42 Int. J. Simulation and Process Modelling, Vol. 5, No.

1, 2009

Learning Operations Research online: benefits,

challenges, and experiences

Javier Faulin
Department of Statistics and Operations Research,
Public University of Navarre,
Los Magnolios Building, First Floor,
Campus Arrosadia,
31006 Pamplona, Navarre, Spain
Fax: +34-948169204
E-mail: javier.faulin@unavarra.es

Angel A. Juan* and Pau Fonseca

Department of Computer Science,
Multimedia and Telecommunication,
Open University of Catalonia,
Rambla del Poblenou, 156,
08018 Barcelona, Spain
Fax: + 34 933 568 822
E-mail: ajuanp@uoc.edu
E-mail: pfonseca@uoc.edu
*Corresponding author

Lluis M. Pla and Sara V. Rodríguez

Department of Mathematics,
University of Lleida,
Campus Cappont, c./Jaume II,
73, 25001 Lleida, Spain
Fax: +34 973703201
E-mail: lmpla@matematica.udl.es
E-mail: srodriguez@matematica.udl.es

Abstract: Information technologies offer new ways to teach and learn Operations Research
(OR): on the one hand, they have driven the growth of distance learning opportunities; on the
other hand, they facilitate the shifting to an emergent educational paradigm, which considers
students as active and central actors in their learning process. The use of computer software and
collaborative e-learning as methodological policies to increase students’ motivation for OR are
also discussed in this paper. Thus, we describe lessons learned in some real experiences,
developed during the last years at four different universities in Spain, regarding the teaching
and learning of OR.

Keywords: OR; operations research; e-learning; computer-supported collaborative learning.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Faulin, J., Juan, A.A., Fonseca, P., Pla, L.M.
and Rodríguez, S.V. (2009) ‘Learning Operations Research online: benefits, challenges, and
experiences’, Int. J. Simulation and Process Modelling, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp.42–53.

Biographical notes: Javier Faulin is an Associate Professor of Statistics and Operations

Research at the Public University of Navarre (Pamplona, Spain) and an E-Tutor at the UNED
Centre in Pamplona, Spain. He holds a PhD in Economics, an MS in Operations Management,
Logistics and Transportation and an MS in Applied Mathematics. His research interests include
logistics, vehicle routing problems and simulation modelling and analysis, especially techniques
to improve simulation analysis in practical applications. He is also a member of INFORMS and
EURO.

Angel A. Juan is an Associate Professor of Simulation and Data Analysis in the Computer
Sciences Department at the Open University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain). He is also a
Lecturer of Applied Statistics at the Technical University of Catalonia (Spain). He holds a PhD in
Industrial Engineering, an MS in Applied Mathematics, and an MS in Information Technologies.

Copyright © 2009 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

 Learning Operations Research online: benefits, challenges, and experiences 43

His research interests include computer simulation and mathematical e-learning. He is a member
of INFORMS.

Pau Fonseca is an Associate Professor of Statistics and Computer Simulation at the Technical
University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain). He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of
computer systems simulation at the Open University of Catalonia. He holds an MS and a PhD in
Computer Science. His research interests include computer simulation and applied statistics.
He is member of the LogiSim research group, which develops simulation tools.

Lluis M. Pla is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of

Lleida (UdL) and a Senior Researcher in the Area de Producción Animal at the UdL-IRTA
Centre. His research interests include operational research methods applied in agriculture and
forest management, with special reference to simulation, dynamic programming, planning,
Markov decision processes and production planning. He coordinates the EURO working group
called Operational Research in Agriculture and Forest management. He is also a member of
INFORMS and EURO.

Sara V. Rodriguez is a PhD student of Engineering at the UdL. Her research interests include
simulation and optimisation methodologies. She is collaborating in teaching few subjects in the
Operations Research area. She is a member of INFORMS.

