For one day last November, it was every hand on deck and every eye on screen inside the war room set up by HBS’s Educational Technology Group. The team of specialists, made up of developers, designers, and graphic artists, creates technology-based tools ranging from multimedia cases to interactive simulations.

The team ran two large-scale simulations for faculty and students across campus. In the morning, all first-year students experienced a new simulation developed by Professor V.G. Narayanan, the Thomas D. Casserly Jr. Professor of Business Administration and chair of the Accounting and Management Unit. Called the Balanced Scorecard Game, the complex simulation was the result of intensive research, development, and evaluation.

In the exercise, teams choose and implement a strategy — for example, competing on low lifetime cost — and then try to fund the right mix of corporate initiatives to implement that strategy. They also design a Balanced Scorecard for their firm. In successive rounds of play, the data on each team’s Balanced Scorecard are updated, allowing the teams to reassess how their strategy is working and to change initiatives if need be. It’s a high-impact lesson in driving corporate performance.

Later that day, all nine sections played the latest version of the Beer Game.  The simulation, first played on paper in the 1960s, unites generations of alumni. In its current iteration, the game still teaches supply chain costs, lead time, and inventory management, but now students order kegs on beloved tablets and other devices.

For students, simulations bring material to life, deepen contextual understanding, and reinforce both hard and soft skills. The Balanced Scorecard simulation, for example, teaches accounting but also requires students to collaborate and negotiate. The new tools are just as meaningful for faculty. In the updated Beer Game, built-in reporting features give professors a better window into student learning.

Interwoven with case-method teaching, technology is helping faculty engage students in vivid, minute-by-minute decision-making, which adds a dynamic new layer to the traditional classroom experience. A key part of curricular innovation, investments in educational technology will enhance learning and keep the School a leader in management education.

To find out more on the impact of educational technology, visit www.hbs.edu/teaching/inside-hbs/curriculum-innovation.html.

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