Analysing the relevance of serious game elements for effectively teaching innovation processes

Abstract

Serious games (SGs) as a new educational format have gained interest among many scholars from diverse fields. SGs seem to be useful tools for teaching innovation processes (IP) as they guarantee intrinsic motivation and provide situated learning. So far, there is no guideline on designing IP games and lowering their development time while ensuring their effectiveness. To fill this gap, we should first analyse the existing IP games with evaluation methods and synthesise their commonalities. Numerous methods have been put forward in the literature to assess digital SGs; however, most of the SGs for IP are board games. That is why we explore in this paper the use of Serious Game Design Assessment (SGDA) framework to analyse IP board games. According to the case study on an open innovation board game, we suggest applying this method to examine the a priori relevance of game elements (components that make up a game system). Moreover, we make recommendations to complement the SGDA framework with Game and Learning Mechanics, and real-world information. This contribution should help designers transform traditional educational supports into serious board games for teaching IP.