A TALE OF TWO SIMULATIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: EXPLORING THE BENEFITS OF A BOARD GAME AND AN ONLINE SIMULATION

摘要

In a holistic picture of two simulations in the same field, some tentative generalisations can be made. For students on the lower performing layer of a class, it seems that both the board game simulation as the online simulation was valuable in understanding the subject better, more so than for students who were performing well. The higher performing students gained valuable acquaintance with peer students in the board game, a unique affordance of the face-to-face mode of interaction. The lower performing students enjoyed the online simulation more than the high-performers, and evaluated the web-components more positively than the higher performers. The third year students as a group found the most value in the theory-praxis aspect and learning about the professional process. The praxis in the board game was not perceived as vividly, having a lower fidelity, but was more enjoyable. Transferring learning to the workplace, was achieved equally well for lower performing, novice as expert, high performing students, signifying that the simulation's fidelity was pitched at an appropriate level.