Neo-Simulation and Gaming Toward Active Learning

There are many ongoing issues with social cohesion and immigrant integration in urban neighborhoods. The promotion of diversity in local neighborhoods is one of the integral solutions for immigrant integration. However, past evidence suggests that Thai people have a terribly limited understanding of the notion of diversity. The research objectives are (1) to evaluate the residents’ perception of understanding and acceptance toward the concept of immigrant integration and neighborhood coexisting diversity and (2) to find out the effect of a gaming simulation on the resident and the immigrant. We introduce the Diverse Arrival Game as a game to promote diversity and immigrant integration. The results show that the game improved perceptions in both groups toward neighborhood diversity. The game has the ability to prompt the acceptance of the diversity concept and ultimately leads to a new local initiative for diverse neighborhood planning.

Movie production is riddled with subjectivity and uncertainty. Each decision made can affect both quality and financial aspects of movies. Previously, various mathematical box office prediction models were proposed, but they focused at the time near the movie release, while earlier predictions would have more benefits to production team. Prediction market was suggested to have good predictability, but it still has some problems. In this study, we designed a human computation game for improving mathematical model performance in early phases which limits what information player knows about the movie at different time and introduces improved mechanics to make the game more similar to the actual movie production. After the experiments, we found that the proposed human computation game did improve mathematical prediction model performance, used in this study, but with limited working conditions. Future work should consider using more complex mathematical models, improving game design, and gathering more data for further validation.

In Thailand, drug abuse is perceived as the number one social problem, ranked by the Thai population. Adolescent drug abuse, although decreased in total number, surprisingly increased among younger youths compared to before. This work presents “HalluciFear,” an educational 3D horror game with the first-person view that relates drugs’ side effect with fear. The game imitates vision effect resulting from lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) substance abuse. The targeted players are Thai people ages 13 or above, the ages that are believed to be in a high risk of becoming victims of drug abuse. Upon evaluation of the game, the authors used a satisfactory survey for regular players and game content survey for specialists. The evaluation result showed the average game quality, and overall user’s satisfaction was good with the averages of 4.16 and 3.91, respectively.

A prediction of the size of the global healthcare industry in 2020 is to pass over 50 times larger than simulation and gaming industry. For the size AR and VR application markets is to reach $US 35 billion in 2025. Simulation, gaming, AR, and VR technologies have provided great benefits to healthcare providers and consumers. For medical professionals, activity-based medical simulation mimicking clinical scenarios has been a cornerstone of medical training since the eighteenth century. Today, medical computing simulation and gaming enhance training scenarios and experiences. It also increases confidence and reduces skeptical among medical professionals about the technologies’ usefulness and effectiveness. This article focuses on the needs of patients and healthcare professionals in developing countries where the caregivers have been overwhelming with medical services provided to outpatients. Advancement in medical research and innovation generated tremendous health information required by caregivers to provide accurate, effective, and swift treatment and cure for patients. Traditional health information systems and user interfaces do not provide effective display, search, retrieve, and record patient information. Applying simulation and gaming technology techniques and methods can create effective healthcare systems and applications to better serve outpatients. This creates a large research and economic opportunity for the computer simulation and gaming industry.

The handling of patients is a complex process. The training and education of patient transportation workers are meant to ensure efficiency and health outcomes. A simulation game, joined by personnel with working experience or prospective professionals in the healthcare system, is a lifelike medium for improving decision-makings in nonrational operation management. However, few examples are known in regard to synthesizing complex systems, such as clinical facilities, into healthcare simulation games. In order to fill this gap, this work proposes the adopt theory and reports the development of a simulation game that reconciles patient handling with the support of different types of simulation techniques. The simulation game has a physical entity simulator as its back end and a panel of command and control for each player as its front end. The physical entity simulator is based on the interactions of mobile agents. Agent-based modeling targets the correct level of representation of the operative environment. The simulation game is tested with managers who have more than 10 years of working experience with patient flow management in pediatric care. Reflections from players indicate that modeling and abstraction using an agent model are an efficient synthesis of complex systems. The theory, methods, and results of this study are expected to contribute to the development of simulation games that can be applied in health service provision, in general, and in patient transportation, in particular.

