Copyright 2018 BGA | Designed by Favoured
Capacity Building Workshop | Manchester: Leveraging the latest simulations and technologies to teach soft skills
- IN-PERSON EVENT ONLY
Friday 12 April 2024 | 9:30 – 17:00 | Alliance Manchester Business School, United Kingdom
Days
Who can attend:
DEANS & ASSOCIATE DEANS
BUSINESS SCHOOL MANAGERS & PROGRAMME DIRECTORS
PROFESSORS & LECTURERS
BUSINESS SCHOOL FACULTY (STAFF ONLY)
With the advancement of highly sophisticated VR headsets and simulations, an endless number of opportunities now exist in teaching some of the world’s most desired soft skills. From negotiation tactics to analysing one’s own body language and facial expressions, new technologies are allowing students to fully comprehend and dissect where they fall short in their soft skills.
This workshop will invite business school leaders and professionals to take part in discovering some of the potential uses, advantages, and disadvantages to using a variety of existing and upcoming platforms. More importantly, the workshop will encourage discussion on how platforms can be seamlessly implemented into the programme curriculum to enhance the student learning experience.
You will learn how to:
- Existing and upcoming VR and simulation platforms that have the potential to revolutionise soft skills teaching
- Use cases of VR and simulation platforms in soft skills teaching and the resulting challenges, successes, and failures as experienced by business schools
- How to seamlessly integrate VR and simulation platforms into the programme curriculum
- Assessment methods of soft skills when applied against VR and simulation platforms
- Advantages and disadvantages of VR and simulation platforms vs. real-world interactions
Workshop programme
9:00 — 9:30
Registration and refreshments
9:30 — 9:45
Introduction and overview
9:45 — 11:15
Jenni Rose, Senior Lecturer, Alliance Manchester Business School
Matt Davies, Interim Director of MBA Programmes, Aston Business School
Darren Sparkes, Associate Professor, Warwick Business School
11:15 — 11:45
Networking break
11:45 — 13:00
Dane Anderton, Director of ULMS MBA Programmes and Director of Studies for the Liverpool MBA
Leon Lloyd, Head of Sales International, Edumundo
Milo Hendriks, Director, EdumundoÂ
As business school leaders navigate a constantly shifting landscape of pressures, from meeting accreditation standards to student expectations, this session will give a practical insight into how business simulations are meaningfully integrated into the curriculum, considering:
- Constructive alignment, scaffolding modules and bridging theory and practice
- Employability, certification of the simulation, and building a portfolio.
- Developing responsible business leaders
- Promoting AI resistance in assessment
- We’ll also be getting into groups to experience a simulation first-hand (from the perspective of a student).
13:00 — 14:00
Lunch
14:00 — 15:15
Dominic Finn, Teaching Fellow Management Science, University of Strathclyde
15:15 — 15:30
Networking break
15:30 — 16:45
16:45 — 17:00
Closing remarks and farewell
Meet the speakers
Dane Anderton
Director of MBA Programmes
ULMS
Appointed by the Dean of the Management School, Dane is the Director of ULMS MBA Programmes and Director of Studies for the Liverpool MBA. Dane manages the strategic and operational aspects of the MBA to ensure that students have the best possible student journey whilst studying at ULMS. Dane works with a number of researchers and teaching faculty who input and deliver on our MBA. He is also responsible for the MBA’s role in maintaining triple accreditation for the Management School (AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS).
Darren Sparkes
Associate Professor
Warwick Business School
Darren is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Warwick Business School. He is also Course Director for the Masters in Business portfolio of programmes and teaches across Undergraduate and MBA programmes.
Darren spent nearly fifteen years working in industry during which time he qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant (CIMA) and progressed to several senior finance positions. He moved into professional accountancy education in 2001 and higher education in 2010. Since then, he has gained an MSc Accounting and Finance and Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.
Darren is co-developer of an accounting and finance focused business simulation, ‘Accounting Bissim’. The simulation has previously been shortlisted for the ‘Finance for the Future’ and PQ Magazine ‘Innovation in Accountancy’ awards and is now used at higher education institutions across the UK, Europe, and Scandinavia.
