A study into the effects of a board game on flow in undergraduate business students

• Students playing a board game experience greater ‘flow’.
• A board game can enhance flow dimensions: motivation, enjoyment, absorption.
• Results provide evidence for using alternative ways of engaging students.
• The first study to measure ‘flow’ amongst undergraduate business students.

This research empirically tests whether employing a commercially available board game – The Logo Board Game – to facilitate student learning about brand elements, results in significantly higher levels of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) in undergraduate business students. A post-test only control group experimental design was employed with a total of 235 business students enrolled in a core marketing unit – Brand & Product Management – at an Australian university. Tutorial sessions across three different campuses were randomly categorised as experimental and control groups. A total of 107 students (approximately 46%) were exposed to the experimental treatment (i.e. the board game). In terms of results, an independent-samples t-test shows that students involved in playing the board game reported significantly higher levels of flow, as compared to students attending and reporting on a conventional tutorial session. Findings from this study suggest that the use of a board game to introduce a brand-related topic saw students experience greater motivation, enjoyment and absorption (i.e. a flow experience) than students in the control group. Business educators may consider experimenting with alternative teaching methods, including board games, in order to enhance students' flow during face-to-face classes.