In this paper, we explore the use of serious gaming to raise awareness about some of the trade-offs in anticipatory scheduling of synchromodal transport and to educate on how to optimize these trade-offs. We design and implement a game, called Trucks & Barges, which simulates a logistics service provider that needs to assign containers to barges and trucks on a daily basis. The game consists of various types of game modes in which the player can either manually plan the containers or use advanced decision support. The game includes a leaderboard such that players can compete against each other. We discuss how active learning by means of the game facilitates the adoption of an anticipatory perspective when scheduling synchromodal transport operations.

This paper concentrates on methods to facilitate interactions and knowledge exchange between different expert groups. The specific case examined is on expert groups from the aviation and humanitarian context. Both are highly complex, multidisciplinary systems where stakeholders work under high time pressure and uncertainty and in a complex decision-making environment. Especially during a sudden on-set (natural) disaster, stakeholders from the humanitarian field and airport management need to work closely together to guarantee the most efficient way of handling issues like overwhelmed customs officials, unsolicited aid donations and unsafe or unprepared warehouses. While several approaches are available, the question still remains: which method works best to create a mutual understanding between these two worlds. To answer it, three different approaches have been examined: (1) discussion rounds with experts, (2) gaming-related method and (3) simulation game. The set-ups as well as the results will be described and pros and cons of each method discussed.

The periodic table is an important set of scientific symbols that are not commonly used in everyday life but which may cause science phobia in youngsters. Many types of educational tools for learning the periodic table do not provide an opportunity to discover the relationships between chemical elements. In this study, we propose a NEO Game of sugoroku involving a 3D periodic chart (i.e., periodic-sugoroku) for use as an educational tool. Sugoroku is a Japanese board game similar to Parcheesi or Monopoly. Using this proposed tool, students can actively learn the periodic chart while enjoying a sugoroku game.

A learning method is needed to teach university students how to read financial statements. Using a business game incorporating the need to comprehend financial statements and a paper examination, 16 students who were not studying accounting participated in an examination to see whether the game fostered reading comprehension of financial statements. The results could not clarify whether the developed business game can foster reading comprehension of financial statements. In the future, a business game should be developed in which the reading of the financial statements greatly affects the outcome.

Financial literacy is an essential part of youth education, not only for making better financial decisions but also to minimize the threat of becoming investment fraud victims. A well-designed serious game can enhance financial literacy skills for the players. This paper explains the results of a co-creation process to improve the game effectiveness of an early-stage board-game-based prototype used for financial literacy education for youths. This research generated and selected the improvement ideas using participatory design (PD), which involves two primary activities, the nominal group technique (NGT) and an ideas selection session, to gain as many improvement ideas for the co-creation process as possible. A comparison between improvement ideas generated from the participants as game evaluators and as co-creators is presented in this paper to discover the differences. This research highlights the fact that participants as co-creators tend to suggest improvements of the prototype in the fundamental concept of the game, while as game evaluators, the participants tend to suggest functional improvements in game mechanism aspects to improve the game’s effectiveness.

This article is a part of the author’s work about innovation in learning processes due to generation changes. The presented project focuses on augmented reality learning game design as a new way of teaching financial indicators, such as return on investment (ROI). This indicator shows the efficiency at capital allocation in the process of operating profit generation. The scenario of the business to analyze depends on the player’s location at that moment. In each scenario, the player has to make 15 decisions about the most important aspects of the business.

Business games are used for organizational performance interventions as well as for educational purposes. To what extent can games be designed for intervention and used for educational purposes (and vice versa)? The authors study the learning efficacy of a game originally designed to support the implementation of the growth strategy for a client organization, a Dutch SME operating on the global market. Data was collected systematically through surveys before and after the game, 1 session with 25 executives from the client company and 2 sessions with 39 students of entrepreneurship. The findings indicate that although the learning efficacy, game quality and enjoyment among both groups are good or average, the differences are significant. The conclusion is that although business games in general are an effective intervention and active learning tool, the influence of contextual factors on learning among students may be more pronounced than it is among the executives for which the game has originally been designed.

Most engineering students have less motivation to learn business management skills and knowledge because they have never learned them and might imagine that they are difficult. To resolve the two difficulties above simultaneously, the authors have been developing original analogue business games since 2007: BASE business games. The authors created the BASE Supply Chain Collaboration Games (BASE-SCC), which are specified for learning supply chain collaboration. These business games require that students form teams and manage simulated companies as smartphone assemblers. The authors applied the games for students at Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (SIIT), Thammasat University. The results of questionnaire analysis demonstrate that the participants enjoyed the games and acquired necessary management skills through the game experiences. Furthermore, the authors confirmed that the games have reproducibility as educational materials.

In economic education, it has become increasingly important for middle school students to acquire economic thinking. We developed an analog game using LEGO® blocks for students to gain perspective on economic issues. In this game, we treated combined LEGO® blocks as smartphones, and the students “produced” and “traded” LEGO® blocks to engage in economic activities. Using this game, we conducted economic education classes in two middle schools. We clarified whether students were able to master economic viewpoints through the lesson. To achieve this objective, we conducted a questionnaire survey on opportunity costs before and after the lesson and used the Financial Fitness for Life Theme tests. Students could make decisions after comparing profits and losses resulting from the consequences of their choices. More than half of the students selected the correct answer for applied questions using the opportunity cost concept. However, about three-fourths of the students could not define opportunity cost.

There is an indisputable gap between the conceptualization and introduction of innovation and the actual and effective implementation of innovations in the complex sociotechnical system of transport and logistics throughout Europe. With our research we investigate the role of simulation games as an instrument to understand the dynamics around innovation processes in this system, by the means of literature review and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders of selected innovation cases within the Port of Rotterdam. The aim of our study is to gather valuable insights into how simulation games can be used to handle the extremely critical issue of effectively implementing innovation in the transport and logistics sector. It is thus expected to stimulate and enhance interaction among actors on policy level, by highlighting the potential advantages of using the approach of simulation games when the implementation of innovation is in discuss.

Simulation has become a very popular teaching tool in business studies. However, there are few previous studies that have investigated its uses as a testing tool in the area. This study aims to investigate its validity as a testing tool and the possible biases that can occur. Data was obtained from 259 MBA students from Thammasat Business School. The results showed that there is a positive correlation between simulation game scores and students’ GPA, their grades in each subject, and students’ perception of their abilities. Therefore, its validity is arguably confirmed. Further investigation revealed that there is no statistical differences between the simulation game scores among different organizations where students work, different sectors of their organization, or the different positions in an organization. Nevertheless, some differences in simulation game scores were found among the different areas of specialization and the ages of students.

The purpose of this study was to develop a methodology for environmental learning that enables qualitative understanding of environmental burdens. The tool in the methodology used the Material Flow Diagram of the Green Multidimensional Bookkeeping System (Green MDBS). Green MDBS is an environmental information system that enables bottom-up aggregation of environmental burden data in an individual process. In Green MDBS, all materials are regarded as “potential environmental burdens,” meaning that input or output of any material can potentially affect the environment. To accurately reduce environmental burdens, it is important that the types of materials and services are understood prior to quantitative measurements and calculations. Thus, the first step of the Green MDBS is to identify all types of materials and services, related to a relevant process. It is suggested that this step could be used as a simulation tool for environmental learning when applied to previous studies. In this paper, methodology for environmental learning using the Material Flow Diagram is presented, and some results of implementing this methodology in university classrooms are presented. Challenges faced in the application of the methodology to active learning, concerning environmental burdens in daily and economic activities, are further discussed.

