Mediating skills on risk management for improving the resilience of Supply Networks by developing and using a serious game

Abstract

Given their importance, the need for resilience and the management of risk within Supply Networks, means that engineering students need a solid under-standing of these issues. An innovative way of meeting this need is through the use of serious games. Serious games allow an active experience on how differ-ent factors influencethe flexibility, vulnerability and capabilities in Supply Networks and allow the students to apply knowledge and methods acquired from theory. This supports their ability to understand, analyse and evaluate how different factors contribute to the resilience. The experience gained within the game will contribute to the students abilities to construct new knowledge based on their active observation and reflection of the environment when they later work in a dynamic environment in industry. This game, Beware, was developed for use in a blended learning environment. It is a part of a course for engineering master students at the University of Bremen. It was found that the game was effective in mediating the topic of risk management to the students espscially in supporting their ability of applying methods, analyse the different interactions and the game play as well as to support the assessment of how their decision-making affected the simulated network.