A framework for developing classroom games.

Abstract

The use of games and simulations in economics and finance classrooms has prompted research primarily about their pervasiveness and pedagogical benefits while little research has focused on how to develop them. As such, we outline a general nine-step development process, specifically: problem identification, learning objective definition, player definition, players' motives and goals definition, identification of resources available to players, definition of the conduct of play and rules, formulation of an evaluation schema, development of a prototype, and refinement.

Introduction

There recently has been a growing interest in using business games, experiments, and simulations in finance and economics curricula (Smith, 1992). The main benefit of using games and simulations in finance and economics education is that they allow students to actively participate in the learning process, to discover and practice personal skills and to test these skills in a variety of business and market contexts (Becket and Watts, 1995).

In particular, games not only enable the testing and exposition of theories, but they also can create artificial market situations that can be used in the classroom to examine alternative economic structures of the market economy (Maier and Keenan, 1994). Games make it possible to convey difficult concepts in an interesting and effective manner beyond the "chalk and talk" methods that still dominate our classrooms (Becket and Watts, 2001, 1998, 1996, 1995). What is the impetus to move beyond "chalk and talk?" Becker and Watts (2001, page 278-279) state it best,

   Given some preparation and a modicum of sensitivity to student
   responses, instructors may expect their student ratings to go up,
   along with what students learn, when students are actively
   involved in the classroom learning experience.

An educational game or simulation involves students in some sort of competition or achievement in relation to a goal providing an interactive learning experience (Wells, 1991). However, games and simulations and their use are not well understood as faculty's experience with them is still quite limited. Some possible explanations for the limited use of simulations and games are the lack of objective information about simulations and games, the lack of faculty's exposure to this technique, the paucity of available appropriate games and simulations, the difficulty in previewing simulations and games without actually playing them, and the difficulty in evaluating the learning (Mohatar, 1994).

Designing effective and interesting games and simulations for use in the classroom requires a great deal of work on the part of the teacher. The use of games and simulations also raises many questions about their use, the role of the teacher, the time and space required, which games are appropriate, evaluation procedures, and the benefits and drawbacks of using games (Barlett and King, 1990). However, little research has focused on how teachers can be assisted in making their own games and simulations. In this context, our paper presents an outline to aid in the development of games and simulations. The process outlined recognizes nine distinct steps.

Literature review

Today's college instruction has been criticized for relying too heavily on passive lectures that leave college students unchallenged (Williams et al., 1991). This criticism has generated increased interest in using teaching techniques that actively involve students in the learning process, thus facilitating their own learning and growth (Nicastro and Jones, 1994; Holter 1994). Becker and Watts (2001, 1998, 1996, 1995) have written eloquently and extensively on the need for faculty to move beyond "chalk and talk" and to actively involve students in the learning process in undergraduate economics classrooms. Dale and Dudney (2000) recommend simulations as helpful in linking theory and practice as well as concentrating on student participation as effective methods for teaching 'Generation X" students of finance.

The field of learning with games and simulations has experienced substantial evolution during the last three decades (Hutchings and Wutzdorff 1988, Lewis and Williams 1994). The goal of experiential teaching methods is to let students experience something new, and then encourage reflection about their experience. This reflection helps them develop new skills or new ways of thinking (Lewis and Williams 1994, Kolb 1984). According to DeYoung (1993), group learning using games and simulations begins with concrete experiences. Relying on reflective observations from these experiences, students engage in abstract conceptualization that allows them to generalize and learn principles that integrate their observations into working theories. The author argues that games and simulations enable students to actively experiment, test, and apply what they have learned in other, more complex, situations.

Similarly, Zapalska and Brozik (1999) write that games and simulations prompt students to solve problems, and to stimulate strategic, reflective and critical thinking, because the players must make various decisions while participating in games and simulations. Hoggat (1959) argues that the activity eliminates memorization and repetition, and gives students opportunities to interact with each other. Students also learn to question and try new approaches, as well as explain their own ideas while learning (Maier and Keenan, 1994; Lewis and Williams, 1994; Becker and Watts, 1995; Litvin and Elangovan, 2000).

