Abstract:

Interactive resources can play a key role in enhancing higher education study programs, especially in postgraduate courses. Although there is a wide range of this kind of resources, their effectiveness depends on several aspects like usability, usefulness, or contextualization. The aim of this paper is to describe the outcomes of an innovative project that is being carried out in the MSc in Actuarial Science at the University of Málaga, which is dedicated to design and implement interactive online resources for several courses. The approach we follow is to provide students with learning tools that allow an easier way to learn some difficult or abstract concepts and processes, by means of digital simulators, and also to offer an additional gamification factor with several serious gaming resources.

The online interactive simulators developed in the project are intended to facilitate the learning experience of the topics that are usually more demanding in the insurance field: stochastic processes and survival models. By means of graphical animations, students can simulate different scenarios and observe in real time how the components of the models react to changes in the parameters that define each simulated situation. These simulators also include a series of guided activities to assist users in their first experiences with them, but students are encouraged to continue using them by themselves in later stages of their learning process.

The second type of interactive resources developed in the project introduces some gamification in the learning strategy of our project. Several interactive crosswords and word searches have been implemented in the involved courses. Our students revealed that these resources helped them to reduce the stress of the general course progress, but also were very useful as self-assessment tools.

Finally, the results of the project, which have been assessed by means of a survey, indicate a very positive response by the students who participate in the project. The satisfaction level with the experience is quite high, and most students asked for more interactive resources like the ones developed in the project.

Keywords:

Actuarial education, simulators, serious gaming, interactivity.