“The green roof game” was created for collective learning on green roof ecosystem services. The ultimate goal was to raise awareness of people to increase urban green space. The game was composed of a gameboard and artefacts including 3D-tokens of trees, shrubs, herbs, grass, ponds, and solar panels. Each token contained an ecosystem service point. Each gaming session was begun by the players answering the pretest. Then, they were asked to construct their own green roof. After finishing, the players were asked to calculate the ecosystem service score of their roof in four dimensions followed by completing the posttest. A debriefing was then conducted. This game was implemented with 285 participants. The results showed that this game could facilitate participants’ understanding on green roof ecosystem services. Players suggested to have more plant species to make the game be more fun and real. They also suggested the researchers create an online computer version for greater public use.

To design policies for energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables, this study proposes an analytical framework combining simulation and gaming. The aim of this framework is to clarify the effect of subjective recognition by managers of energy companies on the promotion of renewables. Considering the purpose, the authors design a multiplayer computer game dealing with energy supply business in a competitive market. In the gaming experiment, participants play the game and answer some questionnaires during the game. The relationship between the subjective recognition of players, their behavior, and the results of the game is analyzed from the records of the game and questionnaires. The results of preliminary experiments suggest that the pessimistic outlook of players in the earlier stage of game heats up price competition in the market and prevents the promotion of renewables as the players place more emphasis on short-term competition than on long-term investments. The results of preliminary experiments show that the proposed framework can analyze the effect of subjective recognitions of players on the results of the game.

An electricity market in Japan has been an oligopolistic market since the previous century, but it has been a liberalized competitive market due to a policy change since 2016. It also has high possibilities to become two-sided markets with strong wholesalers. The two-sided markets have been researched using a mathematical economics model in recent years. The model, however, can only deal with one or two players on a market; therefore it has limitations to analyze more various players. On the other hand, research projects of dynamic pricing and incentive mechanisms have been carried out on power markets. These studies have shown interesting results, but they also have limitations to analyze complex markets and decision-making processes of market players taking managing conditions into consideration. In this study, we adopt agent-based gaming to analyze them on a two-sided electricity market.

In 2009, a challenging policy of the Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Administrative Office was launched aiming at the better livelihood of farmers. One scheme was to supply more water to farming areas through pipeline infrastructure. The piping irrigation is beneficial to rice-producing areas by boosting rice productivity. As a result, members of this water user group have expended and caused water use conflict since the water is inequitably managed. The objective of this research was to solve the water use conflict and facilitate the water users to create an equitable and sustainable piping irrigation management through an active learning process. A role-play game (RPG) was built and used for active knowledge exchange activities organized in the village. Playing RPG assisted the participating water users to build a shared representation of the piping irrigation system and observed the “butterfly effect” of interactions at micro level to the system at macro level during gaming sessions.

This chapter addresses the connection between gaming simulation (GS) and problem-based learning (PBL) in disaster education. First, the chapter explains their relations theoretically and describes the introduction of Evacuation Simulation Training (EST) for earthquake evacuation to university students. EST empowered both Japanese and international students to conduct research, integrate models and practice, and apply their knowledge and skills to develop viable solutions to defined problems. Finally, the chapter demonstrates the utility of GS as a tool of PBL.

The purpose of this study is to show the effectiveness of a gaming of participatory evacuation planning in tourist areas using agent simulation from the viewpoint of legitimate peripheral participation. This study conducted an experiment of the gaming to take a pre- and post-questionnaire survey of 32 students. We got two findings including two of the central components of legitimate peripheral participation. First, this gaming using agent simulation can function as a practical disaster prevention activity. Second, participants can join this gaming from their standpoint without special knowledge and skills. This study confirms that this gaming using agent simulation can facilitate collaboration between researchers and members of the public, which is an essential component of community disaster prevention.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the construction of a gaming simulation model based on information scenarios obtained from questionnaire surveys in L’Aquila. A second objective was to discover the kinds of quality of life (QOL) factors affected by disaster information mismatch (DIM) when using a gaming simulation model based on information scenarios. This study conducted an experiment on the variation of QOL factors by DIM using a questionnaire survey for seven students. It is clarified that, if DIM occurred, then the victim’s QOL decreased compared to the situation with no DIM in each disaster phase. The results of this study indicate that the construction of disaster information sharing systems based on residents’ needs should be harmonized with public specialized information.