1 Introduction e-learning situations use a combination of the above

Operations Research (OR) is an interdisciplinary knowledge
area that combines Computer Science, Mathematics,
Statistics and Business Management to provide optimal or
as-good-as-possible solutions that can be helpful in the
decision-making process related to problems in the real
world. OR applications can be found everywhere, from
natural and social sciences to engineering, which explains
why OR is taught at universities and colleges worldwide.
Nowadays, Information Technologies (IT) offer new
ways to teach and learn OR. In particular, IT innovations
have driven the growth of distance learning opportunities, as
students who are time bound due to job or household
responsibilities, or place bound due to geographic location
or physical disabilities can now access OR courses at their
convenience.
Before going any further, we should define the
e-learning concept. Electronic learning or e-learning is a
general term used to refer to computer-enhanced learning.
In many respects, it is commonly associated with the field
of Advanced Learning Technology, which deals with
both the technologies and associated methodologies in
learning using networked or multimedia technologies.
The worldwide e-learning industry is estimated to be worth
over 38 billion euros according to conservative estimates;
although in the European Union only about 20% of
e-learning products are produced within the common market
(EC, 2000). Developments in the internet and multimedia
technologies are the basic enabler of e-learning, with
content, technologies and services being identified as the
three key sectors of the e-learning industry (Nagy, 2005).
Many technologies can be, and are, used in e-learning,
including, web logs, collaborative software (groupware),
computer-aided monitoring and assessment, discussion
boards, e-mail, simulation laboratories, learning
management systems, hypermedia and multimedia devices,
text chats and videoconference, virtual classrooms, web-
based teaching materials or wiki-based pages. Most
technologies. E-learning is naturally suited to distance
learning and flexible learning, but can also be used in
conjunction with face-to-face teaching, in which case the
term blended learning is commonly used (Hebert, 2007).
Regarding the teaching and learning process, there is
an increasing tendency among universities to create and
use Virtual Learning Environments, which are sometimes
combined with Management Information Systems to
implement Managed Learning Environments (MLE).
In an MLE, all aspects of a course are handled through a
consistent user interface, which uses to be standard
throughout the institution. A growing number of physical
universities, as well as newer pure-online ones, have begun
to offer a selected set of academic degrees and programs via
the internet at a wide range of levels and covering a huge
range of disciplines. Whereas there are programs which
require students to attend some campus classes or
orientations, many programs are delivered completely
online. In addition, several universities offer online student
support services, such as online advising and registration,
e-counselling, online textbook purchase, student
governments and student newspapers.
Additionally, IT facilitate the shifting from a traditional
educational paradigm, centred on the figure of a masterful
instructor, to an emergent educational paradigm, which
considers students as active and central actors in their
learning process (Engelbrecht and Harding, 2005). In this
new paradigm, OR students learn, with the help of
instructors, technology and other students, what they will
potentially need to develop their future academic or
professional activities.
OR instructors using e-learning management systems,
such as Moodle, WebCT or Sakai, usually provide
students with core course materials and, additionally,
with complementary learning resources such as web
links, overhead presentations, software-based simulations,
self-assessment tests, research papers, Java applets, etc.
44 J. Faulin et al.
At the same time, they use to guide the learning process by
setting up individual or collaborative learning activities, to
which they may give assistance at different levels, and by
moderating and supporting discussions in either small
groups or class forums.
Thus, the main goal of this paper is to learn about four
different experiences about e-learning in the specific OR
arena. After a discussion about the benefits and challenges
of e-learning, we introduce four real cases of experiences
regarding the use of online tools to teach and learn OR.
These cases are focused on the description of some teaching
application implemented at four Spanish universities: the
Open University of Catalonia (UOC), the Public University
of Navarre (UPNA), the National University of Distance
Education (UNED) and the University of Lleida (UdL),
each of them offering OR-related courses online to several
hundreds of students yearly. It is our belief that the
comparison among these four cases and, specially, the
lessons learned from these experiences, will help instructors
and students from the OR arena to get a deeper
understanding of the most recent methodologies and
applications in the field of teaching and learning OR online.
2 Benefits of learning Operations Research online
E-learning technologies can offer relevant benefits to
students, among others (Zirkle, 2003):
• relief from the constraints imposed by having to attend
a class on campus at a scheduled time
• possibility of self-pacing some of the course content
and activities
• improvement in access to education for those students
with physical disabilities
• contribution to the development of technical skills.
Regarding this former benefit, it seems clear that the OR
student’s technical skills and competencies may be
significantly improved by having to interact with OR
software, to communicate with instructors and other
students via e-mail, posted notes or chats, and to develop
collaborative projects via web-based platforms, such as the
well-known BSCW (http://bscw.fit.fraunhofer.de), Moodle
(http://moodle.org), etc. Of course, these social and
technical experiences can be very valuable for the OR
student’s future career globally (Juan et al., 2008b).
In particular, interaction with OR software, both in
face-to-face or in online courses, can provide additional
benefits to students since this interaction can help them
to gain a better understanding of some OR concepts,
procedures and applications. Specifically, some important
benefits can be derived from the use of this kind of software
(Rodriguez and Villa, 2005):
• a constructivist approach to knowledge by
experimenting with different scenarios and performing
‘what-if analysis’
• a development of a critical spirit by facilitating
different solving methods such as optimisation,
simulation, etc.
• a release from mechanical work: once students have
assimilated the concepts and the solving process
for simple cases, they can use computers to solve more
difficult calculations
• a reduction in the gap between theory and practice: the
use of OR software allows the modelling and solving
of real problems.
Moreover, integration of software-based practices in OR
courses increases students’ motivation during the learning
process, which eventually influences their performance in a
positive way.
Finally, an additional benefit for e-learning OR students
might be the possibility of completing some degree courses
at universities from other regions or even other countries
without having to move from their current locations
(Michael and Balraj, 2003). That is, for instance, what
happens at the UOC and UNED cases, where each year
several hundreds of South American students take some
courses without having to visit Europe.
3 Challenges of learning Operations Research
online
Similarly, some of the disadvantages and limitations of
using e-learning in OR teaching can also be pointed out.
One of the main problems presented in any e-learning
process is the authorship veracity of the assignments and
tasks developed by the online student. Therefore, students’
detailed monitoring and assessment must be considered
during the design and development of an appropriate online
course (Juan et al., 2009). Furthermore, the technical
features or limitations of the specific online platform
(WebCT, Sakai, Moodle, etc.) should be considered to
improve the performance of the distance learning process.
As some authors remark (Levy, 2007; Sweet, 1986) any
type of distance education presents higher dropout rates than
traditional programs. The nature of distance education can
create a sense of isolation in learners, and students can feel
disconnected from the instructor, the rest of the class, and
even the institution. It is necessary, then, that instructors
provide just-in-time guidance to students’ activities and also
that they provide regular feedback on these activities.
On the other hand, communication among students
should also be facilitated and promoted by instructors.
As Simonson et al. (2003) point out, another usual problem
is the fact that there are students having difficulties with the
use of technology. Both instructors and their institutions
should ensure that students are prepared and have the
necessary training before starting an e-learning course or
program.
In the case of OR e-learning, some additional barriers
might arise, since this knowledge area tends to be a
high-demanding one for students. In effect, OR students are
 Learning Operations Research online: benefits, challenges, and experiences 45

