Teaching Decision Analysis: Enhancing Student Comprehension through the Class Preparation Picker Technique

The academic discipline of decision sciences, integral to systems engineering, management, and business, faces a challenge in effective pedagogy due to overly complex or overly simplistic course examples. As a result, students either do not understand or do not appreciate the usefulness of the course material. This paper proposes the Class Preparation Picker technique, which allows students to apply the course material to the making of a complex decision – whether or not to complete their homework. This technique uses a lottery that consists of tickets that contain each student’s name. If a student’s name is drawn, their homework is collected and graded. If the homework is satisfactory, the lottery receives a ticket that requires no one to submit their homework. Alternatively, if the homework is unsatisfactory, the lottery receives a ticket that requires everyone to submit their homework. This lottery was implemented in a senior-level decision analysis course. Over the course of the semester, students realized that they were making a hard decision and started to apply the techniques taught in the class to support their decision making. This experiential decision-making process increased the student’s appreciation for decision analysis, while also encouraging students to better prepare for class.