Abstract:

In our Master study program “Software Design and Engineering”, we focus on developing not only technical skills, but also professional skills of students. While technical skills include domain-specific knowledge, such as designing, programming, and testing software, professional skills are related to competencies needed for a profession beyond technical skills. Examples are complex problem solving, teamwork, and communication skills—skills that can be applied in different areas, jobs, and situations. In this talk, we present a mobile learning approach which supports a fundamental understanding of core concepts taught in our course “Complex Problem Solving” in the second semester of our Master program.

In this course concept, we use gamification to motivate students to deeply analyse the behaviour of a system by applying the Theory of Constraints. The introduced game simulates dependencies in a complex system and shows their implications on a system’s outcome. To improve user experience in an on-site, remote or hybrid setup, we designed and implemented a mobile version of this simulation game, which runs distributed on several mobile devices. Each mobile device represents a production station in the chain and it is controlled by a student. The students are able to communicate with each other, so that the gained insights can be immediately discussed in the team. In the case that some production stations cannot be controlled by the students (e.g. too few students in a team), these stations can optionally be controlled by the AI of the system.

This interactive mobile learning approach enables location-independent teams. The game can be played with the same user experience independently whether the team is completely on-site, completely remote or mixed. The interactions with the mobile phones and with other students in the team ensures active participation in the game. In order to evaluate this approach, we compared learning outcomes of groups of students playing this digital game with groups of students playing the game with real dices.

In order to examine the learning effect of the game, the game was tested on 27 students. Immediately before and after the game, the participants were asked to fill out a survey. Participants felt significantly more familiar with the Theory of Constraints and its usage after playing the game. We have seen a noticeable improvement of the students after playing only one round of the dice game, in any version.
The complete results of the survey and students’ feedback regarding further development of the game will be presented in the paper.

We have already applied mobile learning in different courses and based on our experience we have designed and implemented the presented concept. Our concept for the mobile learning simulation game particularly addresses the need of an interactive game in any classroom environment, on-site, online and even hybrid.

We evaluated the effectiveness of this game by letting different groups of students work with different game types, including the real dice-game and the mobile application. We compared the learning outcomes of these groups and analysed benefits and challenges, as well as identified further development potential of our approach.

Keywords:

Mobile learning, gamification, professional skills, serious games, STEM education.