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Antonaci, A., Dagnino, F. M., Ott, M., Bellotti, F., Berta, R., De Gloria, A., … Mayer, I. (2015). A gamified collaborative course in entrepreneurship: Focus on objectives and tools. Computers in Human Behavior, 51, 1276–1283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.082

In this article, the authors discuss the use of serious games in entrepreneurship education.  This research was part of the eSG (Expanding Entrepreneurship though Serious Games) project, funded by various organizations in the EU.  This was a somewhat exploratory study, defining the learning objectives of entrepreneurship education as a first phase.  Through defining these objectives, the authors group them into 3 strategic axes.  Various off the shelf entrepreneurship video games are then analyzed in terms of addressing the defined objectives.

This definition of learning objectives for the field of entrepreneurship is likely the strongest element of this article.  Various potentials are defined in using serious games in that field.  However, there are also several weak points.  The authors seem to conflate the terms game-based learning and gamified learning.  There is an intervention mentioned, where groups of students are placed in a game-based environment, yet no data is presented.  Last, the commercial games explored are listed but not detailed.

I found the article interesting in its discussion of entrepreneurship education – a field that is often discussed as of late, along with “innovation”.  The authors provide a detailed taxonomy of the objectives, which is a good model for other fields, especially for someone new to a particular domain.  This is the situation that instructional designers often find themselves, having to build these schemas rather quickly.  I found this rapid objective-building model the most useful element of the article.