The Serious Game “Top Eleven” as an Educational Simulation Platform for Acquiring Knowledge and Skills in the Management of Sports Clubs
The Serious Game “Top Eleven” as an Educational Simulation Platform for Acquiring Knowledge and Skills in the Management of Sports Clubs
The Serious Game “Top Eleven” as an Educational Simulation Platform for Acquiring Knowledge and Skills in the Management of Sports Clubs
ByYanni Afthinos, Zacharias Kiafas, andTheoflosAfthinos
Abstract
“The aim of this study is to examine whether students of a sport management undergraduatecourse can gain knowledge in the management of a professional soccer club, by participating in a commercial serious game. Serious is considered the cyber game that its purposeexceeds entertainment. For this case study, the serious sport club management game was“Top Eleven”. The theoretical model that this study was based on, is Misfeldt’s “scenarios-based learning” for thetransformation of a serious game into an educational means. Itincludesdimensions that cover part of the sport management class content in the Nationaland Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Physical Education and Sport Science.The transformation consisted of educational scenarios vested to the serious game, in orderto add educational parameters to its basic elements with the purpose to relate further to thesport management class. Theapplication showed that Top Eleven covers adequately Misfeldt’s model dimensions; therefore it can be used as an educational tool. Furthermore, anevaluation of the class gamifcation was conducted by the participating students (n=62).The data collected showed that the majority of the students (f=61, 98.4%) agreed that theparticipation in the serious game was “helpful” to their sport management class education process. They further agreed that they gained “very” or “very much” knowledge relatedto the management of a professional soccer club (f=41, 66.1%) and that 59.7% (f=37) ofthem would choose to work in a position of “sport club manager” as a result of the experience they gained by participating in the serious game.”
Reference
Afthinos, Y., Kiaffas, Z., &; Afthinos, T. (2021). The serious game “top eleven” as an educational simulation platform for acquiring knowledge and skills in the management of Sports Clubs. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 27(1), 255-273. doi:10.1007/s10758-021-09573-8 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10758-021-09573-8
Keyword
Scenario based learning, sport management games, serious games for Learning, gamification in higher education, research