From stepping into virtual boardrooms to exploring contrasting customer journeys, postgraduate students at the University of Liverpool Management School are using Virtual Reality (VR) to experience business challenges in ways that traditional classroom teaching cannot replicate.
MBA programmes
Liverpool MBA students took part in the Merging Realities simulation as part of their Corporate Governance and Sustainability module. Students entered a virtual corporate boardroom and took on the role of consultants advising on an international merger between two organisations.
Through the simulation, students experienced the complexities of boardroom decision-making first-hand, observing stakeholder interactions, evaluating competing priorities and exploring the challenges of strategic change across both publicly listed and privately owned companies.
Using VR encouraged interdisciplinary learning by connecting concepts from strategic management, international business, corporate governance and sustainability, allowing students to experience the full complexity of real-life strategic decision-making, intensified by coping with ‘real’ virtual people and their emotions in the decision-making process.
MSc programmes
VR has also been incorporated into the MSc International Business and MSc International Business and Strategy Digital Business Strategy module, where students explored the role of technology in customer experience design.
Throughout the simulation, students were randomly assigned to one of two customer journeys: a technology-driven experience or a more human-centred service journey.
Initially unaware that they had been exposed to different versions of the experience, students later compared their perspectives through a facilitated discussion examining the strengths and limitations of each approach.
After experiencing both customer journeys, students debated issues including efficiency vs personalisation, automation vs human interaction, and the wider opportunities and challenges associated with digital transformation.
The exercise generated high levels of engagement and encouraged students to critically evaluate how organisations design and manage customer experiences.
Executive DBA
As part of the Executive DBA students' latest residency in Liverpool, they took part in two VR sessions. The first, titled Airlock Mars Mission, featured a post-crisis investigation where students had to ask questions to work out what went wrong.
The second, Executive Presence, showcased a series of different project meetings where students interpreted the meeting attendees' verbal and nonverbal communication and decided, for example, whether they appeared competent or trustworthy.
Both simulations fostered healthy discussions amongst students as they interpreted each case study differently and were able to debate the outcomes.