required to obtain and apply not only abstract concepts but more than 37,000 students use the UOC Virtual Campus
also abstract-thinking skills. In this sense, instructors should (Figure 1) for learning purposes.
pay attention to these potential problems:
Figure 1 The UOC virtual campus (see online version
• Students’ mathematical, statistical and programming for colours)
background: most online students are adults who may
have not been in contact with these knowledge areas
for years. In most cases, some reinforcement or
reviewer courses must be given to them before starting
with advanced OR courses.
• Students’ lack of motivation: most students from
computer sciences and business management show a
lack of motivation for mathematical and statistical
subjects. This is a risk factor since, as Meyer (2002)
points out, online students need motivation as a very
important variable to learn in an online environment.
Use of software-based activities and use of a
professionally-oriented approach can enhance
students’ motivation for OR.
• Overloaded courses: Often, the number of hours that
students have to invest to pass OR courses is greater
than the number of hours invested in passing other
courses with equivalent number of credits. Sometimes,
it becomes necessary to review and readjust the course
4.1 MISIO: An undergraduate course in OR
workload to the real number of credits that it has been
assigned. Modelling and Simulation in Operations Research (MISIO)
is an undergraduate OR course that is offered to computer
• Lack of face-to-face interaction: Many learning
sciences students at the UOC. The main objective of MISIO
activities, especially those that provide practical
is to introduce basic OR concepts and techniques to
skills, benefit from the face-to-face interaction among
computer sciences students. The course syllabus is divided
instructors and students. Obviously, in an online
into three main blocks: linear programming, discrete-event
environment this kind of interaction is not possible and,
simulation and decision-support systems. These blocks are
therefore, other interaction methodologies, like
developed and evaluated in four online collaborative
collaborative learning or online forums, must be
projects, which are distributed along the semester. The first
introduced to compensate this deficiency (Oates et al.,
project is related to the linear programming part, the second
2005).
and the third ones are related to the discrete-event
On the instructor side, one important challenge can be the simulation part, and the fourth project is related to the
time required to design the online OR course and, once it decision-support systems part.
has started, to effectively provide guidance and support to The MISIO course begins with a general overview of
students (Birnbaum, 2001). Teaching with technology the OR discipline and with an analysis of the basic linear
presents continual demands for faculty training and programming concepts and techniques. This first part of the
professional development and, therefore, universities must course allows the students to introduce themselves to the
OR world and its potential applications to the solving of
provide their instructors with specific refresher courses and
decision-making processes in engineering and business
efficient technological tools oriented to facilitate the design management. In the corresponding project, students develop
and development of online courses, including monitoring of their first collaborative project, which usually consist of the
students’ activity (Juan et al., 2008a). modelling and solving of a set of linear programming
problems. Once the students have modelled the problems,
they must solve them by using any of the common tools
4 Experiences at the Open University existing in the market as, for instance, LINDO/LINGO
Of Catalonia (UOC) (http://www.lindo.com), the GPL licensed software LPSolve
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/lpsolve) or Microsoft Excel
In the case of a complete online university such as the UOC, Solver. Students are invited to try different software tools
which uses an asynchronous learning model, the student- and they are free to choose their favourite software to
centred educational paradigm impregnates all academic acts develop their first project, which usually involves the first
and activities. As a part of wider academic catalogue, the four weeks of the course.
UOC offers undergraduate OR courses both to computer Once this optimisation part is finished, the course
sciences and business management students. Currently, focuses in discrete-event simulation, which is considered
46 J. Faulin et al.

