An empirical comparison of two pedagogical tools for teaching production/operations management courses

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a study that experimentally compares the effectiveness of two pedagogical tools for teaching Production and Operations Management (P/OM) courses. The first pedagogical tool is a commercial manufacturing information system, known as the “Manufacturing Accounting and Production Information Control System” or “MAPICS”. MAPICS runs on an IBM minicomputer, such as System/36, or System/38, and is comprised of many application modules typically used for accounting and production planning and control in a manufacturing organization. The second pedagogical tool tested in this study is a computer-assisted learning system, called the “PC-based MAPICS Emulation System”. This system consists of a set of BASICA programs, and was designed to emulate the MAPICS system. However, the PC-based MAPICS emulation system cannot perform any planning runs (e.g. MRP planning run) as the real MAPICS system does. An experiment using both undergraduate and graduate students was conducted to compare the pedagogical effectiveness of the two systems with respect to three selected criteria: students' mastery of the subject matters, ease of use, and students' attitude toward the systems. The results indicate that, for educational purposes, the PC-based MAPICS emulation system is as effective as the real MAPICS. Thus, as an alternative to a real manufacturing information system, a low-cost PC-based MAPICS emulation system can be used as a pedagogical tool for teaching the basic concepts of production planning and control.