From Game to Guidance: The Innovative Evaluation Approach of the P4G Simulation Business Game

Business simulation games are used worldwide as teaching and learning tools for business classes and provide an interactive educational approach to business, economics, and entrepreneurship. They act as a basic supplement to the core curriculum due to their motivating and engaging nature and their simulation aspect which enables reinforcement of key concepts in a risk-free environment. The P4G Business Game has been developed in the context of the European project PLAY4GUIDANCE. It is a simulation game between teams, where each team has the task of managing from a strategic point of view their own manufacturing business competing with the other in a market. The rationale of the game lies on the users' training and guidance in the use of entrepreneurial, transversal and mathematical skills. The P4G business game is an online learning environment which acts as a replication and extension of the physical market world. The innovative character of the P4G Business Game lies in its embedded evaluation and scaffolding mechanism that provide significant guidance for the trainees. It focuses on both qualitative and quantitative data analysis providing users with immediate feedback and constant tracking of their performance. The sophisticated interactive technology underpinning the game accommodates social and technical dimensions -player exposure to varying levels of social interaction and cognition, removal of time and space constraints - not always available in the physical world. It allows for user intervention and decision taking processes while it offers a specific and structured space where critical analysis of intertwined and complex information is necessary. The evaluation tool was validated through pilots and national conferences conducted in all participating member countries of the project. The findings from the testing phase have shown a positive level of reliability of the P4G Evaluation tool.