The aim of this article is to analyze how matchmaking influences player engagement and satisfaction in mobile Esports games. In the first part, a definition of Esports is presented, and the pace with which the phenomenon is developing is described. In the next part, the literature review of the previously researched factors affecting players’ contentment is performed, taking into particular consideration matchmaking systems. Then, 17 most popular Esports mobile games are chosen for the analysis in terms of players’ satisfaction in the current matchmaking systems. In this part, the content of the most frequently used forums for players is analyzed. The analysis using netnography techniques is performed, and the players’ views about matchmaking mechanics in the chosen games are examined and discussed.

This research aimed to propose an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot mobile application for pre-school children engaging in active learning processes. The research tools Microsoft Bot Framework and Azure Bot Service were used to create an AI chatbot doll (AIBD) prototype. With this AIBD, the players simply dragged and dropped items in an intelligent bot builder that could create characters with different identities using a set of customized doll items, for example, genders, dresses, shoes, or flowers. During play, children could either learn about what colors, apparel, languages, or music they liked or communicate their attitudes or thoughts to the dolls. Consequently, the AIBD also learned and collected personal data, such as players’ personalities, emotions, attitudes, or behaviors. Finally, the data were stored in a private cloud repository, where only authorized parents could access the reports. In our findings, the average correlation between the capability of the AIBD’s learning performance and children’s active learning processes was high (support value equal to 0.791 and confidence value equal to 0.853). Moreover, the children playing with the AIBD could not only develop their emotions but they also saw large improvements in their ideas generation.

The use of technology is becoming widespread in science and technology classes due to its overwhelming benefits in learning. Yet many English language teachers lack knowledge of the existing technologies and the “know-how” to use it in the classroom. In this paper, the results of the pilot study are reported concerning the effects of virtual reality (VR) headset onto the language learner’s affective variables such as engagement, motivation, and independent learning. It also explores the effectiveness of VR headset onto the language learner’s ability to learn vocabularies and to follow instructions. Descriptive reports show very high mean scores of the learner’s engagement (M = 4.63), motivation (M = 4.72), and independent learning (M = 4.63). The average mean score concerning their ability to follow instruction was 4.36. With regard to vocabulary test, the average mean score in the posttest was 2.73, higher than the average mean score of 1.18 in the pretest.

This paper describes the user experience research of an educational game that covers risk management issues. Creating such information systems as serious games requires them to be tailored for learning purposes. The first phase of research focused on questions about the feasibility of the tool and its usability in terms of learning outcomes. The study was undertaken with use of an already existing online tool for user experience research and additional open-ended questions to obtain deeper insights into the quantitative data. Analysis of the results is provided. Readers can also find here a detailed design process description. This paper can be of interest for those who want to compare their own designs of mobile-tailored software, especially when it has an educational angle.

In this research, an Urban Redevelopment Project Game prototype version is developed as a game that concisely represents the tasks and issues in a private-initiated redevelopment project based on the rights-conversion approach. In Urban Redevelopment Project Game, gaming deals with drawing up plans to ensure project profitability and reaching consensus under conditions of uncertainty. Additionally, it analyzes the results of test play and the risk-return attitudes of the plans which the players agreed. The validity of the game as a decision-making analysis tool is also discussed.

This chapter introduced Impact Finder, gaming, and simulation invented in order to support a transfer of complicated knowledge of social impact assessment (SIA). Impact Finder has proved to be a useful tool for beginners who are new to SIA to gain basic understanding of two of the most important tools for measuring impact, namely, Theory of Change and Impact Value Chain.

We designed a group work (GW) for university students based on the KJ-method as a frame game. The goal of the GW is to create the concept of the “ideal rural area” collaboratively. To evaluate the impact of this, we send out the questionnaires using both the Likert and the SD scales before and after the GW and compared these results. The results of the Likert questionnaire suggest that students’ interests in rural areas and so on had been increased. The result of the SD questionnaire shows that students’ impressions of both “agriculture” and “rural area” changed and became similar after the GW. On the other hand, there were little correlations between the changes of interests and impressions. These tentative results suggest that students had rethought the relation between rural areas and agriculture through creating the concept. In addition, the changes in participants’ attitudes that cannot be grasped by only the Likert questionnaire might have occurred.