Other research papers on the effects of learning with games and simulations suggest improvement on interpersonal measures, positive effects on academic achievement measures (improved performance on vocabulary tests and higher achievement scores on tests), and improved attitudes toward school (Hester, 1991; Wells, 1991; Walker, 1987). Several authors have recognized that games and simulations also enable more positive student relationships, increase individual motivation, and promote a healthier psychological environment than any other classroom method (Mohatar, 1994; Maier and Keenan, 1994; Chamberlin, 1995; Lewis and Williams, 1994).

The most recent published articles on games and simulations focus on explaining the pedagogical advantages of games and simulations in teaching certain economic concepts and ideas and alternative economic structures. For example, Hester (1991) developed an extensive and time-consuming simulation of a commercial banking system for use in large-lecture money and banking courses. A paper by Motahar (1994) reports on the use of software in the teaching of a course on modeling and simulation in economics. Zapalska and Brozik (2001) developed market games and simulations that can be adapted to a wide variety of situations ranging from simple barter to highly developed and supply and demand driven economies. Modifying a lecture to enhance students' learning by using an active laboratory market experiments has been advocated by the National Council on Economic Education (Becker and Watts, 2001).

Games and especially simulations are becoming increasingly commercially available as course supplements. They seem to be dominated by near semester long simulations such as making business decisions in the context of the shoe-industry (i.e., The Business Strategy Game) and using an artificial endowment of wealth to select and manage a portfolio of stocks (i.e., StockTrac). Despite the considerable number of games and simulations available for teaching purposes, the standard lecture format still prevails as the main teaching method (Chamberlin 1995, Walker 1987). With this in mind, we outline a process for the development of a game or simulation to complement achieving the learning objective of a single classroom lecture.

A Process for Developing Games and Simulations

The development of a simulation or game for use in the classroom is a multi-step process. We offer the following process as a guide to aid with the development of a game or simulation for use in the classroom:

1. Identify the Problem Area(s) to Simulate 

As you work on selecting a problem ask yourself questions like this: what is the concept that you want your students to understand? What problems do you want your students to solve in order to understand these concepts? You also should consider where your interests coincide with your answers to the former questions. This inquiry will lead to some preliminary ideas for concepts that you want to demonstrate in your game or simulation. It is good to list them at this preliminary step. You can expect to change them gradually as you move the process. The identification stage should become an on-going and natural process that evolves from teaching your courses once you have are accustomed to thinking of games and simulations as a viable classroom tool.

2. Define the Learning Objective(s) & Scope

At this stage, it is important to define clearly the learning objective and scope of the simulation or game. It is important to revisit and refine the statement of your learning objectives and scope after completing each of the remaining stages. The continuing definition of objectives and scope requires discernment since it is impossible to make a simulation or a game on everything, on all issues and policies and organizations at once. Indeed, a major part of the value of a simulation or a game is to enable us to look carefully at one process/concept at a time.

3. Define the Organizations & Environment

Any game and simulation involves business and social process(es) in which key movement is provided by players operating either as individuals or in groups or as ad hoc organizations. We identify people by their "roles" which can be jobs such as a salesperson, trader, president of business, manager, etc. Within organizations people can also be identified by their roles as consumers, traders, policy makers, etc. One way to start is to designate the key organizations involved and then identify the key decision-makers within those organizations.

4. Define the Motives, Incentives, & Goals

Each organization, role, business or culture offers its actors certain approved goals, some resources, and action options which they can use to achieve them as well as specific constraints on their behavioral choices. This representation of a social or business environment in a simulation or a game is achieved through defining the goals of players and the rules concerning what they can and cannot do with their available resources (see next step) within their defined constraints. It is critical to define the motives and goals of the players as specifically as possible (i.e., define their objective function). This will enable players to get a fast start and you as the game designer will be free to focus on the key areas of conflict-cooperation in the game. Many of the areas of conflict and cooperation and the potential for dynamic change within the game will begin to emerge as the objectives of actors are not properly or clearly defined. Understanding the goals of players is one of the most fascinating aspects of a game or simulation.

