An Exploration of Game-Derived Learning in Total Enterprise Simulations

Abstract

This article reports a series of exploratory studies dealing with learning in total enterprise simulations. These studies had three purposes: (a) to examine the validity of simulations as learning tools, (b) to measure any relationships between learning about the simulation and economic performance in the game, (c) to discover if some players learn more than others from the same business gaming experience. For this research, learning emanated from the game’s structure and decision-making requirements. Learning was measured using parallel forms of a multiple-choice, short-essay examination. The results showed that learning occurred from simulation play but did not vary with performance. There was some evidence that participants learned more when they perceived their teams to be well organized.

Learning economics concepts through game-play: An experiment

“…Third, we do not find evidence that playing the video-game would have a different relative effect on exam performance for males compared to females. Fourth, contrary to previous findings on business simulations (Anderson & Lawton, 1992;Gosen & Washbush, 2004;Washbush & Gosen, 2001), we find that game behavior and exam performance are related, and differently so for different types of learning and assessment: scores in multiple-choice questions are only correlated with game play elements; essay question scores are correlated with both watching instructional videos and engaging in game play; and, particularly for questions requiring deep understanding, synthesis and evaluation, using interactive graphs is also related to exam performance. Finally, students perceived the two learning tools similarly in terms of understanding instructions or usefulness, but as expected, they enjoyed the video-game considerably more.…”

Current issues and future directions in simulation-based training in North America

“…Washbush and Gosen (2001), for example, identified a total of 11 well-designed experimental studies of business simulations and concluded that the use of simulations improved learning by an average of 10% on pre-and post-training knowledge assessments. Wolfe (1997) included quasi-experimental studies in his review, but reached a similar conclusion that simulation gaming produced better learning than the use of business case studies.…”

Exploring Learning Experience in a Total Enterprise Simulation Based on Means-End Theory

“…It seems like that [students often say in the course] "we made it, it just happened, but we don"t know exactly why/how we got to the end". On the other hand, some explained that performers who struggled a lot learned more than high performers who struggled less (Washbush and Gosenpud, 1993;Wolfe and Chanin, 1993;Washbush and Gosen, 2001). From a pragmatic point of view this can be put another way: given simulation learning in a university setting is a means of attaining grades, the grade-seeking motivation, e.g.…”

“…As a response to the commonsense suggestion: those who perform the best learn the most, some suggested that simulation-based learning correlates to performance positively (Teach, 1989;Wolfe and Deloach, 2009) but they are not linearly dependent. Numerous empirical outcomes indicate that the relationship between learning and performance seems weak (Anderson and Lawton, 1992;Wellington and Faria, 1992; Washbush and Gosen, 2001). Much evidence says that high performance maybe results in luck (Thorngate and Carroll, 1987;Burns et al, 1990).…”

“…Many studies have reported that there seems no kind of statistical linkage exiting between learning outcomes and such game-facilitating factors in terms of team size, simulation complexity, game administration (Wolfe, 1976a;1976b;Wolfe and Chacko, 1983;Faria, 2001). Washbush and Gosen (2001) studied learning as a consequence of participating in TES by using a method built on objective evidence (Anderson and Lawton, 2009) e.g. market share, cash flow, return on sales, and others.…”