Economics role-play encourages students to work harder
On a pale wooden table stands a jug of water, a projector hums away in the ceiling, and the screen at the back of the room has been pulled down. Everything is ready for a half-way meeting about the report on the value of being pegged to the euro, which the consultancy firm is drawing up for the trade organisation.
Originally posted in cultivate ed. 04, February 2014
Philipp Schröder welcomes the consultants. Emil Smidt Nielsen, Jakob Oddershede, Katrine Kruhøffer and Jim Vilsson shake hands, smile and acknowledge one another, and take their seats along one side of the table. Jakob Oddershede quickly connects his laptop to the projector, while Emil Smidt Nielsen explains how they intend to tackle the meeting.
The students are also dressed up to the nines and refer to each other and the lecturers by their second names. For example, it is Mr Oddershede who will do the day’s presentation — not Jakob.
“The university must prepare students for a working life in the business world, and after all, it is not all theoretical. It needs to be tangible, and for example it is important that you can do a good presentation and not just talk about theoretical things,” says Katrine Kruhøffer.
Eight weeks of role-play
Room L261 is usually used as a meeting room for employees at the Department of Economics and Business. However, the meetings taking place in the room today are part of a course where ordinary classroom-based teaching has been replaced with an eight-week role-play programme.
The subject is Applied Economic Consulting and aims to teach the MSc students on the Economics and Business Administration – International Economic Consulting programme what it is like being a consultant out in the real post-exam world. The initiative was prompted by the degree programme’s employer panel, which six years ago expressed the desire that Master’s degree students should be better equipped for practical consultancy work.
“Consequently, we lecturers are playing the role of a client who wants to have a specific assignment solved by a consultancy firm represented by a group of students. The teaching takes the form of a series of meetings between the client and the consultants about the assignment and where the intention is to make it all as realistic as possible for the students,” explains Associate Professor Allan Sørensen.
The course consists of five meetings where the students first have to pitch themselves as potential problem-solvers, then produce and present a project proposal, draw up a draft contract, and hold a half-way meeting before delivering the completed assignment.
From academic language to metaphors
At the half-way meeting in room L261, Jakob Oddershede has finished explaining how the consultancy firm has trimmed the data on which the survey is based, and rounds off with a linguistic metaphor:
“Imagine that the dataset is a piece of meat. We have now trimmed off the unhealthy fat and added some herbs and spices so that we are soon ready to eat. However, we have already had a taste: It looks as though the positive effect from trading in euros is about 8–10 per cent.”
The metaphorical language stands out in the steady flow of financial terms, but part of the intended learning outcome is for students to learn to use both linguistic and visual communication with clients who perhaps do not have an academic background or who are not familiar with the special jargon used by professional economists.
During the subsequent debriefing, the students are praised for their metaphor by Associate Professor Ole Lauridsen from the Centre for Teaching and Learning, who is present during the meeting to observe the students’ behaviour, presentation technique, and communication skills. And, among other things, to see whether they are good at shaking hands, small-talking, and acting in a convincing manner.
Real-life stresses
During the course, the students apply much of the theory and methods they have previously learned on the programme. However, the idea is also that they develop their team-working skills and their ability to see a project through from concept to final project. All in a situation where they are constantly being challenged by lecturers pretending to be real-life clients.
“Mobile phones ring during the meetings, and sometimes we decide to leave earlier than planned. Sometimes we also give them very short deadlines. For example, the groups were given two days to produce a draft contract, and after delivering it they were summoned to a meeting to talk about it the following day. Such stresses and shocks are part and parcel of working as a consultant,” says Allan Sørensen.
He therefore makes a point of telling students to warn friends and family and their employers, if they have a student job, that they will not be quite as reliable during the course period as usual.
Extracurricular assignments
During the course, the students are also thrown into tasks, which they have not actually been taught, such as producing a presentation folder for their consultancy firm or a draft contract.
This is also the case at today’s half-way meeting:
“By the way, we also need to draw up a PR strategy for June 10,” says Philipp Schröder in passing at the beginning of the meeting, later clarifying what is expected.
Listening to client expectations is an important aspect of a meeting. Emil Smidt Nielsen tries hard to establish how the client wants the final results to be presented.
“How long should the report be?” he asks.
“Long? What matters most is whether I will be able to find what I need,” replies Philipp Schröder.
“So perhaps it’s a good idea to present the results sector by sector?” asks Emil Smidt Nielsen, and gets a nod for an answer.
Highly motivated students
This particular Thursday, Philipp Schröder and Allan Sørensen hold meetings with the students’ consultancy firms from early morning until late afternoon. Each group gets an hour of simulation and debriefing, and the students are enthusiastic about the form of instruction.
There is a much higher level of motivation than if you were preparing for a lecture. The work is far more intense. Within the past three days we have perhaps spent 30 hours preparing for this meeting. You really explore things in detail, and it’s better than normal theoretical subjects, says Katrine Kruhøffer just after the presentation.
Jim Vilsson agrees with her and says that there are many things that have fallen into place for him along the way:
“There has been some teaching where I have thought: Are we ever going to use this? But that is what we have done with this course. And it has been fun. It has been one of the most interesting subjects I’ve ever had,” he says.
Both students think that role-playing is great.
“The university must prepare students for a working life in the business world, and after all, it is not all theoretical. It needs to be tangible, and for example it is important that you can do a good presentation and not just talk about theoretical things,” says Katrine Kruhøffer.
“In addition to my studies I have a student job, and this course is about what you do in real life. We get a taste of what happens in a real job, so this kind of teaching is definitely relevant as part of a university programme. In fact, I think there should be more of it,” says Jim Vilsson.
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Centre for Teaching and Learning is an educational research and development unit at Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University, Denmark.
