trag ad developmet, ad proft plag (If less tha sx members per team are playg, the roles ca be combed, e.g. the Facal Drector ca be resposble for plag.) Much of the learg from a smulato or game takes place through processes of reflecto (Kolb 99) after the experece rather tha durg t. Log after the partcpato s over, learg cotues to take place. I ths respect t s crtcally mportat to help studets to process what they have expereced. Thus, at the ed of the Fal Roud, every team has to submt a wrtte report ( Drectors Report ) o the lessos leart from the game. The best drectors report team wll the be vted to gve a short oral presetato of ts report. Ths s followed wth a debrefg by the game admstrator. The debrefg helps the studets to lear from ther expereces by processg those expereces effectvely. WHAT THE GAME ADMINISTRATOR COULD DO The game s made extremely flexble to the game admstrator. It provdes a template for the admstrator to chage the product descrpto. Its default parameters ca easly be chaged. Thus the admstrator ca create oe game to smulate oe product ad aother game to smulate aother product; ad make both games smulate dfferet ecoomc codtos, cost structures ad market resposes. 272

4 The admstrator ca select whch market research data are made avalable to the studets ad at what prces. The game has a template for the admstrator to create ew qualtatve case studes. These case studes preset maagemet dlemmas or crtcal cdets faced by the compay. They are created usg Flash amato as show Fgure. Fgure. A Example of Crtcal Icdet WHAT THE PLAYER COULD DO As a tured-based game, the players make decsos every perod. They ca be the frst or last to make decsos. They ca call up data about past performace, facal records, promoto, R&D ad plat vestmet, operatg ad producto costs, or aythg else thought ecessary. Furthermore, the game has very teractve capabltes. The players ca commucate wth other players ole through the game webste. If they eed cosultato, they ca also commucate wth the game admstrator o a prvate bass. The game has a Joural for the admstrator to update the players about the chages the ecoomc evromet. Studets wll also be gve ews to read. The ews s dvded to two sectos: publc ews ad prvate ews. The prvate ews gves specfc advce to the players o ther curret stuato. Reports are geerated mmedately after the closg of each perod ad studets ca dsplay most of the market statstcs provded usg the bult- graphg program. HOW THE ACTUAL SIMULATION GAME WAS DEVELOPED We bega by researchg varous busess demad models that could be used for the game. It took us sx moths to buld a game model based o our requremets. The game model cossts of three compoets as show Fgure 2. The puts (decsos) etered are frst valdated to see that they are wth the lmts set by the game admstrator ad the game model. Other logcal costrats are also checked at ths pot. The valdated puts are the appled to the demad model together wth the hstory. The output of the demad model wll be saved as hstory ad feedback to the model later. The reports wll the be geerated based o the output of the demad model. 273

5 Fgure 2. The Game Model THE DEMAND MODEL The modelg of the demad model s the heart of the game. The desgg ad developg of ths model s prmarly a art. Theoretcal demad model was used as the basele ths model. Good desg s a ecessary but ot suffcet codto of a busess smulato. Therefore, real busess expereces from several experts were corporated to the model. Ths makes the model realstc ad practcal. The algorthm of the demad model s show below:. Calculate productvty of the frm 2. Calculate product qualty of the frm 3. Calculate the meas of the ecoomc parameters 4. Calculate the expoetal smoothed parameters 5. Calculate market demad 6. Calculate frm demad Ths demad model was mplemeted wth referece to the Suggested System for Modelg Demad by Steve C. Gold ad Thomas F. Pray s (990). There are three types of fuctoal forms the teral modelg of demad computerzed busess smulatos (Gold ad Pray, 990): lear, olear, ad