Reflections about Interactive Learning Environments: A Multi-Perspective Approach

I. Abstract An Interactive Learning Environment (ILE) is a tool to convey learning effects about dynamic and complex systems. Knowledge can be packaged and delivered to assigned persons. By this, several pedagogical objectives are achievable: Teaching the capability to operate dynamic systems, awareness about effective delays in the system, focusing on the importance of feedback loops and their strengths, and familiarize the learner with the concept of nonlinearities. As an instance, the flight simulator ‘Managing a Consulting Company’ puts each of two participant groups in the role of a consulting company’s management board. The ILE is created as a network simulation, which facilitates a dynamic learning environment and enables greater learning effects than normal single simulation models. By experiencing and testing the simulation, the participants will obtain knowledge about the dynamic resource perspective of strategic management. In particular, the simulator provides learning effects about management of intangibles and dynamic decision making. In order to facilitate a successful ILE-training session, it is beneficial to reflect about several perspectives connected to the development of ILEs. This is the goal of the paper. It concludes with a heuristic about the different perspectives of an ILE-session.