Connecting Belgrade, Budapest and Göttingen – Teaching with a Digital Simulation Game

Simulation games are an established method in political science teaching (Muno 2020). Aside from that, first studies showed promising results with respect to the positive effects on students of this didactic tool (Duchatelet 2019, Leib & Ruppel 2020). To date, however, there has been limited use and very few studies on digital simulation games in the field of political science education (Vlachopoulos and Makri 2017). Beyond the increased demand for digital courses during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, digital simulation games provide certain benefits for teaching. They are expected to boost intrinsic motivation, teamwork and negotiation skills of students (Le et al. 2013). In addition, simulation game developers also point to the advantage of their ability to be used independently from time and space to connect seminars across borders (Raiser at al. 2018). Therefore, this teaching approach has the potential to internationalize political science curricula through digital simulation game seminars on transnational topics such as the European Union or international relations matters. Accordingly, a digital simulation game on EU enlargement in the Western Balkans was created in the framework of a cooperation-project funded by the German Academic Exchange Service. The Universities of Belgrade, Göttingen and the Andrássy University of Budapest participate in this academic collaboration. With a duration of three weeks, the simulation game will be carried out in late April to mid Mai 2021 with around 75 students from all three universities. Asynchronous phases, played on an online platform, and synchronous phases with debates via zoom will be part of the game seminar. Besides that, students will receive written tasks during the simulation, which serve as a grading basis, e.g. writing policy papers or stakeholder analyses. In this contribution, we will present the digital simulation game as an example for international cooperation and as a new way of teaching through digital simulation games, as well as lessons learn from it. Furthermore, we will introduce first results of the accompanying study focusing on the potentials of digital simulation games in political science education. Pre- and post-test surveys, self-reflection elements, and interviews with selected students form the basis of this scientific evaluation. Duchatelet, D. (2019): " Yes I can! Can I?" At the heart of self efficacy for negotiating in role play simulations of political decision-making. University of Antwerpen. Le, S., Weber, P. & Ebner, M. (2013): Game-Based Learning. Spielend Lernen? In Lehrbuch für Lernen und Lehren mit Technologien, Hrsg. M. Ebner und S. Schön, L3T. Vol 2E. Leib, J., & Ruppel, S. (2020): The learning effects of United Nations simulations in political science classrooms. European Political Science, 19, 336-351. Muno, W. (2020): Planspiele und Politiksimulationen in der Hochschullehre. Frankfurt a.M.: Wochenschau Verlag. Raiser, S., Schneider, A. & Kaiser, K. (2018): „Will It Blend?“ Combining Online and On-Site Elements in Simulation Games. In Simulations of Decision-Making as Active Learning Tools, 77-92. Springer, Cham. Vlachopoulos, D., & Makri, A. (2017): The effect of games and simulations on higher education: a systematic literature review. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 14, 22 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0062-1