A short guide to selecting a simulation game for your course

Simulation games continue to grow in popularity in business education. They offer new ways to engage students and assess their learning without risking the inappropriate use of ChatGPT. Meanwhile the number of simulations available continues to grow, making it increasingly important and challenging to select the right simulation for a course. This article offers a short guide.

Learning objectives

When evaluating simulation games for potential use in class, the first factor to consider is whether the topics and learning objectives of the course match those of the simulation. If there is no strong link between the simulation and the course, students may enjoy themselves when using the simulation but will ultimately wonder what the point of the exercise was. If there is no good simulation available for a particular course, then it is better not to use one than choosing one with little relevance. Often, the learning objectives of a simulation are explicitly stated but otherwise a synopsis or other product information can serve as a guide.

Level of challenge, complexity and customization options

Simulation games need to present an appropriate level of challenge for students. If a simulation is too easy, students will get bored. If it is too difficult, they will get lost. There is an optimum level of challenge in which students are set goals that are not easy to achieve but are feasible.

For simulations with the right level of difficulty, a related factor to check is their complexity. Overly simple simulations lack realism and credibility. However, if simulations are too complex, for example by having students make a very large number of unrelated decisions, then it can become difficult to understand the cause-and-effect relationship between decisions and results. Therefore, great simulations are easy to understand for students and instructors, have a level of complexity that the students in your course can handle and incorporate real trade-offs when making decisions.

For most simulations, the level of complexity experienced by students can be managed in several ways. First, an instructor can decide which topics from the simulation to discuss extensively and which ones to ignore. For example, in Sim Institute’s Sustainability Management Simulation: Net Zero, instructors can choose to cover the importance of the carbon budget in depth, while not discussing the role of the sustainability officer in detail (or vice versa). Second, when evaluating a simulation for use in class, instructors need to check the customization options that enable the simulation to be tailored to the needs of a particular group of students. Customization may be in the form of setting up scenarios that are relevant for students or by including or excluding certain simulation features.

A final note on complexity concerns the level of preparation needed by the instructor. Some simulations require (or recommend) a lengthy train-the-trainer session, inclusive of course completion certificates. Although spending time to prepare for the use of a simulation is useful, in practice instructors often prefer simulations that are intuitive to use and require limited preparation time.

Duration and replay value

Simulations vary in length of ‘play time’ between 20 minutes and 20 hours. Long simulations are typically used for capstone courses, where the simulation becomes the central part of the course. Very short simulations can be used as ‘ice-breaking’ exercises at the start of a course or as ways to practice key concepts.

Some simulations can be played several times by students, either with the same settings as the initial run or with a new scenario. Playing a second time allows students to apply their learning from the first run. Playing several times under different scenarios (either set by the instructor or chosen by the student) can also reinforce the simulation’s learning objectives, for example that the success of a particular strategy is partly dependent on external circumstances (e.g. location of the business, developments in the competitive environment or changes in economic conditions). Allowing students to play a simulation more than once, and thereby giving them a second chance, can reduce the pressure and stress from fear of failure that students may feel during the simulation exercise.

Price

Simulation games are typically charged through a license fee per user. Most simulation licenses provide unlimited play for one user for the duration of the license period (e.g. 3 months). Other simulations, especially longer ones, can only be played once by a student.

License fees vary in price between $10 to over $50 for academic use. Pricing for use in executive education and corporate training is usually three times higher. Licenses for the instructor to try out the simulation and access the facilitator interface, as well as access to support materials (brief & debrief slides, teaching note) are typically provided free of charge.

With tight budgets, pricing can be an important consideration. In the end, the choice of a simulation should be based on the value that it can provide to a course. In many cases, a higher price can indicate greater complexity and a longer seat time, but not necessarily greater student benefit.

Assessment process and evaluation template

Assessing these aspects of a simulation can best be done by going through the available product information and by playing a free trial. Hands-on experience is usually more effective than reading lengthy teaching notes.

Sim Institute has developed a simulation evaluation template that can be used by faculty and trainers looking for a simple structure to evaluate simulation games. Evaluations that are completed with this template can be valuable tools for decision-making and for communication with colleagues, including those who are approving budget requests. The template can be obtained free of charge by contacting us on [email protected].