BUILDING GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP COMPETENCE THROUGH A SERIOUS GAME IN A VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT TO MAKE HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS BETTER EMPLOYABLE CANDIDATES IN THE GLOBAL WORKPLACE

There has been a lot of rhetoric attached to the Global Citizenship construct especially since it was heralded as one of the three education priorities and key education objectives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the 2014-2021 time frame. This paper, besides building on state-of-the-art theoretical frameworks for Global Citizenship, takes a more practical perspective and shows through experiential how-to guides and serious gameplay the ways Global Citizenship becomes most relevant to Higher Education students as future employees since the Global citizen mindset overlaps with the Global business mindset. Close connections are therefore built between Global citizenship competence and better employment prospects in workplaces infused with competition. To build Higher Education students’ Global citizenship competence (knowledge, skills, attitudes and values pertinent to the Global Citizenship mindset) a highly interactive serious game was designed and developed in a Virtual Learning Environment, the 3D Social Virtual World of Second Life (SL). The game design of apt2W.I.N. (applied psychology on teaching and technology War Interactive Negotiation) brings game-based learning, Global citizenship competence and a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) script under one thread. The storyline which draws on Thucydides’ recount of the Peloponnesian war, dating back to 5th century BC, ancient Greece, comes alive in a custom-made, high-interaction environment with thematic buildings and display fidelity. The underlying learning design relies upon mapping Toulmin’s argumentation model to De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats creative method for problem-solving. Post-test results attest to enhancement of the VLE serious game players’ knowledge, skills, values and attitudes pertinent to Global citizenship.