Development of Business Game Simulator for Supporting Collaborative Problem-Based Learning

This paper presents a business gaming simulator via fuzzy constraints-directed approach for supporting collaborative problem-based learning (PBL). In this gaming simulator, the problem is formulated and analyzed as a distributed fuzzy constraint satisfaction problem (DFCSP) to assist students realizing a wide range of business scenarios from different perspectives. The structure of the problem is represented as decision networks to help students to explore rdquowhat-ifrdquo hypotheses as well as to allow instructor to give appropriate instructions. In addition, a fuzzy constraint-directed agent negotiation mechanism is also provided to mimic more closely and naturally with the spirit of the real-world problem-solving for collaborative strategic planning and decision making. To demonstrate the ideas of the proposed framework for supporting PBL, we have developed a prototyped business simulator, MANAGER, and applied it successfully in the beer game for supporting collaborative PBL.