A preliminary study of a business-management/Strategic-planning board game with situated learning mechanisms

Abstract

Recently, board game-based instructions have gained much attention for human resource training in enterprise. However, studies of educational board games designed based on the situated learning theory with authentic enterprise data and experiential-learning-based mechanisms that assist business management and strategic planning learning are still rare, especially in life insurance industry. To explore how educational board games can assist business management and strategic planning learning, this empirical study developed an educational board game - WinWin Insurance Plus. The game was developed not only for business management learning and strategic planning, but also for life insurance management based on situated learning mechanisms. All data and information in this game came from a real life insurance company for authentic context simulation. The game mechanisms were designed based on metacognition and experiential learning principles to promote learners' strategic planning and reflective thinking. In this game, the players played a role working in an insurance company. The players were responsible for sales, investment, project management, recruitment, risk control, and department planning in the game. The case and information in the cards were adapted from the real data provided by multiple departments of a real insurance company, so this game could simulate real business situations and contexts. The game mechanism provided feedback and progress to the players so that they could adjust their business strategies to obtain good reputation and outcomes for the company. This preliminary study evaluated the game based on the players' acceptance, flow state, and gender difference. The study also adapted a qualitative analysis to investigate learners' gain. 48 students from a university in northern Taiwan participated in this study. The results of this study provided valuable references for human resource training and and business management learning. This board game also showed the potential of gamification-based instructions in human resource training in the future.