Educational Games on Procurement and Negotiation: Perspectives of Learning Effectiveness and Game Strategies
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 142, Issue 3
Abstract
Most construction management courses comprise only lectures on procurement and negotiation; therefore, students lack practical experience. In this study, an educational game was developed to help students make procurement and negotiation decisions for procuring the steel required for construction projects. An experiment comprising a lecture, pretest, negotiation game, and posttest was conducted at three different universities with a total of 87 student participants. The study not only analyzed the learning effectiveness resulting from the inclusion of games in a traditional lecture setting, but also quantitatively examined the problems related to the strategies used by the players from different perspectives. The results revealed that the game increased the average test score by at least 20.16%, and a strong correlation was observed between the winners of the game and the students with high test scores. The strategies used by the winners were different from those used by the nonwinners. Compared with the nonwinners, the winners considered different factors that contributed to winning and were more conscious of the strategies they used during the game.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Science Council of Taiwan under grant numbers NSC97–2511-S-009-005-MY2 and NSC 100–2511-S-145-001.
References
Antaya, C. L., Parrish, K., Bilec, M. M., and Landis, A. E. (2014). “Assessing comprehension with student-developed construction games.” 121st ASEE Annual Conf. Exposition, American Society for Engineering Education, Washington, DC.
Baarslag, T., Hindriks, K. V., and Jonker, C. M. (2011). “Towards a quantitative concession-based classification method of negotiation strategies.” Lecture Notes of the 14th Int. Conf. on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA-2011), Springer, New York, 143–158.
Cathelineau, M. (1991). Négocier gagnant, Intereditions.
Connolly, T. M., Stansfield, M., and Hainey, T. (2007). “An application of games-based learning within software engineering.” Br. J. Educ. Technol., 38(3), 416–428.
Dudziak, W., and Hendrickson, C. (1988). “Simulation game for contract negotiations.” J. Manage. Eng., 113–121.
Dzeng, R. J., and Lin, Y. C. (2004). “Intelligent agents for supporting construction procurement negotiation.” Expert Syst. Appl., 27(1), 107–119.
Ebner, M., and Holzinger, A. (2007). “Successful implementation of user-centered game based learning in higher education: An example from civil engineering.” Comput. Educ., 49(3), 873–890.
Eck, R. V., and Dempsey, J. (2002). “The effect of competition and contextualized advisement on the transfer of mathematics skills in a computer-based instructional simulation game.” Educ. Technol. Res. Dev., 50(3), 23–41.
Erdem, M. (2009). “Effects of learning style profile of team on quality of materials developed in collaborative learning processes.” Act. Learn. Higher Educ., 10(2), 154–171.
Fasli, M., and Michalakopoulos, M. (2006). “Interactive game based learning.” 〈http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/e_article0006/8809.cfm?x-b11,0,w〉 (Jan. 18, 2015).
Honey, P., and Mumford, A. (1986). A manual of learning styles, Peter Honey, Maidenhead.
Hwang, G. J., Sung, H. Y., Hung, C. M., Yang, L. H., and Huang, I. (2013). “A knowledge engineering approach to developing educational computer games for improving students’ differentiating knowledge.” Br. J. Educ. Technol., 44(2), 183–196.
Johri, A., and Olds, B. (2011). “Situated engineering learning: Bridging engineering education research and the learning sciences.” J. Eng. Educ., 100(1), 151–185.
Kim, B., Park, H., and Baek, Y. (2009). “Not just fun, but serious strategy: Using meta cognitive strategies in game-based learning.” Comput. Educ., 52(4), 800–810.
Papastergiou, M. (2009). “Digital game-based learning in high school computer science education: Impact on educational effectiveness and student motivation.” Comput. Educ., 52(1), 1–12.
Pruitt, D. G. (1983). “Strategic choice in negotiation.” Am. Behav. Sci., 27(2), 167–194.
Ranking of Taiwan Universities. (2013). 〈http://twurank.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default〉 (Sep. 25, 2014) (in Chinese).
Schelling, T. C. (1960). The strategy of conflict, Oxford University Press, New York.
Shaffer, D. W., Squire, K., Halverson, R., and Gee, J. P. (2005). “Video games and the future of learning.” Phi Delta Kappan, 87(2), 104–111.
Sierra, C., Faratin, P., and Jennings, N. R. (1999). “A service-oriented negotiation model between autonomous agents.” Collaboration between human and artificial societies, 201–219.
Stottler, R. H. (2000). “Tactical action officer intelligent tutoring system (TAO ITS).” Proc., Industry/ Interservice, Training, Simulation and Education Conf. (I/ITSEC).
Thomas, K. W. (1976). “Conflict and conflict management.” Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, M. D. Dunnett, ed., Rand McNally, Chicago, 889–935.
Thomas, K. W. (1992). “Conflict and conflict management: Reflections and update.” J. Organ. Behav., 13(3), 265–274.
Tüzün, H., Yılmaz-Soylu, M., Karakus, T., Inal, Y., and Kızılkaya, G. (2009). “The effects of computer games on primary school students’ achievement and motivation in geography learning.” Comput. Educ., 52(1), 68–77.
Walton, R. E., and McKersie, R. B. (1965). A behavioral theory of labor negotiations, McGraw-Hill Books, New York.
Wang, L. C., and Chen, M. P. (2010). “The effects of game strategy and preference-matching on flow experience and programming performance in game-based learning.” Innovations Educ. Teach. Int., 47(1), 39–52.
Yaoyuenyong, C., Hadikusumo, B. H. W., Ogunlana, S. O., and Siengthai, S. (2005). “Virtual construction negotiation game, an interactive learning tool for project management negotiation skill training.” Int. J. Bus. Manage. Educ., 13(2), 21–36.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 142 • Issue 3 • July 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 11, 2015
Accepted: Dec 10, 2015
Published online: Mar 4, 2016
Published in print: Jul 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Aug 4, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.