Tiers of Engagement: Achieved Learning From Business Simulations Reflected in Economics Students' Experiences

This study examines how 328 students in an online economics bachelor's program engaged with the Hubro Business Simulator, drawing on 1,640 open-ended reflection comments alongside quantitative ratings of learning outcomes. Grounded in Self-Regulated Learning and motivational theory, the authors sort students into low, medium, and high tiers of engagement and reflection. Their central finding is that students reporting higher engagement tended to reflect more deeply on how the simulator supported their understanding of theoretical economic concepts, suggesting that the quality of engagement shapes what students take away from simulation-based learning.

Intrinsic motivation emerges as a key differentiator. Students in the high intrinsic engagement tier, who make up 23% of respondents, reported the highest mean reflection on learning (2.49 on a 1–3 scale) and the highest mean self-reported learning outcomes (4.07). This compares with 1.75 and 4.01 for the medium intrinsic tier and 1.28 for the low extrinsic tier. The analysis also reveals gender differences in tier placement, with men overrepresented in the higher tiers and women in the lower ones.

The authors are careful to qualify these results. The tier categorizations reflect their own interpretive coding of the comments rather than validated SRL instruments, so the findings describe what could be assessed from the written reflections rather than offering definitive measurements of engagement or reflection. The low intrinsic tier, comprising only 2% of responses, may also reflect methodological imprecision. The study's scope is a single online economics program using one simulator, and its evidence rests on self-reported data.