Title: Simulation as enabling technologies for agile thinking: training and education aids for decision makers

Authors: Agostino G. Bruzzone; Marina Massei; Alberto Tremori; Simonluca Poggi; Letizia Nicoletti; Claudia Baisini

Addresses: DIME University of Genoa, Via opera pia 15, Genova, Italy ' DIME University of Genoa, Via opera pia 15, Genova, Italy ' DIME University of Genoa, Via opera pia 15, Genova, Italy ' MAST srl, Corso Podestà, Genova, Italy ' Cal-Tek srl, Via Spagna 240-242, 87036 Rende(CS), Italy ' Swedish National Defence College, Drottning kristinas väg 37, Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract: This paper describes ongoing researches and preliminary results obtained about the potential of serious games for identification, development and education of specific soft skills. These characteristics correspond to the capability to catch at glance a solid understanding of the details in a scenario or the identification of missing elements in a set of information. This paper proposes an interdisciplinary research where expertise in modelling and simulation and serious gaming are mixed with skills in education and decision-making development. The authors' goal is to develop a methodology and a set of games that could support decision makers to develop intuition and the capability to think and understand out of personal frameworks (Baisini et al., 2010, 2011). Preliminary experimentations are proposed by using an existing serious game 'Sibilla'. The results are also useful to direct the research where to focus the efforts for developing ad hoc games for this very specific purpose.

Keywords: serious games; decision making; agile thinking; contextual learning; education aids; training aids; soft skills; modelling; ad hoc games.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2014.061457

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2014 Vol.9 No.1/2, pp.113 - 127

Received: 23 Feb 2013
Accepted: 17 Jan 2014
Published online: 11 Oct 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article