How might serious games trigger a transformation in project management education ? Lessons learned from 10 Years of experimentations

Abstract

While many studies have been published about project management serious games, most of them mainly describe characteristics and features of the games themselves. In those studies, little is found on the pedagogical implementation of serious games and on how they have impacted project management education. In this article, we both discuss how serious games have impacted project management education and how they are implemented from a pedagogical perspective. We used an empirical research approach, based on qualitative observations. Observations included authors’ own usages of a project management serious game (the PM-Game) complemented with a synthesis of 10 years of observations and discussions with other teachers who had used this same PM-Game. Results showed that serious games may lead to educational changes such as moving toward active pedagogies, developing new competencies such as soft skills, and changing teachers-students relationship. For the pedagogical implementation, results showed that the serious game was implemented as an integrated concept including hybrid simulation modalities, and combining virtual and augmented learning aspects. In conclusion, serious games have the potential to trigger a change in project management education. But to fully benefit from the potential advantages of this change, they have to be designed, developed and implemented as an integrated gaming and learning concept.