Abstract for: Do Interactive Management Flight Simulators Lead to Superior Learning Outcomes? An Experiment Using Amazon Mechanical Turk

Interactive management flight simulators are becoming increasingly common as a tool for teaching key concepts in management and related fields. Advocates of flight simulators suggest that the active engagement of students with experimentation and game play leads to enhanced systems thinking capabilities. We are undertaking an experiment to test this proposition, recruiting respondents from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk online workforce. Using a two-group pretest-posttest design, we randomly assign respondents to complete either an interactive task using a management flight simulator about the diffusion of alternative fuel vehicles (treatment), or to view a powerpoint presentation containing screenshots of the simulator to convey the same information (control). The results of this experiment will inform how to design management flight simulators to maximize learning benefits for users