Is there a place for educational games and simulations in Higher Education?

Janet French

Visiting Lecturer, University of Hertfordshire&

CIPD Programme Leader, Barking & Dagenham College

Background to study

Researcher’s background• Visiting lecturer at University of Hertfordshire.

• Fractional lecturer at a Higher Educational Institute - Barking & Dagenham College.

• External Examiner and qualification writer for Edexcel and Edexcel International

• Recently completed the CPAD programme.

• CPAD2 required students to write an article.

• CPD for CPAD1 - aim to present an article at a conference.

Background to study• A study around the use of educational games on Management & HE

courses in the Business Sector at Barking & Dagenham College.

• College is partnered with the University of Northampton, and is an accredited centre for CMI and CIPD programmes.

• The college’s catchment area comprises one of the most educationally deprived boroughs in the UK.

• University education is a low priority for many students.

• The Management courses attract professionals from the City of London.

• Numerous HE and professional courses are offered.

Courses and progression

1. CMI Diploma in Management & Leadership Level 5 2. CMI Diploma in Strategic Management & Leadership Level 73. MBA (top-up)

Or

4. CIPD Diploma in HR Practice Level 35. CIPD Diploma in HR Management Level 56. CIPD accredited post-graduate diploma/MA in HRM (at a local university)

Or

7. BTEC National Level 3 or Access to HE8. HND Business9. BA (Hons) Business Management (top-up)

Lecturing staff at Barking College

• All lecturing staff possess post-graduate qualifications as well has having substantial commercial experience.

• Several lecturers have PhDs or are working towards.

• Most have experience of the BTEC National Level 3 programmes.

• They are accomplished at devising interactive and challenging learning activities with games being a regular feature in lessons.

Background to educational games

Today’s lecturers

• Lecturers need to find different methods to impart knowledge to students.

• To engage students, today’s lecturers must go beyond the traditional socratic and didactic methods (Azriel et al, 2005)

• Traditional teaching methods are often not conducive to understanding complex practical applications or real life situations.

Today’s university clientéle

• HE has expanded exponentially with more students having vocational qualifications.

• These ‘non-traditional’ qualifications favour active and experiential learning which centres around the student.

• Games are an alternative to the more formal subject centred approach hitherto embraced by universities. (Lean et al, 2006)

Educational perspective

• Games provide another learning modality that goes beyond the typical classroom experience. (Sugar, 1994)

• Games are useful to promote communication within teams. (Barclay & York,1996)

• Games and simulations are an ideal vehicle to embrace the student-centred approach. (Lean et al, 2006)

• Games can simplify complex procedures and include an

element of competition and surprise. (Bochennek, et al, 2007)

History of educational games

• In 3000 BC a war game called Wei-Hai was used to train Chinese soldiers.

• Later there was the Hindu game of Chaturanga.

• Both games can be likened to chess which originated in the 17th Century as a warfare game. (Wilson, 1968)

• Strategic war games have had a role to play in modern warfare ever since. (Lane, 1995)

History of business games

• In 1955 the Rand Corporation devised a logistics game for the US Air Force. (Faria & Nulsen, 1996)

• In the late 1950s, business games had become a regular feature in universities.

• By 1961 there were over 100 business games in use.

• Over 30,000 business executives had played at least one game. (Keys & Wolfe, 1990)

• In 1987 about 8755 instructors in over 1900 business schools used business games in their course work. (Faria, 1987)

Review of literature

Barriers and limitations

• The learning cycle for games is much longer than other exercises. (Keys, 1997)

• Feedback and debriefing is not straight forward. • There is a lack of evaluative studies to establish the learning

validity of games. (Keys & Wolfe, 1990).

• Games often do not account for the qualitative differences in decision making among participants. (Rowland & Gardner, 1973)

Lecturers’ fears

• Many HE lecturers are uncertain how their students will react to games and how successful they will be. (Grisoni, 2002)

• Many lecturers feel that experiential learning techniques are non-academic and therefore not suited to university study .

