The Impact of Using Serious Games as a Learning Tool in Higher Education

In order to address current challenges in higher education, innovative teaching approaches have to be introduced. They can aid in increasing student motivation, their course involvement and engagement. At the same time, they can also boost students’ learning outcomes. Our previous research studied the impact of implementing a business simulation into a study course. We explored students’ knowledge acquisition and their future engagement, assessed after the introductory simulation. The study involved two demographic groups of students: IT oriented and business oriented. In both groups the use of business simulation resulted in positive outcomes, depicting the suitability of using a business simulation. Regardless of the rate of used gamification, we have to be aware of and address adequately existing challenges and risks, to avoid the negative consequences of gamification, which we define as overgamification. According to this, we identified and analysed the existing challenges and risks and proposed possible solutions used when implementing the business simulation game. Both research directions are presented in the paper, together with corresponding references and future work.