Role-Playing Games for Fostering Communication and Negotiation Skills

Abstract

<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Contribution:</i> In this article, an experience applying three role-playing games in the context of an Entrepreneurship final project is presented, discussing the challenges, and the lessons learned. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Background:</i> Soft skills have been expounded repeatedly as a crucial factor to thrive in the workplace, as opposed to mere knowledge of content only, since the increasingly importance of practitioners being able to adapt to new situations. Also, soft skills have the ability to categorize specific career attribute which an individual has, such as team spirit, written and oral communication, leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. Literature provides evidence of areas in which graduates most frequently do not meet industry expectations, including technical and also soft skills. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Intended Outcomes:</i> Considering the aforementioned scenario, an active learning strategy was adopted aiming to foster soft skills, particularly, oral communication, and negotiation in an Entrepreneurship course. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Application Design:</i> The course final project comprised the development of fictional business plans, their corresponding minimum viable products, and also negotiation rounds with fictional potential investors. Among the active learning strategies, role-playing games were chosen as they have shown to be useful in similar contexts. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Findings:</i> This experience shows that active strategies, especially role-playing games, support the development of soft skills and engage students as active participants in their learning process.