• Lecturers feel if students cannot learn from a book, there is no reason why they should be able to learn from a game. (Ruben, 1999)

Resource implications• Games development is onerous in terms of time, cost and complex skill levels.

(Westera et al, 2003)

• The main perceived barrier is the availability of resources. (Lean et al, 2006)

• The time involved in using games outweighs the learning benefits achieved. (Lean et al, 2006)

• The number of academics who stop using simulation games is high. (Chang, 1997)

• Role play has a 50% higher workload than for traditional lectures. (Francis & Byrne, 1999)

• Moss (2000) concurs that role play is one of the most labour-intensive teaching exercises.

Deeper understanding

• Lane (1995) asserted that games can give rich experiences which provoke, release and use personal and emotional elements of learning.

• Corti (2006) believes that games build a deep understanding of scenarios, concepts, processes, environments and systems through which learners gain a great deal of satisfaction.

• Games are very good at using drama, storyline, humour and characters to create a compelling experience. Learners not only remember what happened but also why it happened.

• (Corti, 2006)

Different subject areas• The effectiveness of educational games depends upon the subject area.

• In mathematics games are reported to be very effective.

• In the social sciences, there is no perceived difference.

• In language learning, games are beneficial in learning vocabulary, spelling, grammar and syntax skills.

• When measuring retention of knowledge over time, significant results in favour of games is reported across disciplines.

(Randel et al, 1992)

Learning theories embodied in games

• Gagne’s Nine Events can be applied to games as well as Gardner’s Seven Intelligences. (Becker, 2005)

• Applying Gagné’s nine events to games, ensures effective learning. (Kruse, 2010)

• All teaching and learning outcomes meet the educational objectives of Bloom’s Taxonomy. (Lee, 2010)

• One of Chickering & Gamson’s (1987) principles is to encourage active learning and games certainly ensure that students are actively engaged.

To conclude …..• Games embody many attributes associated with how people learn.

• They are social and experiential and require students to recall prior learning and to develop new understanding.

• Not all games are good for learners or learning outcomes and it depends on how they are used.

• By adding games to the curriculum this does not necessarily mean they are integrated with it.

• One method to counter this problem is to allow students to create their own games.

(Oblinger, 2006)

Use of educational games

The use of educational games

• Educational games come in many formats such as:– Card and board games – Simulations– Video and computer games, – Quizzes– Crosswords– Role play– In-tray exercises– Problem solving and strategy games

RESEARCHER’S USE OF GAMESCourse Module Game used

BA (Hons) Busines Project Management Critical Path Analysis board game.

CMI Diploma in Strategic Management Level 7

Financial Management

Balance Sheet Bingo.

CMI Diploma in Strategic Management Level 7

Strategic Project Management

Critical Path Analysis board game

CMI Diploma in Strategic Management Level 7

Strategic Marketing The Apprentice – marketing Dagenham as a tourist destination.

CIPD Diploma in HR Management Managing Employee Relations Computer game to match photos against job titles

CIPD Diploma in HR Practice Learning & Development Weakest Link style game

CIPD Diploma in HR Practice Recording and Analysing HR Data

Computer game to match charts and diagrams against findings.

MBA (top-up) Applied Research Methods Computer game to match research methodologies

HND Business Research Project Critical Path Analysis board game.

Methodology

Methodology

• The inductive research approach was used.

• Qualitative data were collected from three focus groups comprising students from Management & HE programmes at Barking & Dagenham College.

• Each focus groups to comprised 10 students:

1. HND Business and BA (Hons) Business (top-up)2. CMI Management (Levels 5 and 7) and MBA (top-up)3. CIPD Diploma in HR Practice and CIPD Diploma in HR Management

Focus group themes

• The themes discussed during the focus groups:

– methods of learning– motivation– understanding of the subject matter– grasping quantitative elements– team building – fun – ease of learning – time factor– appropriate level – different teaching methods.

Interviews with lecturers• Semi-structured interviews were undertaken.

