Business Game Learning Environment : Design and development of a competency-based distance education business curriculum at the Open University of the Netherlands

Abstract

The current approach to learning is based upon an educational system and paradigm that is supplydriven and course-based. In this paradigm, learning is offered in courses whose content, time, place and pace of delivery, method of delivery, and breadth and sequence of instruction are defined and stated by the course provider. Learning for tomorrow needs to be situated in study environments that are context-based and demand-driven. These environments must be flexible to meet the needs of learners, through adaptability to different learner needs, content, learning patterns and settings, and media combinations. Such flexible study environments enable learners to learn when they want (frequency, timing, duration), how they want (modes of learning) and what they want (that is, learners can define what constitutes learning to them). An environment to achieve such a distance education competency-based curriculum is being developed in the business sciences at the Open university of the Netherlands (OuN) as a collaborative effort with other more traditional universities and businesses in the private sector. This article is devoted to describing this Business Game Learning Environment (BuGLE). Along with a description of the premises upon which the environment is based, this article also describes the structure of a prototype which has been developed.