as one of the most used OR techniques by computer Finally, in the third part of the course, students have to
scientists. The course introduces the student in the three develop their final project, where the main objective is to
main paradigms of discrete-event simulation: event combine optimisation and simulation techniques to create a
scheduling, activity scanning and process interaction. In this complete decision-support system. Usually, this project
second part of the course, which spans over 8 weeks, requires the combined use of both linear programming and
students develop two collaborative projects, one related to discrete-event simulation to develop a decision-support
the event scheduling approach and another related to the system which is able to provide optimal or good solutions
process interaction approach. Process interaction paradigm for a proposed problem. To construct the simulation model
is worked by the students using the GPSS simulation of this project, some different alternatives are possible:
environment (http://www.minutemansoftware.com), which GPSS, Java classes or LeanSim (Figure 3), which is a
has several characteristics that make it an interesting tool to simulation environment developed at the Technical
learn simulation: University of Catalonia.
• GPSS is a powerful simulation environment that does Figure 3 LeanSim simulation environment (see online version
not use a misleading Graphical User Interface. Often, for colours)
modellers pay more attention in the development of a
nice visual model than in the development of an
accurate model from a mathematical point
of view (Crain and Henriksen, 1999).
• GPSS systems have been widely used for a long time
(Born and Stahl, 2004), which makes them more
reliable and intensively tested than more recent
simulation software products. In particular, the
GPSSWorld simulation environment is used by our
students in this part of the course.
In contrast, the event scheduling approach is performed by
using the Java programming language (Figure 2). Thus,
students are free to propose a real problem and try to solve it
with the help of the instructor, which actively guides the
solving process. Usually, the proposed problems require
some simplifications to be solved in a four-week period, but
students are encouraged to develop a deeper analysis on the
same problem during their MS thesis. Working on realistic
projects is very interesting for students, which helps to
increase their interest and motivation for OR. LeanSim incorporates the last technologies used in this area,
like model virtual reality representation, distributed
Figure 2 Using Java to perform simulations (see online version simulation, etc. The main interest of adding a new tool in
for colours) this last work is to show an example of the state-of-the-art
simulation tools.
Depending on the particularities of the problem to solve,
some tools can be more efficient than others. Students have
to discuss and argue their choice regarding the software that
they would use to develop this final project.

4.2 NETSIM: A graduate course on discrete

event simulation
NETSIM is a graduate course on discrete-event simulation
offered to MSc students at the UOC. The main target of this
course is to develop an MS thesis in the area of simulation
of networks and distributed computer systems. Students
have to choose among several research lines in this
area, including development of simulation-based routing
algorithms (Faulin and Juan, 2008), use of simulation to
improve queuing models such as contact centres (Faulin and
Juan, 2005), use of simulation to determine reliability and
 Learning Operations Research online: benefits, challenges, and experiences 47

