Abstract
More educators use serious games (e.g., games where the primary objective is learning rather than enjoyment) to enhance learning due to benefits such as improved understanding and engagement. However, using serious games within project management education is not well understood. The aim of this research is to investigate project management serious games in higher education: i) determine the extent of gamification in PMI-accredited project management programs, and ii) survey university students about their experiences playing project management serious games. Two separate mixed-method studies reveal insights about serious games in higher education and where innovations may be leveraged. Traditional statistics were used to analyze quantitative data, and coding was used to analyze the qualitative data. The results from a global survey of ten PMI-accredited university programs suggest that serious games are embryonic but promising. A case study at one university reveals that students enjoy learning through games but caution against using games to formally assess students’ learning. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research and development.
Highlights
Few will argue the importance of project management with an expected 87.7 million people working in projects by 2027 (PMI, 2017)
We find in our literature review that serious games are widely used in higher education, but mostly silent about educators using serious games to teach project management
This study focuses on simulation games since project management simulation games can approximate reality, with the absence of negative consequences like project failure (Calderón and Ruiz, 2015)
Summary
Few will argue the importance of project management with an expected 87.7 million people working in projects by 2027 (PMI, 2017). The Project Management Institute (PMI, 2017) predicts a significant talent gap that could result in a potential loss in GDP of USD 207.9 billion through to 2027 for the 11 countries analyzed. Educators might add “serious games” to their innovative teaching techniques repertoire to meet learning objectives. This term is relatively rare in project management research even though a considerable body of literature has emerged, illustrating the benefits of games and gamification for educational purposes (Mekler, et al, 2017). Our interest in game-based learning to potentially improve project management learning is the rationale for undertaking this study
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