“Will It Blend?” Combining Online and On-Site Elements in Simulation Games

Education today faces a huge challenge: How to adapt educational methods and content to the opportunities of the online world while keeping the strengths of face-to-face interaction? And what does this mean for simulation games? In our view, blended formats – i.e. the combination of online and on-site phases of a simulation game – provide the most promising answer. They integrate and combine the strengths and at the same time balance the weaknesses of both worlds, digital and analogue. Based on our own practical experience, we outline the benefits and some of the key challenges in adapting analogue simulation games to the online world. We then present our understanding of how to use simulation games in blended learning contexts. In sum, we argue that blended formats are a valuable and promising addition to traditional, analogue simulation games. More research is necessary to empirically measure the positive learning effects.