log-lear. The lear form has the property of varable prce elastcty but costrats the margal mpacts of the depedet varables to be costat. The olear fuctos vary wdely form ad ature ad have propertes cosstet wth moder demad theory. Log-lear fuctos allow margal mpacts to chage wth the level of the depedet varable but ot flexble eough to model flecto pots. The demad model mplemeted the ebzgame cludes a umber of propertes:. The use of smple comparso to calculate the productvty of the frm 2. The use of accumulated R&D vestmet to calculate the product qualty 3. The use of harmoc mea to approxmate the market prce as compared to the covetoal mea calculato whch overstates the average dustry prce 4. The use of scalg factors ad expoetal smoothg to capture ter-temporal effects ad allow the desger to cotrol the mportace of hstory o curret demad 5. The use of multplcatve fuctoal form, whch s stable ad possesses varable elastctes. The followg sectos hghlght some of the algorthms used.. CALCULATE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE FIRM The productvty of the frm depeds o the vestmet the Trag & Developmet of the workers the frm. The frm s productvty s calculated usg Equato. TD Fp Bp Vp TD = + Hghest Fp s the frm s productvty TD s the frm s Trag & Developmet Vp s a varable set by the game admstrator Bp s the basele productvty set by the game admstrator 2. CALCULATE PRODUCT QUALITY OF THE FIRM Qualty of the Product depeds o the cumulatve R&D vestmet. Whe the game s frst created, a set of predefed values for the qualty levels are created usg Equato 2. QualtyLevel = R& D ( Y QualtyLevel) (2) MAX R&D MAX = Maxmum R&D lmt set by the game admstrator Y = desger s specfed value (Y>) () 274

6 3. CALCULATE THE MEANS FOR THE ECONOMIC PARAMETERS Averages for Promoto ad R&D are calculated usg Equato 4 ad 5 to determe the market demad later. As harmoc mea computes the average by weghtg low values relatvely more tha hgher values, t s used to calculate the average prce as show Equato 3. Average Pr ce = = p (3) P = ap + (-a)p o ; where 0 < a < (9) Promo = bpromo + (-b)promo o ; where 0 < b < (0) R&D = c R&D + (-c) R&D o ; where 0 < c < () P = expoetally smoothed prce Promo = expoetally smoothed Promoto R&D = expoetally smoothed R&D X = scalg factor of prce Y = scalg factor of promoto Z = scalg factor of R&D a = mpact of Prce over a durato b = mpact of Promoto over a durato c = mpact of R&D over a durato Average Pro moto = AverageR & D = = = = Total umber of frm p = frm s prce Promo = frm s Promoto R&D = frm s R&D ( Pr ) omo ( R & D ) 4. CALCULATE THE EXPONENTIAL SMOOTHED PARAMETERS (4) (5) Where subscrpt: o dcates a perod-old smoothed value dcates the most curret value 5. CALCULATE MARKET DEMAND The market demad depeds o the average prce, promoto ad R&D of the frms, the umber of frms ad the dsturbace factor. Frstly, the market demad s calculated usg Equato 2. The the result of Equato 2 s appled to Equato 3. Fally, the result Equato 3 s appled to Equato 4. Q g P omo R D ( g 2+ gp 3 ) ( 4 5Pr ) ( 6 7 & Pr g g omo & g = gr D) (2) Q = Q( ) + Q (3) Q = Q( + D) (4) The demad of the product ot oly depeds o the curret decsos but also o the hstorcal decsos. Expoetal smoothg s a coveet techque allowg smulato desgers to specfy the role ad mportace of hstory o curret demad. The parameters are multpled by a scalg factor before they are expoetally smoothed as show Equatos 6, 7 ad 8. These scalg factors are desger s specfed values. The results from Equatos 6, 7 ad 8 are appled to Equatos 9, 0 ad respectvely. X P= P + 00 Y Pr omo = Pr omo + 00 Z R& D = R& D + 00 (6) (7) (8) Q = Idustry demad P = Average Prce the dustry Promo = Average promoto the dustry R&D = Average R&D the dustry = Number of frms D = Dsturbace factor g to g 7 are desger s specfed values. g s a scalg factor 6. CALCULATE FIRM DEMAND There are 3 steps to calculate the frm s demad. The frst step s to calculate the frm s total weght usg a weghtg fucto. It s a varable elastcty multplcatve fucto. It determes the magtude of the value that s used to calculate the market share of the frm as a fucto of the total market demad. 275