Games used by organizations generate a wealth of valuable output in terms of knowledge. In order to maintain the produced knowledge, such as the explicit, e.g., logging and questionnaires, and implicit/tacit knowledge, e.g., experience from game sessions, a knowledge management system (KMS) should be employed. This paper starts by giving a brief description of the building blocks for a KMS and then proposes a methodology that combines three different methods, namely, semi-structured interviews, causal maps, and the Q-methodology, to illustrate how tacit knowledge from principal stakeholders (game designers and project team members) can be extracted as part of building a KMS. The proposed methodology is applied in a case study related to the railway sector.

A “community forest” board game was created and used with local villagers and teachers for collective learning about the community’s forest ecosystem components and services. The game was composed of a gameboard and set of photo cards. In the field workshop, two or three representatives from seven villages and two teachers from Lainan Subdistrict, Nan Province, Northern Thailand, were invited to participate in the gaming session. After playing, a debriefing session was conducted, and players were asked to share their ideas about conserving their community forest. The results showed that players could discuss and match the photo cards and the clues on the gameboard. They also shared their own knowledge about the diversity of organisms, especially mushrooms, plants, and animals, and how to use them. Moreover, improvements and future use of this game were discussed between the players and authors.

This research contributes to building consensus and making social decisions about disaster mitigation, especially in districts of heavy snowfall. From the existing research, the hypothesis model of snowfall disaster problem formulation has been developed, which includes the snowfall disaster phase, software phase, and hardware phase. Next, interview surveys in Takashima city were conducted among the various stakeholders: officers of the social welfare council, community leaders, public health nurses, welfare commissioners, and government officers. As a result of the surveys, the causal relationship and trade-off relationship among the phases have been observed. Especially, information asymmetry among the stakeholders in snow removal and elderly persons watching and health-checking activity is extracted as one of the problems in the snowfall disaster problem structure.

The term “wadakamari” in this paper means to switch one’s own viewpoint one after another without seeing it as perfect. We design and carry out “wadakamari gaming” which promotes players have wadakamari in consensus building process and make proposals for a better consensus building way. In this research, we focus on the concept of contingency as a factor that causes wadakamari. The contingencies concerning both the dilemma structure of the consensus building problem and differences of viewpoints between people seem to promote subjects have wadakamari. Therefore, in this research, we design wadakamari gaming in which players deal with a dilemma problem with compact city as the theme and aim for consensus building. We evaluated players’ behavior by preparing six indicators concerning wadakamari. As a result, it became clear that the players tend to have wadakamari by confronting the emphasized dilemma structure or facing differences between the players’ viewpoints. In addition, consistency was confirmed between the wadakamari indicators.

“Performance ethnography” seeks to give people a voice by staging events, plays, and exhibitions together with those under study. Still, the audience of such events remains just that and gains experience only second-hand. Contrastingly, live-action role-plays (larps) provide first-hand experience. Building on performance ethnography and taking the limits of “experimental anthropology” into account (i.e. to offer only glimpses of another reality), this paper showcases a larp that was designed together with former hikikomori (people in long-term, social withdrawal) from Japan to make their life worlds experienceable to others. The co-designed larp, “Village, Shelter, Comfort”, seeks to go against the stereotype of laziness by raising awareness of the dilemmas some hikikomori are confronted with. The larp is part of an ongoing research project on learning effects of larping and an evaluation method for such effects.

In Persian “Hooshmand” means intelligence. The simulation Hoosmand-1 creates a clash between intellectual objectivity and emotional reactions to unexpected events. The simulated environment challenges skilled and experienced senior project managers to navigate their way through a set of complex decisions. Initial conditions are complicated but comprehensible, requiring application of knowledge and diligence. Then factors altering the context are introduced to create complex conditions in which standard responses no longer apply. We review outcomes of the project for which Hooshmand-1 was designed. In regard to project portfolio management, cost-benefit ratios and business strategies received more attention than resource availability. In regard to quality decision-making, the effectiveness of team cognition shows up as a key factor shaping performance under stress. “Black Swan” events, Groupthink traps, and Abilene Paradox thinking can all inhibit quality decisions, and Hooshmand-1 provides a context for their emergence and thoughtful analysis.

