Presentation
Nancy Jones is a lecturer in the Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy at the Fowler College of Business at the San Diego State University. She started teaching in 2001 and joined San Diego State in 2013.
She teaches accounting information systems and managerial accounting to undergraduate and graduate students. In addition to teaching students, she also trains and helps other faculty with ERPsim.
Using ERPsim in Class
Nancy teaches a mandatory class in managerial accounting for sophomore business students. She recently redesigned the whole course with ERPsim to increase student engagement and make it easier for those who don’t necessarily like accounting to understand its benefits. In parallel to using ERPsim, she also developed her own teaching material and case studies. With the help of those documents, her students integrate the managerial accounting concepts better within the simulation.
In this class, she uses the concepts of ERPsim throughout the whole semester but only runs the game during the last five weeks of the semester. By then, the students already know the concepts related to managerial accounting and are introduced to ERPsim with the advanced manufacturing game. She uses this game because of the managerial- and accounting-related concepts it offers.
During their final exam, the students are tasked with explaining how the managerial accounting concepts helped them improve business performance in the simulation. According to feedback from students, ERPsim helped them feel more engaged with managerial accounting than they would have been otherwise.
For her, the actual benefits from ERPsim come from the real system, business processes, and business documentation her students are getting exposed to. Also, the fact that it is a team-based activity, enables students from different backgrounds to take on different roles inside a business. It also allows students to get a new perception of the processes that goods have to go through between production and shelving.
Her favorite game is the advanced version of the manufacturing game of ERPsim because of the managerial and financial accounting aspects it tackles and how it makes the student learn all the processes taking place in a real-life company.
DOs
Use the online training, documents, and support provided by the ERPsim Lab.
Make your students understand that errors will occur and that it is a part of life.
Have fun playing the game. Take baby steps and start from the bottom and work your way up. You can start from the manufacturing introduction for example.
Take part in the community. There are many people who want to share their ideas and comments about the way they are teaching. Do reach out!
DON'Ts
Give up when glitches appear. They are part of real life too, and “systems are not perfect”. If the system is not working, you probably did something you weren’t supposed to. If not, you can always ask the ERPsim Lab team for help.
