The use of decision making simulation games in education derives from military training, whose aim was to teach the trainees with the skill of strategic reason-ing. Games of this kind were used as early as in ancient times to find their way to Europe in the mid 20th century as part of the Prussian Army training1. Since the 1950s counselling companies and universities draw from their concept in entrepreneurship training at different levels of education.
Simulations also constitute one of different kinds of research tools of the ex-perimental techniques group2. In market research, simulations are used to ob-serve participants’ behaviour and their reactions to stimuli generated by a simu-lation algorithm. Observations then lead to conclusions on the skills of acting in stressful conditions, problem solving, team work, etc. That is why simulation games can be applied to assess employees’ competences, for instance3 .
Creating a virtual reflection of reality, simulations, also called decision mak-ing games, can naturally aid the process of teachmak-ing. Usmak-ing properly designed algorithms, they enable practical comprehension of the functioning of the mod-els with which students acquaint themselves during theoretical classes.
Well played, simulation games allow the participant to connect his or her own decisions with obtained results . Participants in a tournament are made to perform a regular analysis of their actions in a recurrent cycle, thus developing positive habits: right actions are rewarded with a positive result, wrong ones are
1 M. Wawrzeńczyk-Kulik, Symulacyjna gra decyzyjna jako narzędzie wspomagające nauczanie w ramach przedmiotu „Podstawy przedsiębiorczości”, Zeszyty Naukowe WSEI, series: Ekonomia, 2013, No. 6, p. 305.
2 Cf. S. Kaczmarczyk, Badania marketingowe. Podstawy metodyczne, PWE, Warszawa 2011, pp. 355–360.
3 Cf. E. Miłosz, M. Miłosz, Symulatory systemów gospodarczych w kształceniu menedżerów, Komputer w edukacji, Wydawnictwo Leopoldinum Fundacji dla Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 1995, No. 3–4, pp. 83–91.
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punished with a negative result. The observation of a success and failure source in the simulated world leads to the shaping of behaviour patterns in the real world. Learning how to distinguish facts and results derived from the simula-tion model used from personal convicsimula-tions is another big advantage.
Creating a simulation requires a commitment from a number of people. In order to for a substantive backbone of the simulation to be developed, a team of specialists has to be established . The will help describe the processes that will form the basis for the simulation algorithms. These algorithms will be developed by a technical team – artists, graphic designers and software engineers. The com-position of this team will vary depending on the kind of simulation designed.
Testers will also be needed to pick up technical or logical errors . Their work makes it possible to improve playability of the simulation. The last indispensa-ble group is that of trainers – persons responsiindispensa-ble for applying the simulation in the teaching process. Although not all of these teams have to cooperate with one another closely, thorough understanding of the rationale and goals of the simulation is vital for benefiting from a tool developed this way.
Simulation games are usually played in teams of a few players. Depending on how complex a given simulation is, i.e. on the scope of decisions to be made by the player at each consecutive stage, the number of players may range from 5 to 30. That, of course, does not apply to dispersed simulations that use Internet platforms, as is the case with Global Management Challenge. This international tournament has been held for over 30 years now, with over 450 thousand players involved throughout this period4. A round played in groups enables participants to benefit from the advantages of the simulation to a greater extent; not only do they learn how to solve problems practically, but also how to work in team – with dependence on others, division of responsibilities or persuading others.
Games are run in rounds, which means that the participant are allocated a certain amount of time to make a decision. A typical course of a round is shown in Figure 6.
It is only after all the teams have made their decisions that the game may continue. There are a few pros of this approach:
– it helps participants make measured judgements, – it motivates participants to solve problems as a team,
– it imposes time limits making participants arrive at a solution within their confines,
– it enables participants to retreat from a bad decision providing the round is not over,
– it makes it possible to introduce participants to the subject matter of the simulation gradually,
– it makes it possible for trainers to broaden participants’ knowledge through training and diversification of topics and challenges in different rounds .
4 http://www.gmcpoland.pl/.
Advantages of using business simulations in education 5757
Figure 6. Course of decision making simulation game – example
Source: Own elaboration based on the lecture: E. Piotrowska, Aktywizujące metody nauczania stosowa-ne w kształceniu zawodowym, Uniwersytet Wrocławski, 2009.
Forms of competing in decision making simulation games
Competition among the teams participating in simulation games is their crucial part. The teams often compete having only limited resources. This means that one team’s success comes at a cost to others. Competition of this kind strength-ens ties within teams and guarantees the participants’ commitment to the game.
Due to their nature, simulations are used in different competitions whose aim is to select the most entrepreneurial or foreseeing participants or those who solve problems most efficiently.
Competition among teams may occur in various situations5: – conflict situation with a conflict of interest,
– conflict free situation,
– cooperation and agreement on the ultimate goal, – mixed situations – combinations of the above.
In the first of these situations the competing teams are engaged in a game in which limited resources have to be divided among them. This can happen, for instance, when the participants are to offer similar benefits within the same
mar-5 B. Wit, Formy rywalizacji stron w symulacyjnych grach decyzyjnych, http://dyd.pol.lublin.pl/users/
wit/pan/formy.html.
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ket, splitting up one group of purchasers. The conflict-provoking goal consists in each side aspiring to maximise its market share or another parameter decided upon in advance, which describes predominance of one of the simulated enter-prises over the other .
Figure 7. Game in a conflict provoking setting Source: Own elaboration.
In the case with games which do not provoke a conflict situation, the par-ticipating teams do not compete against one another but focus on overcoming independent obstacles following from the game script. Disasters that impact manufacturing capacity, seasons of the year and seasonality of purchases are just some examples of such obstacles. A game played in a conflict free situation is illustrated in Figure 8.
Figure 8. Game in a conflict free setting Source: Own elaboration.
Advantages of using business simulations in education 5959 Games intended to encourage players’ cooperation are often used as a compo-nent of integration training sessions, which promote team building. Such teams generally formulate different partial objectives, and specialise in performing particular functions as defined in the game. They can be teams of, for instance, fi-nanciers, marketers, logistics specialists, merchants or strategists. Competences of each team contribute to attaining the ultimate goal set for the game.
Ultimate goal Figure 9. Cooperation-oriented game
Source: Own elaboration.
The games available in the market do not really offer pure forms of compet-ing. These are usually complex – e.g. competitive sale of the same service on one market (i.e. to one, limited customer group) will be hampered by natural and real processes such as progression of seasons or changes in fashion.