Academic Training

This chapter focuses on training the Lecturer to understand the practical aspects and different underpinning needed to maximise the effect of using games in the teaching. Facilitative methods which then reflect on how theory is used are explored so academic content can be incorporated in a natural way and become a habit rather than a memory learned item. This pedagogy is then analysed to include opportunities for the students to be innovative and the lecturer advised on this particular facilitation. To further furnish the right environment for this learning the lecturer is prompted to look at set ups, tasks and discussion which ensure best development and learning at both individual and team level. The lecturer reader is guided to observe their course as a viable business model and look at using the game based approach themselves to analyse their contribution and impact on University income and satisfaction surveys. Finally, the lecturer reader is aligned with the employer - again using the same game based approach they teach themselves to explore how employers can be incorporated in the delivery sessions and relationships built with businesses.

Success Factors for Games in Business and Project Management

This chapter covers a number of key features of games in relation to their design and purpose and looks at previously suggested theoretical models and their criteria for effectiveness. Findings from a game study in which players' emotions have been recorded at three points during play are considered, along with some recorded views of tutors conducting those games. Nine games of the Mixed Reality (MR) genre (denoted G1 – G9), all subjects of previous studies, are then looked into, five from earlier publications and a further four conducted as part of the same postgraduate teaching programme in a U.K. University.

Team-Based Games for Leadership

This chapter takes responsibility for defining and initiating the leadership ability of the students in relation to the workplace – not just now but the changing workplace they have ahead of them and not in the way it has been before but in a way which accommodates their different approach and attitudes. Using the team based approach the focus is on the range of skills they need to develop to become leaders in the modern and future workplace. This also includes looking at the leadership they themselves need to bring this about. In addition to exploring how this would manifest at staff operational level, the importance of strategic alignment and visioning is emphasized so all activity is related to business performance and fed into boardroom decision making levels. The chapter explores how team based games use and mixed reality approaches can underpin this thinking and goes on to detail how different staff need motivating to perform in the right way.

The Design and Development of a TBMR Game

This chapter revisits the concepts and elements important in game design, in particular in relation to a new educational game called Simulation of Business Strategy (SiBS) developed for students of business innovation. The Learning Objectives (LOs) ethos and content of a teaching module called Management of Engineering and Technology Innovation (METI) delivered to second year undergraduates are explained. These are used as the basis for the design of the SiBS game and its subsequent evaluation trials on a cohort of 101 undergraduate students. The stages of game design and development are described, starting with the scenario based on a project to establish and expand a company manufacturing a product and selling to the retail trade. Decisions were required from small teams on issues such as pricing, financing, parts supply, marketing and quality, Key features are identified that will enhance the motivation to learn, such as challenge, collaboration, competition, goal-setting and feedback.

Problem-Based Learning for Training in Project Management

The chapter starts from the viewpoint that Project Management (PM) has become an increasingly important discipline over recent years, not least in view of the number of major infrastructure projects which have been both late and over budget. An increasing number of educational establishments are offering related courses in PM, mainly at Masters level. The chapter begins by giving some examples of PBL-related demonstrations and tasks, suggesting methods which lead into the design of a project management game. TACT (Time and Cost Targeting) is designed around Group Decision Support System (GDSS) methodology. It focusses on multi-activity projects of a complex nature and is based on two well-recognised quantitative PM techniques, Critical Path Analysis (CPA) and Earned Value Method (EVM). A simulated project is used, based on the provision of a “Generator for a Tidal Barrier” and incorporates two distinct phases: Planning and Implementation. Results from preliminary tests based on samples of participating students are described and discussed.

The Case for Serious Games in Education

The chapter sets the scope, rationale and purpose of the book. It then covers a number of related topics, principally a review of learning theories and considers Bloom's well known learning taxonomy, and at which levels games of the mixed reality genre can be associated. The impact of games and simulations in learning is backed up by evidence from a survey of opinions as to which types of learning raise achievement levels the most. It also introduces the concepts of Experiential Learning (EL), Problem Based Learning (PBL) and Simulation Based Training (SBT) and then considers recent developments in education such as digital games, e-learning, distance and blended learning. It concludes with a review of earlier assessments of the value of games and an introduction to the suggested elements of good design in mixed reality games.

SYNERGIE

This chapter reviews established business analytical tools such as SWOT, PESTEL, the BCG matrix and Porter's five forces, some of which have become dated due to the use of the internet and the emergence of global markets. It suggests that there are many more forces present when seeking to launch and sustain a new business. The SYNERGIE game allows individual trainees or small teams to select a preferred business type (from a pack of blue cards) and consider the elements (threats and opportunities etc.) which might need be considered. In a series of rounds, teams collect ‘issues' from a pack of orange cards, to try to build up a set of the issues they think are most relevant to their chosen businesses. The tutor has access to an electronic matrix which computes the scores for each team. Further rounds can involve the acquisition of several businesses and permit the collection of further cards with issues common to all of those business types, illustrating the concept of synergy.

Knowledge Exchange

This chapter extends and applies the TBMR approach to the workplace directly and it explores the benefits in detail to departments and divisions in an organization. By looking at different organizational structures, their associated communications cultures and isolating where the use of team based games can be most beneficial, markets can be identified as well as new uses pinpointed within those markets. Innovative thinking from the reader is also encouraged to come up with new ideas to implement for the future in any organization they will be, or are, working in. This chapter then proceeds to encourage the marriage of higher education and the workplace through the use of the team based game approach picking up from previous chapters. To follow this, discussion around how personal development training in the workplace can be made attractive to the millennial consumer using TBMR approaches is offered. This leads onto how the same games can be used in recruitment - for instance in assessment centres and interviews and then how they can be used in the development programmes in the organisation to keep staff interested, motivated and retained in their jobs. The chapter includes ideas of how team based games can be used for the Corporate Jolly/Away Day.