FinFun: serious game for higher education

How do you get students excited about profit and loss accounts? How do they learn immediately from their mistakes, and from each other? These questions motivated teachers at the Saxion University of Applied Sciences to – together with Simenco – develop FinFun; a serious game for the module Finance & Accounting of the International Business studies programme.

Learning business through Serious Games

FinFun enables students to learn financial concepts as they play. They start their own coffee cart and become responsible for the purchase and sale of coffee, maintenance, and for instance, selling coffee at events. In doing so, they face unexpected factors, like sudden downpours and sickness.

Intrinsic motivation

Teachers at Saxion point out that students spend more time on the material than in previous years. Students aren’t just drawing up any balance sheet, they’re doing so for their own company. In addition, they make their own choices, which determine how the game continues. This freedom motivates and invites students to actively consider cause and effect.

Serious games and blended learning

Serious games provide an integrated learning experience. As the game immediately shows students where they are making mistakes, they know which theory they need to read again. At the same time, teachers deal with additional subject material during classes, which helps students perform better during the game.