Page 4 - Ideas
P. 4

When  faced  with  a  challenging  concept,  most  learners
                                                                                         appreciate being able to think it over, practise applying it
                                                                                         and  get  feedback  on  their  level  of  understanding.
                                                                                         Assistant Professor Fang Xin sought to provide students
                                                                                         of his Operations Management class with precisely such

                                                                                         an opportunity by developing a game (aptly entitled the
                                                                                         Capacity Game) that allows the students to apply difficult
                                                                                         concepts  of  capacity  planning  and  optimisation,  and  to
                                                                                         visualise the ensuing results.

                                                                                         Previously,  Fang  Xin  would  introduce  the  relevant
                                                                                         concepts and students would discuss potential plans for
                                                                                         different demand scenarios. Based on the discussions, he
                                                                                         would  use  programming  to  illustrate  how  optimisation
                                                                                         would help achieve a higher level of profit. However, with
                                                                                         this teaching method, students struggled  to understand
                                                                                         the  gap  between  their  proposed  decisions  and  the
                                                                                         optimal decisions.

                           FANG Xin                                                      Having  observed  that  “students  feel  they  know  better
                           Assistant Professor of Operations Management                  when  they know  what  is  happening  in  practice,  beyond
                           Lee Kong Chian School of Business                             the    theoretical    model”,     Fang     Xin   set    about
                           Singapore Management University                               conceptualising  a  better  way  to  teach  this  area  and  hit

                                                                                         upon the idea of using a game. He chose not to direct
                           “Students feel they know better when they know what           them  to  commercially  available  options  but  instead,
                           is happening in practice, beyond the theoretical model.”      decided to take it upon himself to develop an in-house
                                                                                         version  that  could  be  used  and  re-used  to  benefit
                           	                                                             students  and  instructors  in  SMU  without  imposing  a

                                                                                         monetary burden on them.
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9