7 WkPk = ( + ) (Pr omo+ k) ( R& D+ k) ( PQ+ k ) ( k2+ kp 3 ) ( k5+ km 6 ) ( k8+ kr 9 ) ( k+ k2td ) W = weght of the frm P = expoetally smoothed prce of the frm Promo = expoetally smoothed promoto of the frm R&D = expoetally smoothed R&D of the frm PQ = Product Qualty of the frm k 0 to k 2 = desger s specfed values (5) The values assged to the parameters (k 2, k 3, k 5, k 6, k 8, k 9, k, k 2 ) deped o the desger s specfcato cocerg frm-level elastcty. The purpose of k, k 4, k 7 ad k 0 s to prevet the weght from becomg zero. K 0 s a scalg factor ad ca be arbtrarly assged a value to esure that the frm s weghts are ot too large or too small for computato accuracy. The ext step s to calculate the frm s share. The share equato s show Equato 6. S = W = W S = frm s Share W = weght of the frm (6) The frm s share wll be coverted to quatty usg the quatty fucto as show Equato 7. q = SQ (7) S = frm s Share Q = Idustry demad q = Quatty demad of the frm Fally the dustry demad s recalculated based o the summato of the frm s demad as show Equato 8. Ths s to avod roudg error that may occur. Q= q (8) = ARCHITECTURE After the prototype of the game model was verfed, the game model was bult to SQL Server usg storedprocedures ad fuctos. Most of the busess logc was processed the database. Next, we bega to desg the webste terface. I order to make ths webste scalable, most of the processg was doe o the clet-sde (web browser). ActveX cotrols, Flash applets, ad DOM were used. The graphs were redered o the clet s web browser usg a ActveX cotrol. The reports were redered o the clet s web browser usg XML, XSLT ad DOM. All the reports geerated by the game were saved as XML fles whe the perod was closed. The closg of the perod was the most processor tesve task of the game. The decsos of all the players ad the settgs set by the admstrator were appled to the game model ths task. The reports of the perod were also geerated ths task. All ths processg was dstrbuted betwee the database server ad the web applcato server. The busess logc was calculated the database server; whereas the reports were geerated by the web server ad saved a fle server. A pool of persstece database coecto was created whe the game was frst loaded the server. Ths was to reduce the overhead of havg recreatg the same coecto aga ad aga whe the game was playg. As show Fgure 3, the software archtecture of the game s dvded to 5 logc layers:. User Servce Layer: Ths layer provdes access for clets (PC ad Pocket PC) to the applcato. It cossts of web pages ad web servces. 2. Busess Layer: Ths layer provdes terfaces to the User Servce Layer to hadle player s decsos, report browsg, web avgato, ews browsg, chattg fuctoalty ad admstrato of the game. 3. Data Access Layer: Ths layer provdes data servces to the Busess Layer. Coecto Poolg was mplemeted at ths layer. 4. System Framework: Ths layer provdes applcato cofgurato, excepto hadlg ad loggg of the game. 5. Commo Abstract: Ths layer provdes commo structures used the game. Q = Idustry demad q = Quatty demad of the frm 276

8 Fgure 3. Software Archtecture The game was hosted o two web servers, whch are coected to a load balacer. The reports were stored as XML fles aother server. The database was stored a dedcated database server the web farm. The hardware archtecture s show Fgure 4. Fgure 4. Hardware Archtecture By addg addtoal web server we wll crease the capacty of the applcato. The reports of the game are saved as XML fles the XML Report Server. Ths s to off load the database whe the game starts ad the players are accessg the reports. By dog so the game s able to hadle a larger umber of cocurret users. A servce aget was bult to allow the game admstrator to schedule batch jobs (for closg of a perod) to ru automatcally o the server. A computer-automated stress test was coducted wth the use of three computers to determe the maxmum load of the game. Sevety-two cocurret users were smulated to play the game. Eght users a group were smulated to play a game. Each user was smulated to access the game cotuously durg the stress test ad to put radom values to the game. Ths was to provde a more accurate load-testg result. The game was able to hadle a maxmum of e cocurret competto clusters durg the stress test. 277

