Evaluation of Simulation Games for Teaching Engineering and Manufacturing

This paper reports on the evaluation methods and findings from serious games for teaching engineering and manufacturing. Two serious games are considered: Cosiga, a new product development simulation game and Beware, a risk management simulation game. These two games cover the front and middle parts of the engineering process – from design to manufacture to sale. For the Cosiga simulation evaluations of the communication and cognitive change were performed. For the Beware game evaluation of communication, risk awareness and improvement of risk management skills were performed The findings from the evaluations showed that serious games deliver learning outcomes. However, there are drawbacks to their use that need to be taken into account. Principally the high cost of development and the need for expert facilitators for running game sessions.