Title: Game-based pedagogy in operations management: impact of playing a simulation game and providing feedback on students' knowledge

Authors: Hossein Rikhtehgar Berenji; Hossein Najmi

Addresses: College of Business, Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR 97116, USA ' College of Business, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK 73034, USA

Abstract: Simulation games are getting popular in modern pedagogy. However, objective measurement of simulation games' educational value is challenging. We use the revised Bloom's taxonomy framework to empirically measure students' knowledge gain in capacity and inventory management in the SodaPop simulation game. Our results in the knowledge experiment show that participating in this simulation game improves students' conceptual and procedural knowledge. Additionally, our second experiment (i.e., feedback experiment) investigates the impact of providing two types of feedback (i.e., general and detailed) on students' performance. In the feedback experiment, we also examine the impact of a given type of feedback on the performance of different types of students (low- vs. high-performing students). Our results illustrate that detailed feedback enhances students' performance relative to a control group, and that the effect is more pronounced among high-performing students. Together, these findings extend our understanding of the learning that results from participation in game-based pedagogy.

Keywords: revised Bloom's taxonomy; RBT; lower/higher-order thinking skills; general/detailed feedback; online simulation games in operations management; low/high-performing students.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIOME.2021.119116

International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education, 2021 Vol.7 No.2, pp.179 - 209

Received: 28 Jun 2021
Accepted: 25 Aug 2021
Published online: 22 Nov 2021 *

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