Business simulation

Abstract: One of the central challenges of integrating game-based learning in school settings is helping learners make the connections between the knowledge learned in the game and the knowledge learned at school, while maintaining a high level of engagement with game narrative and gameplay. The current study evaluated the effect of supplementing a business simulation game with an external conceptual scaffold, which introduces formal knowledge representations, on learners' ability to solve financial-mathematical word problems following the game, and on learners' perceptions regarding learning, flow, and enjoyment in the game. Participants (Mage?=?10.10 years) were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: a "study and play" condition that presented the scaffold first and then the game, a "play and study" condition, and a "play only" condition. Although no significant gains in problem-solving were found following the intervention, learners who studied with the external scaffold before the game performed significantly better in the post-game problem-solving assessment. Adding the external scaffold before the game reduced learners' perceived learning. However, the scaffold did not have a negative impact on reported flow and enjoyment. Flow was found to significantly predict perceived learning and enjoyment. Yet, perceived learning and enjoyment did not predict problem-solving and flow directly predicted problem solving only in the "play and study" condition. We suggest that presenting the scaffold may have "problematized" learners' understandings of the game by connecting them to disciplinary knowledge. Implications for the design of scaffolds for game-based learning are discussed. The effect of augmenting a game with an external conceptual scaffold was studied.Adding the scaffold before the game led to better problem-solving but lowered perceived learning.The scaffold did not reduce reported flow and enjoyment.Flow predicted perceived learning and enjoyment but these did not predict problem-solving.Flow predicted problem-solving only when the scaffold was presented after the game.

Abstract: This article examines developments in business simulation gaming during the past 40 years. Covered in this article are a brief history of business games, the changing technology employed in the development and use of business games, changes in why business games are adopted and used, changes in how business games are administered, and the current state of business gaming. Readers interested in developments in other areas of simulation gaming (urban planning, social studies, ecology, economics, geography, health, etc.) are encouraged to look at other articles appearing during the 40th anniversary year of Simulation & Gaming and at the many fine articles that appeared in the silver anniversary issue of Simulation & Gaming (December 1995).

Abstract: A major survey involving more than 1,500 mail questionnaires was administered just over 10 years ago to determine the extent of business simulation game usage in academia and in business training p...