1. Gaming as an Educational Tool to Teach Entrepreneurial Skills.
- Author
-
Conradie, Elizabeth, Strydom, Albert, and Holzbaur, Ulrich
- Subjects
EDUCATIONAL games ,TEACHER effectiveness ,REFLECTIVE learning ,INTERACTIVE learning ,ECONOMICS - Abstract
There is a need for entrepreneurial education in South Africa. We present the conceptualization, development, deployment and evaluation of an entrepreneurial game to teach economic principles with a focus on what is needed to establish a sustainable enterprise. The game is structured in seven levels: six levels teach the basic economic principles of an enterprise and one level focus on environmental awareness and sustainability. This facilitated educational game is social interactive and constructed in such a way that participants exchange information with both instructor and other participants, gaining knowledge in a fun way which underlines a critical and reflective method of learning. The aim is to teach entrepreneurial economic principles to a diverse target audience that includes unemployed persons; potential entrepreneurs and those entrepreneurs running small enterprises; students and academics that should be transformed towards entrepreneurship and learners in secondary education. The game design was tested to provide design information for the development of other educational gaming tools to teach similar diverse groups. Results of evaluations of the VALU-E game as an interactive learning system through game playing sessions with learners and students will be presented as well as the adaptations in game development made to enhance participant knowledge exchange. The majority of participants indicated that it was a fun experience and that they gain new decision directed knowledge playing the game. Observations from instructors was that the game taught participants to become more supportive of each other in their group in gaining knowledge due to the competitive nature of this gaming teaching method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF