Study on learning, experience and gaps of learning with the game Virtual Market in the University of the Minho, Portugal

• Grant number: 08/11000-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: August 03, 2009
• End date: August 02, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Production Engineering
• Principal Investigator: José de Souza Rodrigues
• Grantee: José de Souza Rodrigues
• Host Investigator: José Dinis de Araújo Carvalho
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade do Minho (UMinho), Portugal

Abstract

Preliminary analyses of the data base of the business game Virtual Market had shown that it has relation between the decisions made by the pupils and domain of content, that is, errors in the make decision can be associates with lack of content domain, called of learning gaps. The research will be made as a laboratory experiment. Pupils of graduation will use the business game Virtual Market as half of mediation of the process of learning of related subjects the taking decision and management of companies. The decisions stored in the data base of the game will be analyzed with pointers of domain of contents, as balancing of capacity, objective of profit, and use of financial resources of the company. The research will develop mechanisms that facilitate the use of the business games in not presential classes and significantly improve the learning in the presential classes. The objective is to become easier to identify the lack of content of the players. This will allow the adoption of supported strategies of education in development of specific material, the exploration of the subjects by means of presential classes, chats or other resources of interaction between pupil and professor. This represents the magnifying of the field of possibilities of use of business games, therefore it incorporates systems of evaluation of the decisions of the players as form to put in evidence the "gaps of learning", that is, put the user attention on the discordance between their decisions and the literature. (AU)