Mini-games for entrepreneurship in construction: instructional design and effects of the TYCON game

Figures & data

Figure 1. The EntreComp “wheel” of entrepreneurship competence.

Table 1. Selected entrepreneurial competences for gameplay.

Entrepreneurial (sub)competences as identified (by EntreComp and SOCCES projects)
1. Ideas & opportunities	2. Resources		3. Into action
1. Creativity and innovation	2. Teamwork and collaboration	3. Communication	4. Critical and analytical thinking	5. Positive attitude and initiative
Spotting opportunity; Creativity; Valuing ideas; Vision; Ethical and sustainable thinking	Self-awareness and efficacy; Working with others; Financial and economic literacy; Motivation and perseverance	Mobilizing others; Mobilizing resources	Planning and management; Learning through experiences	Taking an initiative; Coping with ambiguity, uncertainty and risks; Working with others
Entrepreneurial competences for construction as identified and selected (by our survey)
Be accountable; Assess consequences and impact of ideas, opportunities and actions; Ethical and sustainable thinking	Inspire, engage and get others on board; Communicate effectively; Motivation and perseverance; Stay focused and don’t give up; Be determined; Mobilizing resources; Believe in yourself and keep developing; Self-awareness and self-efficacy		Learning through experience; Learning by doing; Planning and management; Taking the initiative; Working with others; Taking responsibility; Prioritize, organize and follow up.
4. Ethical and sustainable thinking	5. Motivation and perseverance		Taking the initiative; Learning through experience; Working with and mobilizing others

Table 2. Overview of case leads and their learning objectives.

Competences/case leads	Learning goals	Criteria
Ideas and opportunities
1.5. Ethical and sustainable thinking (Case lead 4: Spain)	Be able to assess the consequences and impact of ideas, opportunities and actions in an ethical and sustainable way	Assess the consequences of ideas that bring value and the effect of entrepreneurial action on the target community, the market, society and the environment; Reflect on how sustainable long-term social, cultural and economic goals are, and the course of action chosen; Act responsibly
Resources
2.2. Motivation and perseverance (Case lead 5: Germany)	Stay focused and don’t give up	Be determined to turn ideas into action and satisfy your need to achieve; Be prepared to be patient and keep trying to achieve your long-term individual or group aims; Be resilient under pressure, adversity, and temporary failure
Into action
3.1. Taking the initiative (Case lead 1: Italy)	Go for it when you see the chance	Initiate processes that create value; Take up challenges; Act and work independently to achieve goals, stick to intentions and carry out planned tasks
3.4. (and 2.3.) Working with and mobilizing others/resources (Case lead 3: UK)	Team up, collaborate and network; Inspire, enthuse and get others on board	Work together and co-operate with others to develop ideas and turn them into action; Network; Solve conflicts and face up to competition positively when necessary; Inspire and enthuse relevant stakeholders; Get the support needed to achieve valuable outcomes; Demonstrate effective communication, persuasion, negotiation and leadership
3.5. Learning through experience (Case lead 2: Slovenia)	Learn by doing	Use any initiative for value creation as a learning opportunity; Learn with others, including peers and mentors; Reflect and learn from both success and failure (your own and other people’s)

Table 3. TYCON game: overview of cases, tasks and game mechanisms.

Case leads	Name mini-game	Game Mechanisms	EQF levels 3–5 (complexity)	Support level	Difficulty causes
1 Italy	1.1 Business opportunities	Simple selection game	3	*****	Easy estimation of business opportunities with a relatively large amount of support from sources
	1.2 Ayusha	Interactive dialogue	4	****	Relatively simple dialogues. The consequences of choices can be foreseen
	1.3 Padua Housing Project	Interactive dialogue + selection game	5	****	Limited support information on which business choices have to be made.
2 Slovenia	2 Smart House	Interactive dialogue + assignments	3	****	Increase in factors that play a role in business choices (when compared to scenario 1)
3 UK	3.1 Project planning	Drag-and-drop game	3	****	Trial and error project planning
	3.2 Team	Ranking game	4	***	Limited support in making choices. Own input becomes more important.
	3.3 Suppliers	Complex calculation	5	*	Complicated calculations on the basis of which a business strategy must be drawn up.
4 Spain	4.1a Target Groups	Selection game (simple)	3	***	Relatively simple statements
	4.1b Impacts	Selection game (medium)	3	***	Average statements
	4.2 The Logic Model	Selection game (complex)	5	**	Complex assignment in which earlier knowledge must be combined in order to estimate impact
5 Germany	5.1 Project Planning	Medium selection game	3	***	Follow up game on 1.1, but with less support and instruction
	5.2 Heritage Authority	Interactive dialogue	4	**	Complex questions
	5.3 Incidents at the worksite	Interactive dialogue with assignments	5	*	Increased amount of complex questions

Figure 2. Screengrabs of TYCON gameplay mechanisms.

Figure 3. Screengrabs of TYCON monitoring and assessment mechanisms.

Table 4. Statistics for main outcome variables (n = 97).

Outcome variable	Min.	Max.	M	δ (SD)
Playtime (minutes)	19.00	839.00	135.54	129.17
Performance	26.00	91.00	63.00	15.83
Flow Authenticity	20.00 20.00	84.40 99.00	60.45 66.93	15.74 18.35
Motivation	23.00	98.40	62.87	16.46
Learnability	20.00	93.40	63.59	12.86
Usability	20.00	96.60	62.61	17.81
Attractiveness	20.00	97.20	66.22	18.85