AI-Supported Feedback, Team Dynamics and Coaching in Hospitality Management Simulation

This study examines how AI-supported feedback, team dynamics, and lecturer coaching shape student learning in a hospitality management simulation at a Portuguese higher education institution. Its central argument is that the educational value of such simulations lies less in the AI feedback or in competitive ranking than in the social and reflective processes surrounding feedback. The research draws on survey responses from 13 undergraduates, representing 65% of a 20-participant cohort, making it a small, exploratory case study.

Respondents reported high levels of satisfaction, challenge, perceived learning, and skills development. Team dynamics emerged as the strongest correlate of perceived learning (ρ = .705, p = .007) and of skills development, while simulator earnings showed only weak relationships with learning outcomes. This pattern suggests that collaboration and interpersonal processes carry more weight than performance metrics within the simulation.

The authors position the simulator as an integrated experiential learning environment, but they acknowledge important limitations. The sample is small, the statistical tests are exploratory, and the measures rely on self-reporting. The AI feedback component was also not assessed independently, so its specific contribution cannot be separated from coaching and peer interaction.

The work is situated within a broader literature on business and management simulation games in higher education, including reviews of games and simulations as pedagogical tools and approaches that gradually increase complexity for novice learners. Its findings are therefore best read as preliminary evidence that structured team processes and reflective feedback may matter more than technology alone in hospitality management education.