Simulations in Project Management: Unexpected Events, Human Costs: Initiating an Autoethnographic Inquiry

In this paper it is asserted that in the current fashion for `gamification' in higher education and the deployment of more innovative teaching and assessment methods generally, the real organisational and human costs and risks of these activities for academics are being ignored and are under-researched. Games and simulations in education are attracting much research interest and yet the literature appears to lack analysis of these points. The pedagogic aspects of simulations have been well covered since they were transferred from military to graduate management education in the late 1950s. The initial research was very much in a context of small-group, professional education. This has persisted throughout the development of and research into games and simulations in management education, with an emphasis on computer-based simulation. This paper departs from this tradition in two ways, covering two gaps in the research the lecturer's experience in simulation development/management and this in the context of very large class sizes of entirely international postgraduate students, a context now de rigueur in UK Higher Education. This paper uses reflective autoethnography to present useful information regarding the human and economic costs of developing simulations in this specific context and recommend future directions for research into this important aspect of simulation/gamification in management education.