Self-esteem refers to how much you value yourself. It’s when you know that you are important and talented. People who have a healthy self-esteem typically do well in school and workplace and get along well with others. People with a healthy self-esteem know what their talents are. This workshop will run self-esteem building activity by using This Is Me exercise. People can learn from This Is Me exercise by drawing self-portraits and completing the questions about sense of identity, strength, friendship, and encouragement to build people self-esteem, encourage people to learn to love themselves for who they are, and develop a growth mindset and are more likely to persevere in the face of challenges.

This chapter discusses two case studies, which are part of our initiative to promote gaming simulation in Romanian business and educational settings. Our goal was to adapt “City of Emotions,” an urban planning gaming simulation, to other intervention and learning contexts. The first case study analyzes an organizational change intervention, where “City of Emotions” was used with the whole management team of a public Romanian company, in order to develop shared leadership and to help them find common ground for business innovation. Our second case study highlights the benefits of using “City of Emotions” to teach students about participatory processes and about the benefits of learning through interaction, as well as reflection in and on action. Feedback from participants in both situations was positive, both with regard to their somewhat new experience with gaming simulation and with regard to their learning outcomes.

We are currently observing a renaissance of the use of gaming simulation in urban planning. However, it is very rare that a game is followed up by so-called ‘debriefing’ after an urban gaming simulation (UGS), i.e., the practical applications drawing directly from the design process.This paper describes a project on the design and construction of a school park and playground that was destroyed by the earthquake of 2012 in Emilia-Romagna, Italy and the crucial role of the UGS framework called the ‘City of Emotions’ (Rizzi P, Sidoti B, La città delle emozioni. In Rizzi P (ed) Giochi di Città. La Meridiana, Molfetta, pp 101–104, 2004 (in Italian)), which was renamed ‘Park of Emotions’ in this case study. In 2016, Parcobaleno park was awarded for its innovative approach in design and management at the 6th edition of ‘Città per il verde’, amongst other reasons.

This chapter explores a hybrid approach to teach students from diverse nationalities and disciplines within a limited time by lowering the communication and distinct academic barriers by using a social constructivist model that ushers students into the social aspect of instruction. Case study and problem-based learning (PBL) is employed as teaching approach and assessed using the Rich Environments for Active Learning (REAL) framework which is a comprehensive instructional system that promote study and investigation within prescribed contexts. The REAL evaluation shows high student comprehension and increased collaboration among students and teachers and cultivation of rich and involved knowledge structures using realistic case studies and articulated PBL performances.

There are many distracting factors in an environment of simulation and gaming. This study focuses on the role of a facilitator as a designer of physical and mental environments in simulation and gaming. With the help of a facilitator, more people will be able to concentrate on the activities in simulation and gaming and review their experiences in a metacognitive manner to extract a general strategy through debriefing. This study discusses how to design a good environment for participants from the perspective of a facilitator.

This paper explores the context dependency of four popular persuasive game design principles in order to improve their effective implementation. To prevent the use of badly chosen design principles that can be counterproductive, other authors showed the importance of tailoring persuasive game design principles to various gamer personalities. In this paper we aim to further theoretically explore the context dependency of four popular principles. With the elaboration likelihood model as a framework, we present examples of different scenarios that describe how these four persuasive game design principles can either enhance or reduce the motivation and/or ability of the player to elaborate on the persuasive message of the game. Although we emphasize the theoretical nature of this paper, it may form a starting point for experimental research on persuasive game design principles. Results from this future research will ultimately contribute to the overall effectiveness of persuasive games, whose application is valuable within an active learning context.

