on 2009 Mar 17 6:59 PM
While we know students need to understand how integrated business processes are accomplished within ERP, how can we make the curriculum more engaging and go beyond the point and click exercises that we have available?
Request clarification before answering.
I think this is a very important question that is very challenging to answer.
I would contend that the best curriculum element that the University Alliance program has right now is the HEC ERPsim simulation for the very reason stated in the posted question. Students have the opportunity to explore and learn ERP in an interesting, motivational way.
I would view the ideal curriculum supportive exercises as follows:
*Gives the students a goal or set of goals and support in achieving that goal, but does not pre-specify the answer.
*Situates the exercise in a meaningful context.
*Provides some motivation to achieve a correct outcome.
*Models a realistic ERP activity as it is actually used in business.
*Makes learning meaningful, and perhaps enjoyable.
In examining student feedback from a series of exercises completed from the UA curriculum last semester, comments fell almost totally into 2 groups. One group, the minority, appreciated the thoroughness of the exercises and the ability to walk through an entire process. The second group, far and away the majority, made comments such as (quoting from feedback forms) "The ___ assignment was a monumental waste of time. I learned nothing." "No ____. That was a joke!"
I wish I had an answer as to how to best address this. To the extent that other curriculum developers could follow the pattern set by the team at HEC, I believe that would be very positive.
Although I haven't seen the exercises related to this resource, I believe the approach taken by Magal and Word in Essentials of Business Processes and Information Systems is also a very good one. Instead of just showing "answers" in the context of SAP ERP, they show source documents (sales order forms, planned order forms, etc.) that place the overall processes being discussed into a more approachable context for the students. I believe there is merit in that method of presentation as well.
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That's a welcome observation Tony - I find that many schools that are starting out in the program use the exercises pretty much 'as are' - as they found them without amendment or addition because it takes a while to get up to speed on the use of the software and to truly find how best to integrate it within existing curricula, much less adapt either set of materials to the other.
Once faculty are able to understand the navigation, implementation, use and reporting within the software (and in particular the importance of identifying that different exercises would in the real world be undertaken by diferent people in different jobs) I think it becomes easier to find areas where the SAP exercises can support or reinforce existing concepts.
But I think you hit the nail on the head particularly with 'situates the exercises in a meaningful context', models a realistic ERP activity' and 'does not pre-specify the answer'. This ties in well with Paul's comment about embedding a lot of theory between the exercises - buy ensuring that the student places the exercises in a greater theoretical context they are able to evaluate and reflect and also see how the exercises and the software itself influences and is influenced by other aspects of business and IS thinking.
As an example - a lot of my students are surprised initially on a basic level by the lack of a back button or refresh button because they are used to using web browsers. On a more sophisticated level they ask questions about how it's possible in an organisation to implement SAP in one area of a business if it is so clear that processes are established in such a way as to require input from staff within multiple departments and processes. Finally the very best reflect on aspects of political management - how does one authorise authority levels for example!
I personally am a big fan of case studies as a tuition method - perhaps making use of some real world or artificial case examples would enable students to place the standard exercises in context. However the biggest issue here is the lack of case study content.
I wonder how many case studies and examinations of real firms there are within the program that reside in hard drives. I have created one and will place it shortly on the UAC and I am working on two others but I wonder if there are perhaps others. I can see why they wouldn't be shared more widely after all they are time consuming and the difficulty in obtaining access to company detaills means they become very valuable. But I can't help but wonder that if there were 50 case studies say in circulation in universities then sharing this resource would increase the range and type of analysis available within the member schools, and thereby enable members to select cases that may be of greater relevance to a narrower or more selective topic of discussion.
Of course I could also be wrong and there are no cases available - the three that I have created / am creating were certainly not easy to create.
Martin
Martin Gollogly
Directror, University Alliances
United Kingdom and Ireland
Martin
Hi
Our style of curriclum is to embedd a lot of theory between the point and click exercises. This assists the students in getting a better understanding. However this is only one part of the learning process. We extensively use industry web casts to reinforce many of the theoretical concepts which have been covered in lectures.
We also build upon the point and click exercises with problem based activities. For example in regard to the order to cash exercise scenario once the students have completed the point and click exercise they then undertake another exercise where one student takes on the role of a customer and the other a vendor. In collaboration they map the process on paper and then determine what master data is reuired. They then perform the process within SAP. Sometimes once they have completed the task they swap roles. This is a very effective learning process.
In the business intelligence subject the final exam (6 hours) reuqire samll groups of students to craete the necessary structures to produce reports based on specifications. The students enjoy the activity and rather than just pointing and clicking throughout the semester they realise they must understand the reasoning behind the activity.
Point and click exercises by themselves can limit the level of understanding by students. But using tehse style of exercises with other activities provide a vaulable learning experience.
Good luck
Paul Hawking
SAP Acedemic Program Director
Victoria University
Australia
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