Many online business schools (as well as traditional business programs) are adding virtual simulations to their curriculum. A new Business Week article explains:

"Online simulations are Internet-based games that allow students to perform tasks such as overseeing operations management of a virtual factory or serving as chief executive of a virtual business and networking with other executives. Professors can track every move students make in these online games and use the data to grade the students and provide feedback on specific skills. Often the online simulations drive competition among students and give them a chance to apply the skills and theories learned in class in a virtual arena similar to a typical workplace.

Companies that are developing the online simulations say they have an inherent advantage over paper-based case studies. "You can read about bicycles, but you won't be a good cyclist until you start riding one," says Samuel Wood, one of the creators of Littlefield Technologies, an online factory simulation, at Stanford Graduate School of Business."

Virtual simulations are a great fit for business programs as they generally do not require a lab setting (unlike subjects such as chemistry). Business Week even postulates that new virtual simulations may win out over the ever-so-popular business school case studies.