Simulation Video Games as a Business School Teaching Tool

Abstract: This paper is a report on the experience of using a commercial business simulation video game as a teaching tool in the Management of Information Systems (MIS) courses in two of the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s second year business diploma programs, the International Trade and Transportation program and the Information Technology Management program. The pilot project involved training the students through built-in tutorials to use the program and then creating a multiplayer competition at the end of the course in which the students compete with each other in a simulated business environment that requires the student to build a successful business and compete for market share with their classmates. Their final mark for the exercise was directly related to their business success in the game. Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive and the software will be used again in 2010