Incorporating active learning activities into EMPL 844 - Decision Management

I participated in the Simulation and Games cohort for 2014. My goal was to learn how to incorporate more active learning activities (i.e., games) into my graduate level decision making course for the Executive Masters in Leadership program (EMPL 844 - Decision Management, 22 students in 2015 section). The course focuses on decision making and risk and I want to create active learning experiences for the students to face real decision making under risk. My hypothesis was that those that experienced real decisions with risky alternatives would have more insight and appreciation for some of the protagonists in the case studies that we discuss in class who also face multiple risky decisions. This seemed a reasonable hypothesis based on published research that examines the effectiveness of educational games in learning. From this research, one of the most useful insights I found was the typology that categorizes different educational games by different goals. For example, the purpose of a game can be to teach existing knowledge or to produce new knowledge. Games can also focus on examining structured or unstructured problems. This intersection looks as follows: