Collaboration and emotions during simulation-based learning in general management courses

Abstract

Simulation-based learning (SBL) as a learner-centred educational approach fosters students‘ experiential learning by providing authentic tasks in a real-world oriented learning environment. SBL settings are supposed to integrate different dimensions of learning including cognitive, affective and social aspects. Simulation games as a widely used tool in SBL are characterized among others as collaborative, team-based environments fostering learners’ understanding of concepts and improving their ability to apply their theoretical knowledge in practical fields. The use of and research on simulation games has strongly increased throughout the last decades, but the few empirical findings in the literature are ambiguous. The present study contributes to a better understanding of relations between collaborative facets, emotional experience, in-game success as a performance index and learning outcomes during a complex general management simulation. It also focuses on the use of process journals to gather data during the simulation game process in classes of business informatics students in their last semester at a German Cooperative State University. Data of 49 third-year students (m = 36, f = 12, missing = 1; age ranged from 20 to 25) was collected on three occasions: (1) A self-report questionnaire prior to the simulation game. (2) A periodic process journal was administered during the simulation game at the end of each of the six team phases to collect data on participants’ perceived team collaboration and emotional experience. (3) After the simulation game, declarative, conceptual, and procedural knowledge was assessed. Correlation analysis showed medium scores in a range between 0.38 < r < 0.76 when significant, U-test showed results between 0.39 and 0.81 when significant. Our results indicate an association between a cohesive atmosphere including psychological safety and a structured team organization and positive epistemic emotions on the one hand with performance and conceptual as well as procedural knowledge on the other hand. Hence, we argue for the need to organize and support team processes during business simulation games carefully when facilitating such environments with students, whereas we could not find support for a strong connection between learners’ personality with simulation game outcomes.