European Digital Playground

We wanted to learn and share good practices in digital education and entrepreneurial simulations to develop a practical framework for business game implementation. With the clear guidelines on how...

We wanted to develop a practical framework on how to implement an international business simulation into the teaching of business-related subjects and especially entrepreneurial skills. With the framework we aimed to make it easier for the management and teachers to start using a business simulation in their study program. Teachers would improve the digital skills and start using new methods for teaching business and entrepreneurial topics. Other expected impacts were improved skills in the evaluation of best practices and in project planning, implementation and reporting. On an organizational level we wanted to provide internationalization possibilities in changing circumstances. We wanted to share good practices and find the best practices and success factors to utilize in teaching entrepreneurial and international competences to improve the quality of business studies. We also wanted to engage students from different countries in active learning and gamification. We wanted the students to gain skills in entrepreneurial mindset, language and international competences and to become more prepared for the future work life and be able to consider career options including entrepreneurship, self-employment and international work.

We coordinated legal contracts, documentation, accountancy and financial matters. The coordinator sent agendas for the meetings and wrote minutes of the meetings. We made a time schedule of tasks to be completed and frequently monitored the progress of the work. We set up Microsoft Teams folders and a WhatsApp group for coordination and communication between partners. We planned and organized 10 official online Teams meetings in addition to several one-to-one meetings. We held all planned six transnational project meetings (TPM) according to the time schedule. In connection with the last TPM we arranged an international dissemination event. We arranged a Learning/Teaching/Training (LTT) activity in October 2023 and an extra activity which was an online game event in spring 2023. Before the events the students were taught business topics and trained for multicultural teamwork. During the events the students from partners colleges played a business game under the supervision of the teachers. All partners developed agreed reports and documents and submitted them into Teams folders. They have submitted a nutshell description of their entrepreneurial, digital, language and international studies to an excel file, where we have also collected success factors for the implementation of a business game. We have listed the essential topics for a student to learn before playing a business game. All colleges (Business College, Summa, Rijn IJssel, Nazaret, Skive, Charles-Peguy) have presented their entrepreneurial studies methods and submitted their descriptions in Teams. Together we have developed the framework for setting up and implementing a business game. In addition to the written document, we made videos to better visualize the concept. We have reported all dissemination activities in a common excel file. We also monitored the quality of the project by means of two surveys, which were conducted after each TPM and the evaluation of the feedback was done in between the TPMs. We collected information for the interim and final reporting and submitted the reports by the due date. Other activities were local activities undertaken by partners such as meetings and communication within organisations’ personnel and management. All partners informed each other about the project via different channels and held dissemination events.

We have collected and described the good practices for entrepreneurial study projects, use of digital methods, language development support, international competence as well as entrepreneurial and business studies of each partner college. The best practices of entrepreneurial study modules and the use of business simulators have been presented by the teachers and students, described and collected. We have evaluated the good and best practices and now have a report of key success factors. Based on the success factors, experiences in the gaming events and feedback from participants in one online and one offline business game event we have developed an implementation framework on how to implement a digitally carried out business game into existing entrepreneurial studies. The framework is available in a written form and in addition to that we have visualized it with videos as well as power point and ThingLink presentations. Six students plus a minimum of two teachers/staff members from every partner college participated in the Learning/Teaching/Training (LTT) event. In this event the main activity was the business simulation gaming by the students and the coaching and observing of the teachers. We have found the most viable practices to utilize in teaching entrepreneurial and international competences. In various dissemination events and through communication media we have reached education providers outside this partnership and encouraged them to use business game simulations as a teaching method. The framework for business game implementation will help other VET institutions to find possibilities for cooperation and learn from our experience. We have engaged students in active learning by using new and interesting teaching methods as we had both online and offline business gaming events. The feedback collected from the students shows that the business simulator improved their motivation to learn entrepreneurial skills and further develop their competences. As gamification makes entrepreneurial studies more motivating to the students, it can improve the possibility for self-employment. In the two gaming events the students experienced true internationalisation through European collaboration. Their feedback shows that they improved their language competence, communication skills and these increase their ability to work in a multicultural environment. The online gaming event proved that the students were able to learn languages and working cultures without travelling abroad. The partners in this project were so dedicated to the topic and the cooperation was so fluent that we exceeded our initial expectations. We decided to hold an online gaming event to collect experience and feedback to better plan and implement the offline LTT event. Due to this the LTT event implementation was highly successful in all aspects: student selection, time management, ice-breaking activities, training and coaching activities.