Entrepreneurial behavior patterns
Frank van Rijnsoever is assistant professor in Innovation Studies at Utrecht University.
Van Rijnsoever was one of the initiators of Solar Tycoon at the Faculty of Geosciences. He says serious games introduce students to new and practical learning methods.
“Most of the teaching nowadays focuses either on studying cases, perhaps with interviews at companies, but it very rarely incorporates putting the student into an entrepreneurial environment,” Van Rijnsoever says. “And that’s what we really like to simulate.”Serious gaming is relatively new territory for universities. But Van Rijnsoever believes they are a logical step in developing new learning tools and for learning more about the behavioral patterns of entrepreneurs.
“Gaming is already being used a lot in teaching environments – for example at military bases or for pilots. They have all kinds of simulators. But it hasn’t really been applied to entrepreneurship, so it’s really a new thing here. In research it’s also new. This is a nice, new addition, where we predict the behavior of entrepreneurs, but also look at what the entire market looks like.”
The Missing Link
To study the behavior of entrepreneurs and scientists and to predict when they are most likely to innovate is at the heart of Van Rijnsoever’s own doctoral research.
“I think this game is the essential link between the micro behavior of individual entrepreneurs and the market,” says Van Rijnsoever. “At the moment we don’t understand this link. And the game is really a useful tool to help us there. I’m not saying it will give us the correct answer, but it is a very, very interesting phenomenon to explore.”
But Van Rijnsoever says serious games are no substitute for real, hands-on experience.”An internship can’t be beat. But [Solar Tycoon] can be a very good preparation for an internship. The students know there are limitations, but still they are placed in an environment where they experience being an entrepreneur,” Van Rijnsoever says.
Innovative teaching methods
For Utrecht University, a serious game such as Solar Tycoon is also a good way for it to promote itself as a pioneer of innovative teaching methods.
“The university can now say that it has something other universities in the Netherlands don’t have,” says Van Rijnsoever.
But for summer school course coordinator Simona Negro it is all about getting more students excited about innovation and sustainable technologies.
“We really want the students to learn these theories but we also want them to understand how they can integrate these theories in their studies. With this game they have a lot more fun with the theory.”
