EXPERIMENT D‘ – SERIOUS GAME FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCES. CONCEPT, CONTENT, AND EXPERIENCES

Abstract

The paper presents an intercultural serious game ‘Experiment D’, which was developed in a cooperation between the junior professor of Intercultural Competence (Chemnitz University of Technology) and the chair of Social Work Management (FHD Dresden – University of Applied Sciences). The game was successfully tested and assessed in the summer term 2017 and 2018. The main plot consists of a communicative negotiation and strategic handling of a complex situation at university that involves various stakeholders, both within and without it. The game fosters cultural awareness and self-reflection, appreciation of and a creative approach towards diversity, as well as general communicative, social, and team competences. Since it does not require any specialised prior knowledge, ‘Experiment D’ potentially addresses students of all disciplines. The participants of the two test sessions were students of the study fields MERGE Technologies for Resource Efficiency (study component “Soft Skills”, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering) and Intercultural Communication and Competence (compulsory study component Intercultural Learning, Faculty of Humanities) at the Chemnitz University of Technology. Ethnicity, nationality, first language(s), degree of proficiency in English and German, and academic background were all factors that engendered a highly diverse game setting. Aside from the concept of the game, as well as its methodology and didactics, the paper also discusses the results of its assessment.