In addition to teaching, Darren has presented at several accounting and finance education conferences and in 2022 he was awarded the prize for ‘Best Innovation in Teaching’ at the BAFA Accounting Education conference for his work in using Accounting Bissim to enhance Graduate outcomes. He has co-authored articles and a book chapter on the use of simulations in Higher Education and is also a co-author of the ACCA report, ‘Ethical Dilemmas in an Era of Sustainability Reporting’.
Dominic Finn returned to higher education in 2013, has been involved with the MBA at Strathclyde Business School for 6 years, and is currently Director of Teaching & Learning.
His teaching covers principles of modelling, operations management and various experiential and client-based modules.
Dominic is part of a small team in the Management Science department that has been using Virtual Reality with various cohorts of Business Analysis and Supply Chain students. Most recently they have been trying to integrate it into assessments and other elements of taught classes.
Jenni Rose is a Senior Lecturer at AMBS who has been using a simulation in her MBA teaching for the last three years. She is a dialogic and experiential teacher, transforming perceptions of accounting through the simulation and the authentic assessments completed by her students.
She is a multi-award winning teacher and an honorary teaching fellow with the UoM Institute of Teaching. She is also head of employability at AMBS and uses simulations like the one she will share in the session to embed professional and personal skills MBAs need to flourish in their careers.
Leon has supported the higher education sector for over a decade, helping universities with the transition to digital, student success initiatives, and deploying experiential learning approaches.
At Edumundo, Leon works as Head of Sales International, working with business school and university leaders to implement tools and technologies powered by content to boost skills and make curricula more applied, and experiential.
Matt is an Associate Professorial Teaching Fellow in Accounting and Finance at Aston Business School, where he has the role of Interim Director of MBA Programmes.  He is a National Teaching Fellow and Principal Teaching Fellow of Advance HE.Â
Matt is a Chartered Accountant and an experienced accounting and finance teacher and trainer with special interests in executive and entrepreneurship education, online and blended learning, gamification and business simulations.Â
Matt is co-creator of the Accounting Bissim business simulation and has extensive experience of using the simulation within his teaching, from MBA modules to short courses for entrepreneurs and for corporate clients such as Babcock, Collins Aerospace and National Express.Â
Matt was also the Project Lead for the ‘Financial Education for Future Entrepreneurs’ (FEFE) project which was funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The main output of the FEFE project was a mobile digital game, Count FEFE, which develops accounting and finance skills for business.
Since 2011, Matt has delivered accounting and finance workshops for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Programme, and since 2016 has acted as the programme’s UK National Finance Faculty Lead.
Milo Hendriks, director at Edumundo since 2007. At Edumundo we offer an interactive and online learning experience to enhance the student’s engagement levels and student success. Our Management Simulations, Edubooks and BrightBirds Gamification App are used by 100,000+ students annually at over 300 universities globally (from Oxford to Shanghai) including 20+ triple accredited (AACSB – AMBA – EQUIS) business schools and half of the Russell Group.
Mellissa Oliver-Jolley
AMBA Membership & Account Manager
AMBA & BGA
Mellissa Oliver-Jolley is the Membership and Account Manager at AMBA.
She is responsible for the recruitment and on-boarding of students and graduates from AMBA-accredited programmes to the thriving global community of current and future business leaders who make up AMBA’s membership base.
Mellissa manages engagement with more than 63,000 individual members to ensure the delivery of valuable programmes and services and liaises with leaders from the 300 business schools worldwide, to raise the profile of AMBA’s membership with their students and graduates.
Venue
Alliance Manchester Business School
This Capacity Building Workshop will be taking place at:
Alliance Manchester Business School
Booth St West
Manchester
M15 6PB
If you require accommodation, Alliance MBS offers discounted rates at the nearby Hyatt hotel opposite AMBS. Access the University’s special rate by using the provided link, clicking on the turquoise box “Individual bookings”, and following the instructions with the corporate code.
Sponsored by:
Post-workshop content
Upcoming award-wining AMBA & BGA international events
Want to get in touch?
For questions about BGA membership, please contact:
Victor Hedenberg
Membership Director
