Based on the following scenario, role-play a decision-making meeting using effective communication skills and group decision-making processes. The decision-making role-playing may be conducted as a whole-class activity using the following guidelines.
You are students attending a class at a tertiary institution. You have all seen instructional e-learning systems such as Blackboard and Moodle in your classes and recognise the importance of using such technology to improve your skills as future graduates.
The lecturer has asked the class to imagine that you are reviewing an e-learning management system to recommend whether the system should be used in the institution and, if so, whether it should be purchased outright or leased.
The IT department maintains the e-learning management system. The normal charges for such systems are: retail purchase price $30,000; lease charge $10,000 per year. The IT budget, like all budgets these days, is limited, and is carefully scrutinised by other section heads in the institution.
In order to advise the lecturer, first evaluate the system as a whole class, making individual notes about its content and quality. Then divide into small groups (about six to eight people in each), elect a chairperson and decide on a recommendation from your small group to the lecturer.
The chair of each small group should structure the discussion so that a problem-solving process is used to make a decision, and the debate moves along logically and constructively. You might structure the small-group meeting according to the following questions:
a. What is the problem?
b. What are the issues?
c. How well does this proposal (that is, this e-learning system) solve the problem?
d. What alternatives are available?
e. Having evaluated the alternatives, what is your recommendation?