Games improve the teaching activities

Games during teaching engage the students and create more commitment and learning

On-line games are more than just FIFA, Wordfeud and World of Warcraft. CBS is increasingly using both physical games and on-line games during the teaching.

Michael Sørensen, Game Ambassador,  is examining the market for relevant learning games and helps implement them at CBS. Some of the games are used during a couple of lessons, while other games are more integrated in the teaching activities and used throughout the semester.

Value is in the reflection

- Games demand that the students take active part. The more active the students are, the more commitment and motivation they will have, which hopefully results in more value derived from the course, says Michael Sørensen.

He wrote his master's thesis on the use of simulation games in academic programmes, and according to Michael Sørensen, the value of the game primarily lies in the reflection.

- It is actually the students' experience with the games that adds new value to the teaching activities - when the students and lecturers debate and reflect on their experiences. This is why it is important to look at games as as supplement to the existing teaching activities and not as a replacement, says Michael Sørensen. Another benefit of games during the teaching is that the games push the students' boundaries on how relevant knowledge is acquired and how they act in a competitive and dynamic group environment.

Connect several courses are connected

The games can be used in all courses, but at the moment, there is a large market within marketing, supply chain and logistics, finance, organisation and management. In general, games help create a connecting thread through the teaching activities and make it possible to connect several courses in order to obtain an understanding of the simulated reality.

It is, however, important to look at he purpose of the individual game. Some physical games help to clarify very abstract concepts, while on-line games help revise a theory, decision process or concept.

At the moment, approx. 20 games are being used or have the potential to be used. One of them is the strategy game ’StratSim Marketing’, which shows how marketing decisions affect other functions of the company, or ’The Leadership Casino’, which challenges the leadership abilities of the students. Common to most games is that they are similar to business environments that the students can expect to face when they have completed their degree.

At CBS, the games are primarily being used in master's and executive programmes, but in the autumn semester, the games will also be introduced in bachelor and diploma programmes. 

Facts

CBS has been using games for years, but in 2012, CBS has chosen to place an extra focus on games as a part of the ICT project. The project is part of a large strategy project, which increases the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the classroom. Until now, CBS has been using games from Danish, American, French and Finnish suppliers, but a group of lecturers have started to develop CBS-games with focus on operations management.

Read more about simulation games and see a video with some of the lecturers who have already implemented the games on teach.cbs.dk.