availability in complex systems and networks (Juan et al., Figure 4 WebCT course to teach decision making: menu with
2007a), and use of simulation to improve wide area companies’ cases videos (see online version
networks performance. for colours)
Regarding the last of these research lines, during the last
years several students have been working in different
aspects of the so-called Castelldefels Project (Juan et al.,
2007b). This project consists of the development of a
simulation model that accurately represents the real
computer system that gives support to the e-learning
environment at the UOC. This should be done with the
help of network simulation software such as OMNET++
(www.omentpp.org) or OPNET Modeler (www.opnet.com).
The main target of the Castelldefels project is to provide the
computer system’s managers with a realistic simulation
model of their system. This model will allow the managers:
• to analyse the behaviour of the current system to
discover possible performance problems such as
bottlenecks, weak points in the structure, among others
• to perform what-if analysis regarding future changes
in the system, including the addition of new
internet-based services, variations in the number and
types of users, changes in hardware or software
components, etc.
By involving themselves in this project, computer science
students not only learn simulation but also learn how it can These cases can be used by the professor to help the student
be useful in the computer network arena. to understand how to make decisions in different types of
service companies. Concerning the inner structure of this
course, students have to develop up to seven exercises,
5 Experiences at the Public University of Navarre with the help of specific documents and books related to
(UPNA) real decision cases, using linear programming and queuing
theory. Usually, it is expected that students make use of
The Public University of Navarre in Pamplona, Spain,
computer programs such as LINDO, LINGO, WinQSB or
belongs to a virtual network of nine Spanish universities,
Microsoft Excel to solve the specific cases proposed in the
which share teaching resources to offer a wider supply of
online course (Figure 5). Some of those programs can be
online subjects for their students. This group of nine
downloaded in a free way over the internet and others have
universities is called the G9 group (www.uni-g9.net). In this
an appropriate spread among the users so that they can be
context, an interdisciplinary group of professors designed a
directly employed in the resolution of the exercises provided
completed online subject entitled Decision Making in E-
here.
Business (Toma de Decisiones en la E-Empresa) for the
whole G9 virtual campus. This subject has been built into
Figure 5 LINDO output solving an integer programming
the WebCT platform with the use of most of the teaching problem with the assignments list in WebCT in the
tools designed to be developed by the online instructor. This background (see online version for colours)
subject is usually followed by students of Engineering and
Business to improve their abilities in decision-making.
Furthermore, this decision-making subject is mainly
devoted to help students understand the most important
tools to decision-making in virtual and service companies.
Service companies are omnipresent in our current society
along with virtual communities. This subject delves into the
inner structure of these companies to help the students to
grasp the best way to make decisions in that arena.
The key concepts which are taught in this subject are
related to the use of linear programming, queuing theory
and simulation to design a decision-making course in virtual
and service companies (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons,
2007). A partial view of the companies’ cases videos menu
of this course can be seen in Figure 4.
48 J. Faulin et al.
Finally, the assessment of this subject is carried out by the
detailed solving of one of the two cases given to the
students to test their abilities in making decisions in an
uncertain situation involving a myriad of problems related
to virtual companies. Decision Making in E-Business is an
one-semester subject which has been taught for four
academic years focused on the discussion of real companies
cases.
Concerning the challenges of OR online teaching
depicted in Section 3 in relation to this subject, it is possible
to say the following:
• usually, there are no problems with the mathematical
level of the subject because we do not take anything for
granted, but we pay special attention to the self-learning
of the students
• the students motivation is generally high with 60%
of students participating actively in the subject fora
• keeping in mind the inner difficulty of the OR subjects,
we usually perform assessment tests easier than in
normal teaching
• trying to solve the lack of face-to-face interaction, we
regularly answer the students’ questions in the
following 12 hours, with particular emphasis in solving
their doubts.
6 Experiences at the National University of
Distance Education (UNED)
6.1 General description of the UNED distance
teaching model
The Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
(UNED) is the public Spanish Open University. It was
founded in 1972 following the idea of the UK’s Open
University to provide higher quality and continuing
education opportunities to everyone through the distance
education system. It awards the same qualifications as other
Spanish and European universities. However, some special
features of UNED make it different from most other
Spanish universities: it is nationwide in scope, uses different
methodology, and has a wide social influence with radio and
TV programming along with a vivid feedback with students
using internet.
UNED’s mission is to be present as a Spanish centre of
excellence throughout the world. UNED currently has 60
study centres (Centros Asociados in Spanish) in Spain and
20 overseas, thanks to the cooperation of local institutions.
These centres provide face-to-face sessions with professors
once a week. The international centres can be found in Bata,
Berlin, Bern, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Lima,
London, Malabo, México D.F., Paris and Sao Paulo, among
others. Thus, teaching at UNED is a mixture between
traditional classes (weekly tutorials), traditional distance
teaching (phone, radio and TV) and the internet courses.
UNED is the second largest university in Europe with
more than 180,000 students worldwide and 9,630 professors
and since 1997 it has held the UNESCO chair in Distance
Education, which promotes research, development and
documentation in the field of distance education.
The University maintains an excellent standard of higher
education: In the last 30 years it has awarded more than
2,000 PhDs. Figure 6 shows the UNED main webpage of
their headquarters in Madrid. Usually, the UNED study
centres located around the world have also designed their
own webpage.
Figure 6 Main webpage of UNED belonging to its headquarters
in Madrid, Spain (see online version for colours)
Nowadays, UNED is facing the important challenge
of the extensive use of internet for distance teaching,
considering that many online universities worldwide are
strong competitors of UNED. Nevertheless, the UNED
mixed model (weekly tutorials – traditional distance
teaching – internet courses) has been very interesting for
many students who want a more physical contact with their
professors and lecturers. That is the reason why the impact
of new online universities has been smaller than the initially
expected one.
6.2 Explaining the subject discrete
optimisation online
Knowing the context of the UNED study centres, there are
some UNED professors located in those regional centres.
Those professors are called tutors. The main responsibilities
of UNED tutors is the teaching of the UNED students who
live near their study centre (Centro Asociado) by the weekly
tutorials taught in those centres. Thus, the work of the
professors at the UNED headquarters in Madrid is
complemented by the tutors support. Moreover, since the
intensive use of internet in distance teaching, some tutors
have been selected to teach online some of their subjects
using the WebCT platform to all the UNED students
registered in those subjects. Those selected tutors are called
TAR (Internet Support Tutors) and we are going to explain
the experience of one of them located in the UNED study
 Learning Operations Research online: benefits, challenges, and experiences
centre in Pamplona, Spain who teaches the subject Discrete
Optimisation in the last year (second year) of the MSc in
Computer Engineer.
The Discrete Optimisation subject is a typical course of
OR especially designed for Computer Engineering students.
The WebCT webpage containing fora organise the students
by regional study centres, helping the tutor TAR to classify
better the students’ questions and the answers which they
can provide.
The contents of the Discrete Optimisation subject are
mainly focused on Linear Programming, Network
Optimisation, and Metaheuristics, among others. The
handbook used by students is the Hillier and Liebermann’s
(2008) text. The software employed in this subject is usually
LINDO and MS Excel, although some students manage to
build their own optimisation codes. The assessment process
is centred in a final exam in one of the study centres spread
worldwide along with the development of some suitable
assignments. Usually, the mixed teaching model of UNED
has been proved successful in many cases; nevertheless,
concerning this subject the use of internet has been very
popular between their students, making the other two
aspects of the mixed model less important. Therefore, the
most important contribution of online teaching to this
subject is the feedback provided by their students in the fora
depicted in Figure 7. The tutor TAR usually monitors the
postings in those fora to improve their efficiency as teaching
and debating tools. Furthermore, it is necessary to clarify
that each student is a member of his/her local forum (forum
of the students of the same study centre) and of the general
forum, which contains all the students registered in the
subject.
Figure 7 Presentation of all WebCT fora (one per UNED study
centre) belonging to the Discrete Optimisation subject
(see online version for colours)
7 Experiences at the University of Lleida (UdL)
The University of Lleida (UdL) has recognised the value of
e-learning technologies in the context of a traditional
teaching University. The UdL has many degrees that
49
are offered by traditional teaching in a classroom.
In this context, e-learning is seen either as a complement of
traditional teaching methodologies and as a new stream to
develop innovative courses. For this purpose, the UdL
joined the Sakai project (http://sakaiproject.org/) on August
2005.
Sakai is an online Collaboration and Learning
Environment. The main trait of Sakai is that it is a free
and open-source product that is built and maintained by the
Sakai community. Sakai is a Java-based, service-oriented
application suite designed to be scalable, reliable,
interoperable and extensible. As a result, selected courses at
UdL are offered online based on Sakai’s e-learning
technology. Under UdL point of view, one important
advantage of online courses for all those students working
outside is the possibility of being enrolled.
Optimisation by Simulation (ObS) is a course on
pseudo-optimisation by using discrete-event simulation
offered to MSc students in Business and Administration
Science. This master program is taught in the Law and
Economics Faculty at UdL. Most of the students come from
the same Faculty after their graduation on Business studies.
The course is offered online with optional face-to-face
sessions developed in a computer classroom. All the
material: presentations, notes, exercises, solved exercises,
papers, timing and scheduling is available online
(Figure 8). It is important to remark that regular students in
the master program have a weak mathematical background
because they only have followed one introductory
Mathematics course. Furthermore, it is expected that
students will jump the gap between theory and practice,
being able to solve real decision problems in their
professional career. To overcome this paradox, the ObS
course based on learning by experimenting was proposed
