Developing a trading simulation to promote UN SDGs: A pedagogic approach to enhancing student teamwork and decision-making skills

Games Based Learning (GBL) is finding increasing popularity on Business courses in the UK. This blog, written by Dr Madina Tash, discusses how tailor-made trading simulations can benefit student learning, decision-making, and promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). 

Background

Dr Madina Tash's project, won the UN PRME UK & Ireland Chapter seed funding competition for developing innovative pedagogic approaches, centered on creating simulation exercises focused on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. The project uses innovative learning tools and technology to provide business students with a dynamic and challenging learning environment. The key objectives are to promote SDG awareness and offer students hands-on experience in making decisions aligned with these global goals. 

In this project module, convenor, Dr Madina Tash, and technologists worked together to create tailor-made trading simulations addressing recent events in the real world and testing students’ sustainability-driven decisions. By actively collaborating the module convenor and technologists designed customised gamification tailored to the specific theories and module topics, helping to improve student learning.

This blog discusses the critical interplay between technology and teaching instruments, providing ideas on how academic faculty and technologists can work together to create unique learning materials such as trading simulations. The project involved developing computer-based trading simulations that were utilised for seminar discussion. 

The trading simulation scenario:

The project involved designing trading simulations focused on the UN SDGs. The trading simulations were presented in a format of a 5- participant interactive game as part of an undergraduate module. The game is introduced to students as an essential element for seminar preparation, and seminar discussion. The game’s scenario requires a team of five executives to undertake a project based on real-world business examples from financial media. Students were required to play in a group prior to their seminar. 

The scenario is structured into several phases:

1. Valuation phase:
   The team is initially tasked with evaluating a project. The team consists of a Chief Executive Office (CEO), Chief Finance Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO), Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and a Chief Information Officer (CIO). Their company is listed on the London Stock Exchange. 

2. Market reaction phase:
   After the valuation, they receive new market information (such as increased levels of harmful pollution in their factory) or experience a change in share prices, requiring them to make decisions to improve their project's current situation.

3. SDG compatibility assessment:
   The software generates possible solutions, and students must engage in group-based discussions to evaluate whether the proposed solutions align with the UN SDGs.

4. Stock market reaction assessment:
   After the team's decision, they analyse the stock market's response to their actions.

5. Assessment and reporting:
   Students are required to produce a comprehensive report that includes evidence of their participation and reasoning for each phase of the simulation. The report should address two primary conditions - SDG alignment assessment and stock market reaction analysis. The students should explain whether the company was more consistent with the SDGs before or after the team made executive decisions, providing evidence and rationale for their assessment. Students then analyse the stock market's response to their decisions, drawing conclusions about the financial implications of SDG alignment.

The process …

Creating the tailor-made simulation involved three key stages - research and data collection, scenario design, and technological integration. The initial stage included research to identify real corporate market examples related to SDGs. Then followed the scenario design stage, "what if" scenarios were carefully designed to simulate real-world business dynamics. The project's final stage required collaboration with technologists, access to specialised software, and resource allocation to create the dynamic, real-time simulation.

Conclusion

By using technology and real business scenarios, the simulation enables students to develop critical teamwork and decision-making skills while fostering awareness of the SDGs. It offers a valuable pedagogical tool for business educators seeking to prepare the next generation of leaders to tackle global sustainability challenges. The project demonstrates an example of how software simulations enable experiential learning for students.

Next steps for Dr Tash’s project

These include expanding the range of real-world corporate examples, integrating additional dimensions of the SDGs, and further refining the simulation's technological components to enhance the learning experience and utilise gamification in a format of an assessment instrument.

Biography

Dr Madina Tash is Lecturer in Finance, UN PRME Champion at the University of Sussex Business School and Director of Bloomberg Lab.

Photo copyright: Dr Madina Tash