Simulation-games for Learning Conducive Workplaces: A Case Study for Manual Assembly

All segments of stakeholders in society need to understand economic, environmental and social connections and implications in order to facilitate sustainable development. Currently many people - especially in emerging countries - are not aware of the challenges associated with sustainability. In addition new technology has to be developed to find solutions for providing growth without exceeding the resource boundaries of our planet. This demands a drastically increased learning and teaching productivity and thus new approaches for education. Exemplarily for engineering education, the authors present a concept in which simulation-games are applied in order to support training for assembly processes on manual workplaces. The Assembly Game and the Gaming System are introduced. The first game is played on portable devices. Learners acquire knowledge of the assembly sequence of a bicycle e-motor. The second game is played on a manual assembly workplace. It encourages practice based learning by combining gaming software with a manual assembly workplace. Both games are implemented in education oriented software with strong visual features. Motion capture technology is used in order to support the immediate response to the user's actions.