Learning to Be an Entrepreneur: Evidence from a Technology Enhanced Learning Tool - 2nd International Workshop on Evidence-Based Technology Enhanced Learning - page 64

Learning to Be an Entrepreneur: Evidence from
a Technology Enhanced Learning Tool

Gianfranco Giulioni, Edgardo Bucciarelli, Marcello Silvestri, and Paola D'Orazio

Abstract. In this paper we present a web-based software model in which the user
manages a virtual enterprise. By using the software the user experiences a number
of basic economic principles such as the leverage effect, the effect of depreciation
on the firm return rate and the key role of the equity base in a framework char-
acterized by risk and uncertainty. The model has been used in an undergraduate
class at the Faculty of Management Sciences at the University of Chieti - Pescara.
Students have acknowledged the usefulness of this tool in order to assess the theo-
retical principles learned during the lectures. We then asked a different subject pool,
i.e. entrepreneurs, to manage the same GUI. A comparative analysis of the results
obtained in the different sessions showed that our software is a good and effective
tool for learning purposes.

1 Introduction

In the last decade technology-enhanced learning has gradually been drawing con-
siderable attention [2]. In particular, the widespread deployment of computing de-
vices has played a key role in opening new frontiers for the development of learning
activities.
Among them, mobile learning games (for a survey, see [11]) are of particular
importance. In the literature it is indeed widely acknowledged that they are useful
for learning and teaching purposes as they provide “affective” and cognitive learning
outcomes [6, 12].
Within this orientation we provide an economic game based on Hyman P. Minsky
theory. By means of a web application we shape a system wherein subjects could

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