Nowadays Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have a important role in the performance improvement and control of a company and its entire supply chain. Therefore, this system is a vital part of a company’s competitiveness and new approaches for learning are needed to be developed in order to provide knowledge and skills in faster and more efficient manner for employees. Our aim in this manuscript is it to show, how ERP systems could be incorporated in the logistics courses of a university. This environment provides good platform to test new course formats, since most of the university students do not have any previous experience with these systems.
In this research the structure and contents regarding ERP system usage in certain courses in the logistics curriculum at a Swedish University are being presented. Essentially, a traditional approach, where computer sessions are incorporated in ordinary courses are compared to a new intensive and flexible course format entirely dedicated to ERP systems. Additionally, the two utilized approaches are analyzed through student evaluations based on courses arranged during year 2008.
Research shows that both of the approaches offer good opportunities; the students appreciated the traditional approach, since it allowed them to receive both theoretical and practical knowledge and skills, while they felt the intensive to be beneficial in developing practical side further. Consequently, the best alternative could be to utilize both of these formats. Still, this research shows that skilled responsible lecturer, among intensive course setting, is quite possibly one route for faster learning and higher productivity oflecturing.