and the first edition was started up in 2005.
The syllabus of the course is focused in optimisation but
under a different point of view. The perspective adopted
is that real world is complex and should be modelled to
cope with optimisation problems. As the model is a
simplification of a real system, the results are also an
approximation of the real ones. Optimal results are as good
as the hypothesis in which the model is based is true.
Therefore, basics of mathematical programming are
reviewed. Advantages of linear programming are discussed
by solving some complex instances illustrating its practical
utility. Soon after, real problems are presented and
shortcomings of classical deterministic approaches are
shown. Afterwards, simulation is presented as an alternative
methodology to cope with decision problems. In both cases,
the goodness of the solution is tightly related to the accuracy
of the model representing the real instance. Then, the
emphasis along the course is put on the development
of modelling skills, the main concern of the course.
The program of the course is divided into three main parts:
• optimisation methodologies
• discrete-event simulation
50 J. Faulin et al.
• decision-making in business and administration
management and the role of mathematical tools in
decision-making.
The first part begins recalling the usefulness of classical
methodologies of mathematical programming and remarks
their limitation in the resolution of real instances. Main
problems arise in the formulation of a well conditioned
objective function. Initially, the traditional optimisation
methodologies with equality and inequality restrictions
applied to specific engineering problems are studied. Linear
programming models receive special attention at this stage.
The solution of these problems as well as their methodology
is easy. Problems of several tens of variables and constraints
are modelled in a more complex manner. So, we can use the
solver of MS Excel to obtain their solution. Nevertheless
this simple methodology is less useful to non-linear
non-deterministic real problems.
Therefore, in the second part, real problems where the
exact solution is difficult to find are introduced. Hence,
numerical approximations by using simulation models of
the real system are proposed. To do this, simulation
methodology is introduced. Therefore, the student learns
briefly in this part how to perform a simulation study as
described in Law and Kelton (2005).
Figure 8 General outlook of the Sakai course at the University
of Lleida (see online version for colours)
The software programs employed to deploy the examples
and analyse different cases are:
• spreadsheets
• multipurpose simulation software: demo version of
Extend (http://www.imaginethatinc.com).
Extend is a powerful simulation tool allowing visual
programming. There are not sessions devoted to learning
specifically Extend; it is introduced gradually in the
classroom by solving simple examples at the beginning.
Main elements in extend models are blocks stored in
pre-programmed libraries. The icon blocks exploit visual
and intuitive skills of the students. On the other hand, the
modelling of the system is easy and flexible; the students
can modify the model in few steps introducing new blocks,
erasing ones, changing the parameters, among others
(Krahl, 2003). Our experience showed us that student’s
capabilities are better exploited with the use of Extend and,
also, that analyses of more or less complex systems become
easier to perform.
Furthermore, modelling with Extend facilitates the
structure and visual presentation of the problem, as well as
their modular development of constructed form, going from
the general thing to the particular one (top-down approach
development). This methodology facilitates the achievement
of good habits in modelling since they are related to the
object-oriented programming paradigm.
The third part is a discussion of instances solved
applying the methods and the analysis of results presented
along the course (Figure 9). In this part of the course, the
use of simulation and, especially, the results analysis serve
to review statistical concepts that students must have
acquired: probability, distributions, descriptive statistics,
estimators, hypothesis tests, etc. Every session begins with
the proposal of different cases to the students for their
discussion and solution. Emphasis is put on the steps of a
simulation study and how OR can be useful to support the
decision-making processes. At the end of the course,
it is expected that the students can develop their own
models, simulating and doing a good analysis of the
problem results.
Figure 9 Introductory example with Extend (see online version
for colours)
This course has been planned attending to the following
principles: use of examples with a progression in the
complexity and the discussion of the methodology,
technique, and results. Likewise, this outlook allows
a stepwise progression in both teaching and learning of the
simulation tool Extend. All this process is dressed
 Learning Operations Research online: benefits, challenges, and experiences
with material available through Sakai: notes, exercises,
scientific papers, slides from presentations, internet links to
software or related material, the syllabus, grading and other
useful information for the development of the course.
Furthermore, regular activities are proposed to students to
control their progress, and instantaneous messaging keep
instructor and students in touch for important events. These
activities are qualified and students’ marks are available
online. All in all, this methodology has been proven to be
very stimulating and successful for students following this
subject.
8 Leassons learned
After having presented four diverse cases of teaching OR
online in different Spanish universities, we think those cases
can show some lessons learned of this kind of teaching.
Thus, the lessons learned at the UOC can be summarised
in the following paragraphs:
• Using a professional-oriented approach is a key factor
of success in any OR e-learning course. By solving
real-life OR problems using Computer-Supported
Collaborative e-Learning (CSCL), students learn OR
techniques, and enjoy the experience.
