Abstract:

The paper aims to report and discuss the development process of a web based open source futures simulation tool as well as the uses and experiences of the simulation. The purpose of the Get a Life! simulation is to promote proactive attitudes and futures orientation as well as life and work skills among higher education students.

Get a Life! project has produced a web based tool for students to reflect upon the future of work life and career development. The objective of the tool is to yield safe yet exciting experience on the various possible futures of work. The main design and methodological focus is on simulating very complex phenomena such as the work and social life of an individual in a changing environment: global context of work. Different issues of the changing world of work have been included in various scenario paths.

Theoretical framework underpinning this case study is multidisciplinary and combines critical reflective learning, futures thinking, cognition and extends beyond rational decision making. It incorporates those issues with simulation as a method of stimulating proactivity and self-efficacy in long term career management. Our research explores possibilities of simulation learning in the context of future career planning and management. Simulating possible future events in the work life of an individual offers a rich and fruitful basis for independent reflections on one’s own decision-making patterns and development of active and responsible attitudes towards the future.

Two focal points of the simulation development are 1) how to build user-friendly career planning products with futures orientation and create content for them and 2) how to use futures studies and simulations as tools for reflective learning and self-assessment. The simulation is built upon a web based open source and free-to-use game engine developed in the Get a Life! project. With the game making tool anyone can create various types of simulation of their own.

Simulation website: http://getalife.fi

Keywords:

Open source simulation, serious games, gamification, reflective learning, life and work skills, career guidance, future work life, proactive attitudes.