Innovate, the journal of online education published by Nova Southeastern University’s Fischler School of Education and Human Services, has published a paper on EagleRacing, INSEAD’s business game on collaborative decision-making, and its use in executive education. Prof. Albert Angehrn and Dr. Katrina Maxwell introduce the topic by resuming the challenges collaboration faces such as cultural and professional diversity, trust and identity, group dynamics in spatially or even temporally distributed environments, as well as heterogeneity in terms of different styles in information gathering, interpreting and in decision making. Then after, recalling the pillars of Kolb’s (1984) theory of experiential learning (“adults learn through a process that involves a set of sequential steps: (1) obtaining concrete experience; (2) observing and reflecting upon this experience; (3) formulating abstract concepts in response to this reflection and observation; and (4) experimenting to test the validity of these concepts”), and how well Simulation-based learning supports them by “allowing participants to gain both the awareness of a complex situation and the experience of resolving the situation; [as] the simulation allows them to experiment with various solutions to a problem in a safe environment, and the feedback and reflection opportunities that a well-facilitated simulation experience provides ensure that participants solidify their learning”, Angehrn and Maxwell present the EagleRacing simulation structure which relies on three decision making levels in a perfect binary tree, each corresponding to a specific collaborative decision dilemma which address supplementary issues such as trusted relationships with partners (therefore, introducing collaboration beyond the organisation boundaries) and ethics, and which brings to four more or less optimal solutions (whilst the remaining four bring to financial disaster). The paper develops with a detailed description of a typical facilitator-led learning experience with the EagleRacing simulation. The key role played by the use of collaborative technologies in the framework of such learning experience is detailed too. Not only to engage the learners during the playing and the debriefing sessions and to keep track of their interactions and collaborative exchanges, but also as supporting tool for facilitators in order to share their tutoring experiences and to exchange their ideas to improve the facilitation. Finally, the paper considers the different deployment styles and highlights the flexibility of EagleRacing since it suits for half-a-day face-to-face and co-located learning experiences as well as for remotely distributed ones running over weeks as well as for any intermediate combination of online and offline deploying set.The paper is available online at http://www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol5_issue6/EagleRacing-__Addressing_Corporate_Collaboration_Challenges_Through_an_Online_Simulation_Game.pdf
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