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Business Simulations in Times of the Covid-19: Their Effectiveness Through Online and Face-To-Face Instruction

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Research and Innovation Forum 2021 (RIIFORUM 2021)

Abstract

This research aims at analyzing the experience carried out in the Schools of Economics of the University of Parma and the University of Bologna with a business simulation, specifically with practice enterprises (PE). Our main objective is to compare the students’ perception of the competences they achieved through their participation in PE and their influence in their global evaluation of the effectiveness of the course, in a group who attended pre-lockdown, on campus classes, against those who attended post-lockdown, online classes of the PE course. The findings confirm that the students assess very well the competences and learning acquired while participating in the PE, but the valuation given was higher when they participated online. This result contrasts with the general assessment made by students to the effectiveness of the course, higher when they participated in the PE face-to-face. This investigation will allow us to evaluate the consequences and impacts of moving experiential and practical learning methodologies, to virtual or blended environments, as a consequence of the lockdown measures provoked by the pandemic of Covid-19 since the spring 2020.

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Correspondence to Ana Beatriz Hernández-Lara .

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Hernández-Lara, A.B., Gualdi, D. (2021). Business Simulations in Times of the Covid-19: Their Effectiveness Through Online and Face-To-Face Instruction. In: Visvizi, A., Troisi, O., Saeedi, K. (eds) Research and Innovation Forum 2021. RIIFORUM 2021. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84311-3_33

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