Towards understanding the instructional value of real-time continuous feedback from the use of simulation games

Simulation games have long been used as a teaching tool in the classroom environment mainly due to the high level of participation and engagement that students are able to generate from these, making the learning process more enjoyable and capable to replicate real-life scenarios. When all is said and done, students are rewarded with a more authentic and complete learning experience. Feedback given during the simulation helps to motivate students to find better solutions to the problems being presented throughout the games and thus enhance their hands-on knowledge on particular subjects. The purpose of this research is to provide empirical evidence of interrelations and impacts that exist between real-time continuous feedback and simulation game performance as well as the interrelations and impacts that exist between real-time continuous feedback and both students' attitude and engagement towards learning. The research comprised 60 undergraduate students enrolled at the Centre of Commerce who had undergone at least three semesters of studying at various programmes at RMIT University Vietnam. For test purposes, the research employed a 3D IBM Business Process Management (BPM) simulation game, INNOV8 (more information is available at http://www- 01.ibm.com/software/solutions/soa/innov8/index.html) developed by IBM Academic Initiative. Students in the sample were asked to play this simulation game. A web-based survey followed at the conclusion of the simulation game for the collection of data. The findings of the research concluded that students showed a favourable attitude towards learning through the simulation game. In addition, the real-time continuous feedback given during the simulation game had a positive impact on the students' cognitive learning outcomes. The originality of this research stems from the nature of the feedback being given to students in a real-time continuous basis during the gameplay of a computer-based simulation game to examine how this impacts students' learning outcomes.