A key emphasis of polytechnic education in Singapore is the development deep skills and mastery through applied learning in the application of technical and soft skills in a real-world environment. Learning can be enhanced and even accelerated with the use of ICT technology, especially for occasions when it is impractical and impossible to use real-world environment because of the risk involved or because we need to accelerate processes that are not viable to do in the real-world. In the case of teaching and learning entrepreneurship knowledge and skills, the traditional way of using textbook and case studies in classroom does not provide students the opportunity to apply what they have learnt in class to real-life situations. In such case, the integration of ICT into the curriculum of entrepreneurship in the forms of computer simulation games and online collaborative tools can help to support the teaching and learning activities that would otherwise be difficult or impossible without the technology.
The author will share his experience leveraging a computer simulation game and an online tool for active collaborative learning of entrepreneurship by polytechnic students; facilitated by NYP lecturer. This project/presentation is based on the final year students from the Diploma in Business Informatics in the School of IT who read entrepreneurship module. SimVenture is the simulation game being used as an active learning platform that mimics real-life situation where students can safely apply what they have learnt and gain valuable experiences. The simulation facilitates students’ construction of entrepreneurship knowledge and encourages higher-order thinking skills and mastery in term of critical thinking, problem solving and making judgement.
The use of an online collaborative tool in the form of Canvaniser further engaged student for greater levels of interaction and collaboration among them. It also allows lecturer to track students’ progress to provide timely feedback on their work and learning. It provides a collaborative learning environment where students can interact and collaborate to brainstorm for business ideas, justify feasibility of their business model and outline potential market opportunity, all of which are higher-order thinking tasks which are important aspects of active collaborative learning. The tool also enhances realism and provides a launch pad for further exploration of entrepreneurship.
This improved pedagogy of active collaborative learning is significant to polytechnic education in Singapore where mastery of higher-order thinking skills require a platform where students can interact, collaborate, reflect, validate and safely apply what they have learnt.
