When idle time matters – using spreadsheet simulations to improve linear programming instruction

This article has two purposes. The first is to suggest that operational research is an important area of study for business students and therefore they must be taught in a way that motivates interest on their part. A way to do this is to get the student involved in the modelling process and convince the student that the problems that we model are real problems. The second purpose is to describe how a student can be given an opportunity in a classroom setting to test a model and that this has real value as part of the educational experience. The student has the opportunity to learn some general principles by the method of discovery, observing that the model may or may not give a solution that is implementable. The student is then provided with the opportunity to consider why the model is not providing useful solutions and to decide what to do in this situation.