In this study, we explore the similarities and differences in learning effects produced by playing a digital and an analogue version of the disruption management game for container terminal operations. We organized the analogue game sessions with students in the United States and digital game sessions with students from Greece. We analysed a postgame survey that captured the learning experiences of the participants to compare the differences and similarities of the learning effects of either game. Based on the results, we conclude that the type of game has limited effect on the learning experience, while incorporation or exclusion of learning principles does have.

This paper presents and discusses the research framework of complexity in simulation gaming. The complexity of a simulation game has three dimensions: game systematic complexity, game social complexity, and complex dynamics of gameplay. The author presents two perspectives on the complexity of a simulation game. The first perspective is a designer perspective and game-scoring model proposed by the author to solve the internal model dilemma of interdependence. The second perspective is the player’s perspective and, in this paper, the research model and procedure are described for discussion.

Following a request to gamify construction company’s business model, the authors’ group (BASE) discussed whether it was possible to represent such a large industry in a business board game. We defined two principles, “cutoff branch” and “gradualism.” By applying them, we have succeeded in developing three different game sets called BASE Construction Game (BCG). We tested all games at Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (SIIT), Thammasat University, from February to April 2018. To evaluate their teaching effectiveness, we conducted four questionnaire surveys. The results showed that BCG satisfied all learning goals and can be further improved in the future.

The new Japanese National Course of Studies intends to cultivate generic skills with the cooperation of each subject area in a “Period for Integrated Study.” To achieve this purpose, this study aims to develop a virtual lesson game for teacher education to improve teachers’ instructional style. The game engages teachers into two lessons, an introductory lesson and an advanced lesson. To design and conduct appropriate lessons, teachers need to understand a student model that represents the mental model of learners who achieve the instructional goal. To do so, this study adopts my “Warp and Woof model of problem-solving” and provides teachers with feedback by changing the situation according to teachers’ choices in the game.

The present study examined the effects of debriefing on 132 Austrian university students as part of an international collaboration between Austria and Japan. There were eight experimental conditions. After pre-treatment, groups of four participants played the Highway Planning Game, which deals with cooperation and conflict. In addition to the analyses of the effects of the different debriefing methods on Austrian students, an intercultural comparison with Japanese students’ data (Kikkawa et al. 2018) was also done. The Austrian students showed the same pattern of results as the Japanese students in the previous study: task performance in the groups that played a game and then received a debriefing was better than that in the groups that either did not play the game or played the game but did not receive a debriefing. Austrian students showed significantly better performance under all conditions and higher scores on the leadership and own interests dimension compared with Japanese students.

This is the initial report of a multi-university study of students participating in business simulations. The study’s purpose is an attempt to determine what skills students learn while taking part in business gaming. This study defined a set of 16 primary learning skills that had been previously suggested by a variety of authors. University students were surveyed immediately upon completion of a business simulation that was included in their coursework. The results presented here are limited to US students enrolled in US universities. Future analysis will explore whether the data suggests international students learn the skills differently than US nationals. This study found that debriefing had a substantial and measurable impact on the student’s learning; however, debriefing alone was not the primary variable in learning. It was important only after the student considered the debriefing to be important and their instructor had the ability to facilitate the debriefing.

Gaming simulation is a successful approach to many issues where a holistic view is important. However, to use results from gaming simulations, the game has to be validated. This paper proposes a two-step approach for process validation of behavior for the gaming simulation by comparing decisions that players make in a game with the perceptions that affect their real-life decisions. Two case studies, where this approach was applied, are presented, and the results are analyzed and discussed. A strong correlation between behavior during the games and in the real world was observed. This correlation indicates that gaming simulations in these cases are validated and represent the real system in an accurate manner. Thus, these cases show that the proposed approach works and can be used for validation of gaming simulations.

This paper presents a critical viewpoint on educational gamification, an understudied field filled with hyperbole and hollow sales pitches, as well as solid research. By reviewing existing research in the context of Landers’ theory of gamified learning, it discusses three underlying, important elements that need to be taken into account: engagement, challenge, and reflection, as well as the interconnections between them. As a result, it suggests ways for more efficient deployment of gamification for educational purposes.