Abstract:

Serious gaming is used in various areas such as healthcare, businesses, industries, and, how not, in education, also at a university level. This abstract shows the experience developed in the subject Financial Law in the University of the Basque Country.

There are several definitions of the term "Serious Games". We can define it as a game in itself that has been designed for a purpose other than entertainment; as an activity between two or more people to make decisions that seek to achieve a goal within a given context; video games whose purpose is training over entertainment. Therefore, Serious Games combine learning strategies, knowledge structures, and game elements to teach specific skills, knowledge and attitudes.

Their power resides in the fact that they’re entertaining, engaging and immersive. Actually, we can consider them an effective educational tool, since they give us:­
1) A higher engagement and immersion, due to the fact that they are designed to always motivate the player to keep on playing by using rewards, story progression or other feedback systems;
2) A safe virtual space or environments to experiment, where players can act to their hearts extend without having to worry about damage;
3)­ An improved and positive learning experience compared to traditional and video learning methods.

Within the subject Financial Law, there’s an area where Serious Games can develop all their potential: the Law on Public Expenditures, which studies these expenditures in themselves, understood as a mandate directed to the satisfaction of public needs, from the circumstances that generate them to their material satisfaction through the outflow of public funds from the savings banks of the Treasury. Thats to say, the Law on Public Expenditures goes beyond the Budgetary Law.

The videogame “Cities Skylines” adds a beautiful environment for complete immersion in this matter. The idea is that our students apply the knowledge previously acquired on the subject in a practical way by creating and managing their own city. Building a city from scratch is easy to learn, but difficult to master. As the mayor of the city, our students will have to take care of balancing basic needs such as education, water, electricity, police, fire, sanitation and much more, all within the real economic and legal system. The citizens will react fluently and authentically to a multitude of game scenarios and our students are required to draw conclusions about their decisions.

The activity gives us a multitude of skills that we think are appropriate for our pupils. On the one hand, its interactivity obliges them to take decisions and actions to overcome challenges. On the other, it’s a very powerful tool to create them an immersive experience; they are involved with the characters in the game and what happens to them. At the same time, we focus on the progression and feedback of the story and in the social aspect of the game. Certainly, although it’s not a multiplayer game, our students play in groups what is much more effective than learning alone.

In summary, we believe that it is an enriching experience that can help in the teaching experience of a subject, the right of expenses, commonly forgotten in our study plans.

Keywords:

Law on Public Expenditures, Serious games, game-based learning.