The value of simulations and games for tertiary education

Abstract

Simulations and games play an important role in how young people learn. Through simulations and games you can practice skills that are relevant for professional practice. Through simulations and games you can learn to deal with complexity and diversity. Simulations and games already play a role in higher education, albeit modest, fragmented and insufficiently embedded in learning objectives, and its evidence base is limited. In keywords this was the point of departure for a broadly-based, interfaculty group of Utrecht University (UU) colleagues who, in 2014, set to work on the joint project, Simulations and Simulation Gaming in Tertiary Education, initiated by the Utrecht Education Incentive Fund (Utrechts Stimuleringsfonds Onderwijs, USO). From the outset our objectives were ambitious and diverse, but could nevertheless be summarized in two sentences: To contribute towards making simulations and games easier to use and more accessible to a larger group of professors of different degree programmes. Secondly, to contribute towards getting a better idea about which types of learning and which learning objectives could be improved by which kinds of simulations and games. In this booklet we would like to take you on our journey of discovery and show you what the journey yielded.