Business Simulation Games As Digital Tools For Supporting School Entrepreneurship Education

2011 11th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies
Business Simulation Games as Digital Tools for Supporting School

Entrepreneurship Education
Hercules Panoutsopoulos1,3, Maria-Anna Lykourentzou1,2, Demetrios G Sampson1,2
1 2 3
Department of Digital Systems Informatics and Telematics Institute, Doukas School,
University of Piraeus Centre for Research and Technology Marousi, Athens, Greece
Piraeus, Greece Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece
e-mail: herculespanoutsopoulos@gmail.com, may_lyk@windowslive.com, sampson@unipi.gr
Abstract— During the last few years there has been students and facilitating them acquire relevant
considerable interest for digital game-based learning. This competencies required by the knowledge society [5]. To
interest can be attributed to the increased popularity of this end, engaging students in meaningful activities, which
digital games among school students, as well as to their allow them to draw links between entrepreneurship and
potential as effective learning environments for collaborative standard curriculum mathematics educational objectives,
learning-by-doing activities. On the other hand, fostering bares the potential for facilitating understanding of key
entrepreneurial mindsets through teaching and learning has mathematics concepts. Within this context, the aim of this
been a key priority for entrepreneurship education in paper is to study the potential use of a commercial
Europe. The aim of this paper is to study the potential use of business simulation game, namely “Sims 2 – Open for
a commercial business simulation digital game, namely
business”, in school entrepreneurship education drawing
“Sims 2 – Open for business”, in school entrepreneurship
education drawing links with standard curriculum math
links with standard curriculum math teaching.
teaching. II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Keywords-component; digital game-based learning; school Research within the field of digital game-based
entrepreurship education; school math teaching learning is concerned, among others, with the investigation
of methods of utilizing either general-purpose commercial,
I. INTRODUCTION or specially-designed educational, digital games as tools
for supporting learning in both formal and informal
Digital game-based learning is a research field within educational settings [1].
the wider area of technology-enhanced learning that has In particular, there are some efforts to exploit digital
attracted the interest of both the research and educational games in technology-supported teaching and learning of
community [1]. Connolly and Stansfield [2] define digital financial management and/or entrepreneurship. Whitton
game-based learning as “the use of a computer games- [3] describes a scenario of educational activities, built
based approach to deliver, support and enhance teaching, around an online game (namely “Marketplace”) and
learning, assessment and evaluation”. implemented as part of a university marketing course.
The interest of using digital games as learning tools Participating students were prompted to work in groups,
can be first of all attributed to their increased popularity make decisions regarding the management of a virtual
among school students [1]. Furthermore, digital games are enterprise, and perform actions such as undertaking market
considered to be effective learning environments, since analysis, designing marketing strategies, and designing
they create authentic and meaningful contexts in which products for sale. Negotiation, group decision making, and
players have the opportunity to apply and develop higher strategic thinking and planning, are considered as key
order cognitive skills [3]. Such skills are strategic thinking, skills which are intended to be developed by the
planning, communication, handling and application of implementation of game-supported educational
data, negotiation, group decision-making, and problem- interventions targeting at enhancing entrepreneurship
solving [1, 3]. education [6]. Sandford et al. [7] describe an educational
Entrepreneurship is defined [4] as “a dynamic and design, fully supported by a commercial digital game
social process where individuals, alone or in (namely “Roller Coaster Tycoon”), targeting at engaging
collaboration, identify opportunities for innovation and act secondary school students in activities related to the
upon these by transforming ideas into practical and management of an entertainment park. In the context of
targeted activities, whether in a social cultural or school-based education, Chen et al. [5] also propose a
economic context”. European Commission has identified game-supported learning environment (namely “My-
fostering entrepreneurial mindsets through education and Investment”) for the introduction of primary school
learning as a key priority for entrepreneurship education in students to issues related to financial management, such as
Europe. Thus, there is a need for technology-supported bank deposits, interest rates, stock market investments,
educational innovations at school education aiming at stock shares, and use of credit cards.
stimulating entrepreneurial mindsets among school
978-0-7695-4346-8/11 $26.00 © 2011 IEEE 155

DOI 10.1109/ICALT.2011.51
III. OUR STUDY teaching and learning when engaged in the proposed
game-supported educational activities? (4) Does the
A. Selected Digital Game and Pedagogical Framework proposed game-supported educational design significantly
For the purpose of our study we propose an affect students’ attitudes towards entrepreneurship?
educational design fully supported by a popular The method which is considered as appropriate for the
commercial business simulation game. This digital game is investigation of the above research questions is field
“Sims 2 – Open for business”, which allows players to experiment with one experimental and one control group.
adopt the role of a manager enabling them to perform Subjects of the research are secondary school students
activities related to shaping prices of products, assigning attending the second grade of a private junior high school
tasks to employees, monitoring data regarding the in Greece and they are randomly assigned to the two
business’ status, and keeping customers satisfied. In other groups. The employment of pre-tests and post-tests targets
words, the game bares the potential to engage players in at gathering quantitative research data regarding
activities that constitute key objectives of entrepreneurship participating students’ background knowledge, as well as
education [6]. Moreover, by grounding the game- the achievement of intended educational objectives after
supported activities with a project-based learning the implementation of the game-supported activities.
pedagogical approach, the features of the digital game can Questionnaires are also used in order to investigate the
be aligned with the intended educational objectives and impact of the proposed game-supported educational design
thus facilitate their achievement. on students’ attitudes towards school math teaching and
learning, and entrepreneurship.
B. Describing the Scenario of Educational Activities
The main objective of the proposed game-supported IV. DISCUSSION - CONCLUSIONS
educational design is to introduce junior high school Apart from the novelty and entertaining character of
students to the world of business and economics. To this game-supported educational interventions that can
end, students are asked to work in groups in order to motivate students, situating activities within meaningful
undertake a virtual enterprise, perform specific activities contexts bares the potential for increasing interest towards
as part of managing their enterprise and evaluate the specific subject matters [3]. The evaluation of the
results of their actions. The members of each group can proposed game-supported educational design is expected
select a certain type of business to start by providing a to highlight issues regarding its positive impact on the
rationale for their choice. They are prompted to circularly achievement of entrepreneurship educational objectives, as
adopt the roles of a sales manager, a marketing manager, well as the potential for providing an authentic learning
and a human resources department manager, as well as to context which allows for drawing links with standard
propose, negotiate, and decide specific activities to be curricula math teaching and thus leading to the
performed, as part of their enterprise’s management. development of more positive attitudes towards school
Feedback provided from game menus can stimulate math teaching and learning, as well as entrepreneurship
activities targeting at providing explanations on observed education.
results and evaluating their impact on the virtual
enterprise’s status. Furthermore, by assigning students the REFERENCES
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2011 11th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies

Business Simulation Games as Digital Tools for Supporting School

978-0-7695-4346-8/11 $26.00 © 2011 IEEE 155

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