Birmingham Business School

Rob Fleming, Senior Lecturer 

"Having used Finance Lab on numerous occasions for both our current first year students and at student visit days we used the simulation for the first time this year online via Zoom.

We planned well in advance and provided the students with the relevant background information provided by Global Investor Sims in preparation for running the game with our entire first year cohort in groups of approximately 60 students at a time. The session was part of the critical-thinking module and the aim was to introduce our students to share dealing and the nuances of a market.

Students were located all over the world. A number were in the UK and Europe but approximately half the students were from Asia, mostly China. Despite this and potential issues with broadband the sessions all went extremely well.

We chose to allow all students to be Investment Analysts which made it more interesting for them but we managed to maintain a sense of team building by setting students into breakout rooms and encouraging them to discuss their strategy.  This worked well. Students did talk and did enjoy the game as well as learning something about the basic principle of buying and selling shares.

A genuine success story in a challenging year.”

Birmingham Business School