Quantrix in Academics – Gregg Ibendahl, Ph.D.
Background:
Dr. Gregg Ibendahl is an Associate Professor in Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University. His specialty areas are farm management and agricultural finance. As an educator, Professor Ibendahl wants his students to learn to make decisions in a realistic environment. To create such an environment, Dr. Ibendahl developed a simulation game for his farm management class. Within the simulation, students make decisions about crop acreage, financing, machinery purchasing as well as land renting/purchasing. Professor Ibendahl built this simulation game in Quantrix!
The Simulation Game:
The goal of the simulation game, and more broadly, the class, is to integrate all the different subjects the students have taken up to that point and combine them into one coherent semester-long exercise. Rather than simply memorizing a formula for a specific situation, the game promotes creative thinking. Similar to completing a puzzle, students must combine bits of information they receive and piece them together to make their forward-looking plans and decisions.
Why Quantrix?
Professor Ibendahl needed a flexible tool that allowed him to make any necessary adjustments in real-time. There are a variety of dimensions/variables in the game: the years, the number of students and the multi-year loans, to name a few. The flexibility needed to create such a model was not available in traditional spreadsheets. As Dr. Ibendahl puts it, “Quantrix. That was the perfect tool… because it does allow you to expand.”
Further, using the built-in “Canvas” Dashboard functionality within Quantrix, Dr. Ibendahl produced one-page financial statements, one for each of his students. By reviewing the statements, students were able to assess their progress and modify their future decisions and plans.
Student/Quantrix Interaction
More recently, Dr. Ibendahl decided to develop a new lesson plan. His students are now working on big data exercises. He is demonstrating to his class how you can take Quantrix and produce reports. The Select Statement function found in Quantrix paired with governmental/organizational data, enables the class to analyze datasets in a way they were not able to previously with traditional tools. The students are learning widely applicable and valuable techniques for working with database management. Companies are moving towards big data, so the lessons they learn today could have major impacts for them in the future.
Quantrix Training with Students
There were 3 or 4 initial lessons to familiarize the class with the software. Professor Ibendahl foresees 1 or 2 additional lessons before the semester is over. From Dr. Ibendahl’s perspective, with Quantrix you get “the best of both worlds.” He continues, “I think the students like the fact… it’s not that big of a jump from Excel, you can still see the data and you can also supply some database concepts at the same time.”
Quantrix Impact on Teaching
Students appreciate hands-on examples. Quantrix provides students the opportunity to work with real-world cases. In fact, Professor Ibendahl uses data that comes from local farms located within the state of Kansas.
Summary
Quantrix is a powerful, flexible tool that can be used to solve a variety of use cases. In the world of academics, software needs to be easily understood by Professors and students alike. Quantrix is accessible to both. Professors have the opportunity to learn and teach the tool quickly, while students can build upon their model-building and analysis skills.
Whether you are an educator, student, or work in an entirely different field, please feel free to download our free trial and see the power of Quantrix for yourself!
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Highlights:
- Dr. Ibendahl developed a simulation game for his farm management class
- Quantrix was the flexible tool he needed to create the game
- Students are now using Quantrix as part of the class
- Quantrix helps to provide students with real-world data/examples
- Quantrix is accessible to educators and students
