The increasing proliferation of computer-aided learning software for the last ten years has been made possible by the rapid development in information technology, or IT in short. IT has also allowed computerisation of many simulation and gaming systems and made them even more realistic and captivating. Many of these simulation and gaming systems are used to support learning [Crookall & Arai, 1991], in areas ranging from language development and environmental economics to commercial negotiations. However, IT support in learning IT itself has not really been fully exploited in every possible fields of IT. Most of the courseware have also been largely lab-based, e.g., [Lin, Wu & Chiou, 1996]. In this paper, we want to share our experience in integrating an information system-based simulation and gaming system into the teaching of an essential IT subject. A simulated business game is able to provide an environment to enhance collaborative learning and to engage students in active problem solving tasks, It continuously provides feedback from task performance and allows students experience in the sense of lack, and therefore need, of intelligent and relevant information, in order to improve on performance. It also entices students into using the concepts learnt through formal lessons in building models, and applying them to support their problem solving activities. In the School of Computing at the National University of Singapore, we have been using a management simulation game, MAGNUS, or Management Game at National University of Singapore, in supporting a senior course in decision support systems, CS3250. The objective of this course is to provide students with an appreciation of decision making in organizations and the use of computer-based systems to support decision-making. Course materials such as lecture notes, tutorials and handouts are accessible on the internet [Yeo 1998a]. MAGNUS uses pure, general, theoretical functions to describe the business relationship and the game, with many revisions, has been running successfully over a decade. The game is designed to be played between a number of companies, over a number of periods as decided by the game administrator. Companies compete with one another within the same game zone and are unaffected by the decisions of companies from other game zones. In each period, every company makes decisions in production, sales and finance to compete in marketing a generic consumer product and bidding for contract sales of a substandard industrial product. Further information may be obtained from the web site [Yeo 1998b].
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