Teaching, Technology, And The Art Of The Deal

Abstract

This paper illustrates a teaching innovation that took a traditional role playing exercise based on a case study and added some nuances that amplified the learning experience.  The example illustrated in this paper was a didactic negotiation exercise intended to teach simple, basic negotiation principles like zone of possible agreement (ZOPA), opening gambit, and the “feel of the deal,” but this innovation can be applied to many different types of interactive cases. Traditionally, an exercise like this is conducted in one class; however, in this case study, we enhanced the exercise by using two different classes in two different geographical locations taught by two different professors with different styles of teaching negotiation. Additionally, students had a choice of technology by which to perform the negotiation and technology was used to bring both classes together for a debriefing session. The end result was an exponential increase in the learning experience. Not only did the students accomplish the key learning objectives of the case, the negotiation principals, but they also were able to experience different negotiation styles taught by the two professors and experience the impact technology has on communication effectiveness.