Before a pilot trainee is allowed to take the controls and fly solo in a jet fighter, he or she must go through flight simulation training.

At UT, Dr. Ernie Cadotte, professor of business, has asked the question: Why not use the same idea with business students?

Cadotte has created a program that allows business majors to simulate running a business in the classroom, much like a trainee learns to fly without leaving the ground. He believes that this class offers business students an edge as they venture out into the real world and try to find jobs.

“Students are able to learn how business decisions are made and how to keep track of all the accounting,” Cadotte said.

This business simulation is a required course for all business majors at UT, and Cadotte hopes it will be adopted by other programs across the country.

The simulation program received a Brandon Hall Silver Award for Excellence in Learning Technology in the category of Best Advance in 3-D or Immersive Learning Technology.

After Cadotte had been teaching for a couple of years, he started to get the feeling that his students were not connecting with the material the way he thought they should.

“I started to develop, what I call, experiential exercises,” Cadotte said.

These exercises made students interact with each other in a businesslike environment. The exercises started out small but eventually moved to a grander scale with business students in the UC ballroom using industry techniques to buy and sell microprocessors, which were really poker chips.

“They loved it,” Cadotte said. “And then when I would lecture about more abstract things, they understood because they experienced those very same things.”

According to businessweek.com, approximately 17 in 20 students that enrolled in the business program graduate in six years.

Along with the simulation, Cadotte also introduced what he calls business coaching. This system allowed students get one-on-one help from a graduate student who acted as their adviser.

Mike McDonald, a graduate student at UT, was one of the business coaches who helped students through the simulation.

“I think most of their classes are very similar, regardless of level,” McDonald said. “With the business simulation class, it is very different from everything else you experience.”

Every week, a student must do an executive briefing with his or her business coach. The business coach acts as the chairperson of the board. The student must come in with an agenda and decide what the strategy is and if it needs adjusting. The business coach will then challenge the student every step of the way, asking, “What is the justification?”

“What we’re trying to do is get the students to exercise critical thinking,” Cadotte said.

The simulation allows students to think for themselves in an environment that allows them to make mistakes with a mentor to help them make corrections.

The students’ semester grades allow the professors and the graduate students to get feedback that helps them improve the learning strategies.

“That (the simulation) is quite a challenge for them (the students),” Cadotte said. “But on a larger scale, it is wonderful for them because it is truly a tremendous learning experience.”