Using Serious Games and Simulations for Teaching Co-Operative Decision-making

Teaching students and training employees for management responsibilities, enabling acquisition of new skills, of knowledge and experiences to better respond to market and job demands remain challenging. New methodologies and pedagogical approaches need to be explored to support the design of new tools that enhance the acquisition of cooperative decision-making skills. Exploiting lessons learnt from entertainment software and encouraging the use of gaming techniques, which have the potential to maximize user immersion and interactivity, represent an opportunity. The authors examine dedicated tools that aim to support teaching and training of co-operative decision-making skills, and address issues identified within specific areas respectively the management of renewable energy parks and supply chain management. Two examples are presented: a simulation tool that enables employees to experiment collaborative decision-making scenarios associated with the management of renewable energy parks, and a game that is used for the application of methods in the strategic decision making in supply chains. The paper reports on this serious game that enable students experience the bullwhip effect in a controlled environment.