The role of the instructor in business games: a comparison of face-to-face and online instruction Ana Beatriz Hernández, María Tatiana Gorjup and Rosalía Cascón This study analyses the role of the instructor in the e-learning process fostered by a business game. To achieve this objective, a comparative analysis was conducted with two groups of students regarding their perceptions of the instructor’s role in a business game. The first group was composed of 33 participants and facilitated by an instructor in a face-to-face process. The second group was composed of 23 participants and facilitated by the same instructor online. Our results indicate that the students’ assessment of the role of the instructor is clearly different in both cases: the face-to-face group valued the rel- evance of the instructor’s role in the learning process more highly than the online group. Our findings also highlight the importance of the instructor’s role in improving the students’ learning experience and suggest that extra efforts by online instructors are needed to maximize the e-learning process through business games in management training. Introduction A generic vision of e-learning involves different forms of learning supported by infor- mation and communication technologies (ICTs) and the use of the Internet to enhance knowledge and performance (McGill & Klobas, 2009). The spectacular development of ICTs, and especially the Internet, has been changing teaching and learning processes for some years now (Ma et al., 2000). This has led to more widespread access to education by larger groups, new methods and mechanisms of study, rapid growth of ❒ Ana Beatriz Hernández, Lecturer, Department of Business Management, Rovira i Virgili University, Avinguda Universitat, 1 (43204) Reus, Spain. Email: anabeatriz.hernandez@urv.cat. María Tatiana Gorjup, Lecturer, Department of Business Management, Rovira i Virgili University,Avinguda Univer- sitat, 1 (43204) Reus, Spain. Email: mariatatiana.gorjup@urv.cat. Rosalía Cascón, Lecturer, Department of Business Management, Rovira i Virgili University,Avinguda Universitat, 1 (43204) Reus, Spain. Email: rosalia.cascon@urv.cat International Journal of Training and Development 14:3 ISSN 1360-3736 © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. The role of the instructor in business games 169