• The questions used by Lean et al, (2006) were adapted for this study as follows:

– Do you have enough time available for teaching development?– Do you feel that using new methods is risky?– Are you aware of available methods and products?– Are you satisfied with your current teaching methods?– Are adequate resources available to allow the use of new methods?– Are games suited to your subject?– Are simulation/games available in your subject?– How do you feel students would react to games?– Is teaching innovation a low or high priority for you?– Is there is enough support available for new methods of teaching?

Data analysis• The focus groups and semi-structured interviews were transcribed.

• HyperResearch (CAQDAS) was used to undertake a content analysis .

• Although HyperResearch converts qualitative data into a quantifiable format, applying key themes to the data is subjective in nature.

• Therefore within the inductive approach and empirical strategy, interpretivism is the foremost research philosophy used in this study.

Frequency reports

• HyperResearch frequency Reports give a summary of themes addressed.

• Total, Mean and Standard Deviation have been computed along with a Bar Chart to show trends in the data.

• The Mean is the average number of times a code was used per focus group/interview.

• The Standard Deviation shows the distribution of codes across the transcribed focus group/interview.

Focus group with HND/BA Students

Students favour games with ‘good for teamwork’ and ‘different way to learn’ frequently being mentioned. Fun, motivation and help with mathematics were also at the forefront of the discussions. The HND has quite a few quantitative modules and it is not surprising that they find games are effective for the quantitative subjects. As many of the students have progressed from BTEC National programmes, their penchant for experiential learning is not unexpected. They clearly respond well to student-centred activities and often demonstrate through their body language that they find traditional lectures rather tedious.

Focus group with Management students

These students work in management and are completely different to the former group of students. These courses are expensive with many students financing themselves and this makes it easy to comprehend why they might feel that games impinge on their valuable learning time. They are less comfortable with games and it is very clear that they prefer traditional lectures although they do appreciate the ‘fun’ element to be found in games and feel that they promote effective teamwork.

Focus group with CIPD students

Similar preferences to the HND students which may seem surprising as the students are not unlike the management students. One possible reason is that students undertake a Learning & Development module which requires them to deliver a learning activity to ‘real’ students.

Throughout the year they are exposed to many different teaching styles to familiarise them with various activities in preparation for their own sessions. Interestingly, they all incorporated a game into their own session and some of the groups actually invented their own experiential learning activities.

Interviews with staff

Staff are all keen to embrace change however their reservations about the use of games corroborated the findings of Westera et al, (2003) and Lean et al, (2006).

The main concern is that the amount of time needed to create an educationally sound game is disproportionate to the duration of the game itself. Which corroborates the findings of Lean et al, (2006).

Simulation and games are available in their subject area and they are aware of available methods and products.

Students all react well to games.

Although resources are available, development time is limited .

With such heavy workloads they feel that teaching innovation is a low priority which corroborates the findings of Lean et al (2006).

Lecturers are satisfied with their current teaching methods which already include some games and simulations.

They feel confident in adopting new methods of teaching and do not feel that they would compromise themselves in adopting new strategies. This goes against the findings of Grisoni (2002) and could be due to the fact that this study was carried out in a non-traditional HEI.

Conclusions - students

• Students favour the use of games and simulations up to a certain level.

• The perceived value of experiential learning diminishes on post-graduate management programmes.

• Students who may have progressed from the BTEC National are more comfortable with educational games.

Conclusions - lecturers

• They use games and simulations and they are aware of resources available to them – contrary to Lean et al (2006)

• The level of support is very good - contrary to Lean et al (2006)

• There is limited time available to develop experiential learning - which concurs with Westera et al (2003)

• Developing innovative teaching activities is a fairly low priority - which concurs with Westera et al (2003)

Future research

• The findings of this study relate to HE in an FE college.

• Further research is needed across institutional boundaries and universities of different traditions as suggested by Lean et al, (2006).

• Lean et al’s, study was undertaken in a ‘new’ university whereas the current study was conducted in an FE college which goes some way to crossing institutional boundaries.

Any questions …………………?

References