Gamification of Flipped Classroom: A New Tool to Learn Business Intelligence

Description

Flipped classroom is a new pedagogical method where students are asked to self-study some class materials (e.g., watch videos, read some short notes, and take some quizzes) before attending a lecture. Previous research shows that such teaching method is effective to enhance students’ learning because they are more prepared and easier to absorb new knowledge in class. To make students more engaged in self-regulated learning in flipped classroom, we propose to incorporate gamification in our flipped teaching materials in the class of CB2500 information Management (about 400 students in each semester). In our proposed project, we plan to provide students with a gamified environment, e.g. progress bar and social support gadgets, to learn business intelligence such that they can learn both theories and gain practical experiences by analyzing some real-world data within a joyful ambience. To implement the project, we plan to purchase some real world data related to IT investment. The data comprise of all kinds of IT investment (e.g., infrastructure, supply-chain management, security, enterprise management, and customer relationship) from over 260,000 firms in almost every industries in the USA in the recent 3 years. Students are required to play the role of business consultants and critically evaluate whether such investment is economically justified. The project also supports the self-discovery enriched curriculum and allows students to uncover the underlying economic relationship between IT investment and firm performance. In summary, using the gamified flipped classroom approach, the proposed project can enhance students’ skills in data analytics, data synthesis, and business writing within a joyful ambience, and more importantly, well prepare students for their future professional career in the field of business consulting. Through the project, students may use business intelligence tools to discover new business innovation opportunities and solutions through mining the purchased big data of IT investment. We will pair up some outstanding student teams to participate in entrepreneurship projects or join business case competitions via Innovation Commons of EDGE.