Journal Article

Assessing negotiation skill and its development in an online collaborative simulation game

New study develops a method for measuring the development of students’ political negotiation skills in simulation games

In their new path-breaking study Zhiru Sun and Amelie Theussen propose a new, effective means to analyse the development of students’ negotiation skill sets. Using social network analysis, the authors match political negotiation skillsets with DESPRO participatory roles, allowing a (near) real time analysis of students’ progress in the negotiation skill set they employ. This not only shows that the students employing more complex political negotiation skill sets are more successful in achieving the goals of the simulation game, but also allows the instructors to provide targeted feedback to students to aid their skill development throughout the game. This is a significant contribution to emerging research on the effectiveness of simulation games in teaching political science, where such serious education games are becoming increasingly popular because they allow students to experience decision-making, crisis management, and political science theories and concepts in “real life” cases and practice crucial labour market skills, such as political negotiation. Until now, however, measuring the development of negotiation skill has relied on students’ self-assessment and anecdotal instructor observation. Sun and Theussen’s study proves that simulation games are a useful tool to teach political negotiation skills and provides a way of assessing skills development effectively and in (near) real time, which can assist instructors in conducing and designing highly effective simulation games for their students.

Cover BJET journal
Assessing negotiation skill and its development in an online collaborative simulation game
A social network analysis study
British Journal of Educational Technology, 2022