• CSCL allows students from different degrees
(e.g., Business Management and Computer Science) to
share knowledge and collaborate in interdisciplinary
OR projects.
• There are several alternative Learning Management
Systems (Moodle, WebCT, and Sakai, among others)
that can be used to teach OR online. Some of them are
open-source and some of them are proprietary software,
but all of them offer similar capabilities.
• There are a lot of good OR software available for
academic use, some of them can be freely used by
students. It is convenient to use several programs
through the course, so that students get aware of the
different alternatives available to solve their problems.
• The selected OR software should depend on the
concrete degree: for Business Management sciences,
software with a low learning curve such as LINDO,
Excel Solver, @Risk, Extend or Visual Basic
for Applications should be employed; for
Computer Scientists and Electrical Engineers, more
time-consuming software such as LINGO, GAMS,
ILOG, Arena, Java or C# should be selected.
• Teaching OR online has both advantages and
drawbacks. But one outstanding advantage is that it
allows to teach OR to a lot of people who without
online courses will never enrol OR programs because
of their impossibility to combine work, family and
studies.
Concerning the challenges of OR online teaching meet
at Public University of Navarre, it is possible to mention
that:
51
• Usually, there are no problems with the mathematical
level of the subject because we do not take anything for
granted, paying especial attention to the self-learning of
the students.
• Students’ motivation is normally high in this subject
with 60% of students following all the subject details.
• Keeping in mind the inner difficulty of the OR subjects,
we usually perform assessment tests easier than in
normal teaching.
• Trying to solve the lack of face-to-face interaction, we
regularly answer the students’ questions in the
following 12 hours, with particular emphasis in solving
their problems.
The UNED case is really meaningful because it describes
the importance of using online teaching in a traditional
distance teaching university. On one hand, this case has
been particularly relevant because of the big number of
students which this university has enrolled. On the other
hand, the special structure of this university organised in
study centres (Centros Asociados) involved the successful
experience of combining the traditional distance learning
with the online teaching using the WebCT. Furthermore, the
feedback obtained from the UNED students, using the local
and general fora in WebCT, has been very helpful to
understand the difficulties and problems, which these
students are facing.
Similarly, the experience at UdL reveals that the
emphasis is put on solving examples and the use of software
that make students to overcome possible deficiencies in
their background. Besides, the use of software relying on
visual programming stimulates students regardless of the
extra number of hours they need in training to progress.
Collaborative works and the discussion of problems
increase the interaction among students and with the
instructor, although this subject lectures in the class are
optional. The Sakai environment was familiar to students
because it is common for all subjects at the University.
However, before Sakai, WebCT was the online system
adopted at UdL. The personal experience with WebCT was
much better than that using Sakai from instructor point of
view; however, the advantages of the freeware are
recognised. In particular, the tool and options to prepare test
and correct them was very reliable. Sakai, instead, is very
poor in this respect. It is very hard to prepare test, import
from other files or already done tests even to correct
automatically or introduce modification. In the end, these
aspects remain hidden to students.
Students following activities proposed through Sakai
pass the subject. Only those declining to participate in
activities fail. A reason for this is the lack of available
time to prepare the subject, because, usually, they are
partial-time students. The instructor has a final feedback
from students, before getting the marks. They fill a
questionnaire about the subject and always the average mark
ranged from 4 to 5, being 5 the maximum score. Students
appreciate the fact of working over (real) examples and with
easy-to-use software. Other colleagues from the Department
52 J. Faulin et al.
of Mathematics have problems to enroll enough students to
get the subject open but our offer is always demanded with
some punctual overflow.
9 Conclusions
The use of e-learning to teach OR is an interesting
method to motivate students who cannot attend the
classroom because of their personal or professional
commitments. We have described some experiences
developed in four different Spanish universities, paying
attention in the way of teaching OR-related subjects by
using only a virtual tool (UOC or UPNA cases), a
combination of virtual devices along with traditional
lectures (UdL case) or a mixture between the traditional
distance education paradigm and the online teaching
platform (UNED case). Several alternative online platforms
and OR software can be used; some of them are better
suited for Business Management students, while others are
preferable for Engineering students. In any case, at the end
the key of a successful course is to be able to provide the
students with professional-oriented activities, which allow
them to discover potential applications of OR techniques,
from linear programming to simulation, in their area.
We consider that some details given in the present paper
could help the interested readers to perform their own
practices regarding the teaching of OR in other scenarios.
Likewise, we think these learning procedures would make
easier to the student to learn complex subjects in our
changing world.
Acknowledgements
This work has been partially supported by the Spanish
Ministry of Education under grant EA2008-0151 and also
by the Department of Universities, Research & Information
Society of the Catalan Government under grant 2008MQD
00131.
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