Department of Business Administration invites to a public research seminar.
Wednesday, 4 March 2026 at 15:00-16:00 in room SOC-356 / MS Teams
A presentation by Marge Sassi (PhD, Senior Lecturer), Maris Zernand (PhD, Senior Lecturer), Jelena Hartšenko (Lecturer), TalTech Department of Business Administration.
📝Several studies and frameworks have classified learners in game based environments by their behaviours (Van Gaalen et al., 2022), skill–challenge balance (Bitrián et al., 2020), motivation, and engagement styles (Slater et al., 2022). Understanding learners’ readiness, interests, and profiles remains essential for effective instruction (Tomlinson, 2014). This paper in progress aims to develop a typology of learners in simulation based education, drawing on data from 338 students who made 192 managerial decisions while playing the online simulation game FLIGBY, developed on Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow theory and used also in the TALTECH curriculum. The study will produce a learners’ typology and derive recommendations for instructors and students to enhance the pedagogical use of FLIGBY. More broadly, the findings contribute to the advancement of simulation based approaches in teaching leadership and management in higher education.
Marge Sassi is a senior lecturer at TalTech whose work focuses on leadership and organizational performance in the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI). She earned her doctorate at the Estonian Business School, where she examined performance evaluation in CCI organizations. Her research interests span strategic management, performance assessment, and cultural management, and she has published in several international journals in these fields. Marge has served in expert and academic roles at the European Commission, OSCE, IOM, the Estonian Business School, and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. She also holds PRINCE2 project management certifications. Creativity and innovation are central to her teaching practice - values she both appreciates and actively incorporates into her pedagogical approach.
Maris Zernand is an academic researcher and senior lecturer specializing in organisation science, management, leadership and human resource development. She is part of the Organisation and Management Unit. Her doctoral dissertation was defended on the adoption and implementation of new management ideas in Estonian business organisations. Maris’s research interests sit at the management practices and organisational development, leadership development and competencies in evolving organisational environments. She has served as a mentor in professional events such as hackathons and contributes to professional communities focused on management practice. She is currently the member of municipality council and its committee of education.
Jelena Hartšenko is a lecturer within the Sustainable Value Chain Management Unit. Her research is primarily in economics, with interests in financial systems and economic development, small and medium enterprise (SME) development and financial support mechanisms, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intentions. Her scholarly output also includes collaborative interdisciplinary work, demonstrating a broad research engagement beyond core economics topics. As a lecturer, she teaches core economics and business research methods courses such as analysis methods for business research, econometrics, statistics, and other quantitative approaches.
The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee