This page is designed to help instructors use INSPIRE and INSS as teaching and training tools. We invite you to write to us after reading this document, using the feedback box at the bottom of the page.

  1. Introductory notes
  2. Setting up the experiments
  3. Assignments and exercises
  4. Handouts and materials for participants

1. Introductory notes

INSPIRE and INSS are used by students with very different backgrounds from all over the world. INSPIRE has been used in Information Systems, Decision Science, Management Science, and in Policy and International Business courses as well as by students in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.

We have done our best to make the systems functionally useful for training and testing while also making them attractive to students. The purpose of this page is to provide course instructors and educators whose students use either the INSPIRE or INSS systems, with notes on how assignments are being set up for different courses, how the systems have been used, what tasks or assignments students were given, etc.

Please note that although we have had almost 200 users since the system was inaugurated, it is only recently that the system has been used as a student training and evaluation tool. Therefore, at this point we do not have too many suggestions and hope that you will contribute your own to this page. We will be happy to acknowledge any such contributions. We also welcome any comments and suggestions you may have.

We should point out that we record students' exchanges for our study on cross-cultural communication and decision making. The negotiators are paired anonymously and partners could be from anywhere across the world. Please do not make any comments to the negotiators about anonymity or about partners. Each individual is implicitly free to develop whatever relationship he or she wishes, including introducing themselves to each other through INSPIRE or maintaining full anonymity.

In the rest of this page we will refer only to INSPIRE although everything we say applies to INSS as well.

2. Setting up the experiments

2.1 Small groups, advanced students

You may want students to contact us individually and request a negotiation partner for negotiations. This can be done with:

  1. small or medium size groups of students,
  2. students who have basic knowledge of computers and Internet browsers, and
  3. students who have their email accounts.
In this case you may want to point out to students that it may take us several days to find a negotiation partner. Therefore, students should contact us as early as possible.

2.2 Large groups, executive courses

INSPIRE has been used with participants of the executive courses and groups of ESL students. Individuals in these situations often do not have email accounts and may have very limited knowledge of computers and browsers. In these cases, the course instructor (or a teaching assistant) contacted us to arrange the session, provided an introductory session and supplied the students with handouts which can be printed from the Web. The following is a suggested list of steps to be followed.

2.2.1 Early preparation

At least a week before experiments, we need a list containing the following information for each participant:

  1. Login name
    A single word without any special characters. Preferably not their real name, however anything is acceptable. Best selected by each participant, however the instructor may assign names if that is more convenient.
  2. Real name
    Optional, not important, but may help clear mixups if people choose similar login names.
  3. Password
    Optional, not necessary unless you expect that users might log into their counterpart's account.
  4. E-mail address
    Optional, desirable. If an e-mail address is provided, INSPIRE can inform the participant when some activity occurs (e.g. an offer from a counterpart). If e-mail addresses are not used, you will have to arrange for the participants to necessarily log into INSPIRE at least once every two days to check whether there has been any activity. Such an arrangement may be desirable in any case, even if e-mail addresses have been provided.

There are two ways to collect this information. We can set up a Web page on which each participant can submit a form with the required information, then you only have to ensure that all participants do this before the beginning of the negotiation period (otherwise valuable time will be lost waiting for accounts to be set up). Alternatively, you can collect (or generate) the information yourself and mail it to us.

Once you have given us this list, we will respond confirming that the accounts have been set up and the participants randomly paired (either within the group or with people from outside the group, anywhere in the world). If we've received e-mail addresses, we can contact participants directly.

We will also assign a negotiation name to each participant, often a name in common for everyone. This is used to ensure uniqueness of negotiations since a user can, in general, conduct multiple negotiations simultaneously.

2.2.2 Final preparation

A day or two before the experiments, the following checklist of activities may be carried out.

3. Assignments and exercises

Here are a few examples of the possible assignments with INSPIRE and INSS. We would appreciate your suggestions and comments.

3.1 Information Systems

INSPIRE and INSS are the first systems of their kind. Possible questions that students may address are:

3.2 Management Science

In general, the systems can be used to evaluate the applicability of decision theoretic techniques in negotiation and individual decision making:

3.3 International Management

INSPIRE provides an excellent opportunity for direct interaction with a counterpart from another culture. Since each student conducts his/her own negotiations, the negotiations can provide a rich base for cross-cultural comparisons. Some of the relevant issues include:

3.4 Strategic Management

The case around which INSPIRE is built links a manufacturer with a potential overseas supplier. It introduces students to the details of strategy implementation as well as the cross-cultural implications of global strategies. The negotiation experience can be used to motivate discussions of:

3.5 Courses in English as a Second Language (ESL)

As part of a course, ESL for Academic Purposes (Intermediate Level), Margaret Kersten from the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Carleton University, has prepared a set of materials for an INSPIRE assignment. Click here for details.

4. Handouts and materials for participants

We have prepared a set of materials which may be printed and handed out to the participants. Alternatively, you may provide the participants with the Web addresses from which these materials can be retrieved.

Comments, suggestions and criticisms are all most welcome! Please enter them below. We would especially appreciate your writing to us with your observations and experiences. Please tell us how your students used the system and how you incorporated it into your course.

Thank you!

Reference Research Tools Training Links

Last modified: Sat Dec 28 23:44:49EST 1996 by RJR. Please send us your comments!