5. Define the Resources Available

There are many resources that can be used to demonstrate and illustrate a particular concept or process. Indeed, economics and finance involve the study of scarcity of resources, opportunity cost, and resulting trade-offs in decision-making. These resources may include capital, ownership of goods, or authority. The less tangible resources may include influence over other players; high or low status in eyes of other players, or access to key information needed to make crucial decisions in the game. It is up to you to decide the resources that players might find useful or necessary in their different roles as they play can as well as vital for the construction of realistic simulation or game.

6. Determine the Conduct and Rules of Play

The substance of a game is the sequence of transactions between the players. It is important at this point to design and formulate a broad or general idea of the sequence of what each player will do during the game. Make sure you check these continually against learning objectives. At this point you will be determining what type of transactions will be occurring (e.g. buying, selling, negotiating, planning, scheduling, etc.) and who will interact with whom at each stage. Playing time cycles will also begin to be important considerations at this stage. You can ask if one class period can be used for one playing period or can several playing periods be fit into one 50-minute class? Should the simulation game really be played in an all day sequence or can it be split into convenient time blocks to fit regular class hours? You should also determine the rules at this stage. Generally, you will find it is a good idea to simplify the rules as much as possible. One of the biggest pitfalls of beginning game-makers is to design a simulation game that is too complicated. If you have gotten this far, you will have done a lot of research on your game and will know much more about the subject than you can possibly put into a single, simple game or simulation.

7. Formulate the Evaluation Schema

The notion of a game implies a win or lose outcome for the participants. In some ways social and business situation do not always produce clear winners or losers. They simply produce results of a process, which can be evaluated as good or bad, valuable or not. It is very easy to make a simple scoring system or to figure out who is the winner. However, the real value of a simulation may come from evaluating the value of the outcomes. One possibility is to measure the outcomes in terms of how well a player's personal objectives are met or to what degree the benefit of the players is taken into account. At the end of any game or at the end of a playing period, it is helpful to schedule an evaluation period, in which players can get together to talk about what they have learned and what difficulties of play were encountered. In the use of games, it is often this discussion which turns the student's experience into learning.

8. Develop a Prototype

At this stage it is time to put together the parts of the game into a preliminary playing system. It is time to decide whether to use a familiar basic game, a role play where players interact with each other, or some other setting for the interactions. At this stage the actual game materials need to be designed. For example, to represent a probabilistic event you could use dice, a simple spinner, or a deck of playing cards. You could also use a table of random numbers to represent chance events or build a stochastic model using, for example, the random number generating functions in Excel.

9. Play (play, play) & Refine (refine, refine)

It is best to first play the game with a small group, as opposed to beginning with an entire class. The purpose of a "tryout" of the prototype is discovering if the game plays as you have envisioned. Your job during such tryouts is to observe play, record the problems encountered, and devise modifications to improve play. You shouldn't be involved in the play yourself. And don't be surprised if your game does not work perfectly the first time; it may take several trials and many modifications before you are satisfied. The evaluation of the game by the players will most likely lead to further suggestions for refinement of your game.

Conclusion

We provide a general format for developing games and simulations. Games and simulations are active learning instruments that can be used for improving teaching effectiveness through promotion of active and effective information gathering and organization followed by comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. All these elements contribute to an effective process of learning where cognitive thinking skills are developed and practiced. The authors hope that the presented process for creating games and simulations for use in the classroom will be helpful to those who wish to introduce these tools. Ultimately, we hope that our paper contributes to enhancing learning in not just economics and finance classrooms but all classrooms.

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John B. McDermott, Fairfield University, CT

Alina M. Zapalska, US Coast Guard Academy, CT

McDermott, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Finance, and Zapalska, Ph.D. is Professor of Economics.