9 THE COMPETITIONS HELD BETWEEN 999 AND 2002 Thrty-fve teams comprsg 79 studets takg the Maagg a Small Busess (MSB) module, took part the frst ru of the ebzgame competto, whch was held the July 999 Semester. The competto was the exteded to secodary three studets the subsequet two years. I the Year 200 competto, twety-oe teams (oe team per school) took part; ad the Year 2002 competto, fortyseve teams took part. They played the game from ther ow schools, as the game was web-based. At the ed of the Prelmary Roud the best team from each cluster proceeded o to the Fal Roud, whch was held NgeeA Campus. The wers were gve attractve przes. For the secodary school studets, they have to udergo two separate days of etrepreeurshp trag before playg the game. The trag gves them a overvew of maagemet prcples ad cocepts ad some smple accoutg kowledge. All MSB teams were asked to complete a detaled questoare, whch was subsequetly aalyzed by the teachg staff of that module. The resposes to Questo 0 the questoare show a overall hgh level of satsfacto (see Table 2). The feedback receved from the partcpatg secodary schools had bee a great success, ad t was clear that the competto should be ru aga. Table 2: Resposes to Questo 0 of the Questoare, 2002 Jauary Semester 0. Please dcate whether the game helps you : Agree(%) Usure(%) Dsagree(%) (a) Uderstadg cocepts (b) Practcal applcatos of cocepts (c) Developg fredly relatos/rapport The game s stll ru regularly wth NgeeA as part of hads-o trag for studets takg the Maagg a Small Busess module, ad s also ru as a ope competto for secodary schools. The co-authors (who were prmarly resposble for the computer modelg) have ot bee allowed to rest o ther laurels. Wth the support from Teachg & Learg Cetre (TLC) ad Ngee A Idustry Techology Exchage Cetre (NITEC) they wll approach a software compay to get t coverted to a Chese verso ad lauch t Cha. Cha s chose because the cultural dffereces betwee Sgapore ad Cha are ot great. Furthermore Cha s kee to try out ew methods of teachg etrepreeurshp based o feedback from recet vsts to Cha by NgeeA staff. CONCLUSION I ths paper we descrbed how the ebzgame, a scalable web-based smulato game, offers a soluto to the problem of helpg studets the Maagg a Small Busess module atta the ecessary competeces both based o ad buldg upo a currculum whch smulato plays a cetral role. The ebzgame has bult- features (parameters) whereby the admstrator ca vary the complexty of the game so that t could ft wth ay etrepreeurshp currculum requremets ragg from Secodary School to Polytechc levels. The game s webbased so t s accessble to partcpats aywhere ad ths meas eve studets from dfferet places (eve coutres) ca come together as a team to play t. Ths opes a ew dmeso to cross-cultural behavoral learg. The dvdual learer s experece s a experece of dscovery ad of learg about the realty beg modeled by explorg t. Its structoal value les the trasferablty ad applcablty of the choces made to other lfe actvtes ad ther behavoral choces there. Ths ca be called the valdty of the smulato or game (Lederma, 994). REFERENCES Ades, Joh. (983). The use ad developmet of smulato educatoal admstrato. Upublshed mauscrpt. Kolb, D.A., Rub, I.M., & Oslad, J.S. (99). Orgasatoal Behavour-A Experetal Approach. Eglewood Clffs, NJ: Pretce-Hall. Lederma, L.C. (994). Smulato ad Gamg: Vol. 25. Gve a small chld a hammer ad soo everythg eeds hammerg. Lodo, H. J. (970). The futlty of testg: Smulato as a "test" case. Educatoal Leadershp, Steve C. Gold, & Thomas F. Pray. (990). James W. Getry (Ed.), Gude To Busess Gamg ad Experetal Learg. East Bruswck / Page, Lodo: NICHOLS/GP. 278