Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 27th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG2: E-government Author(s) Andras Nemeslaki Budapest University of Technology and Economics Budapest Hungary Molnar Laszlo, Nemeslaki Tas, Title Sid Meyer´s Civilization and Simulating Technology-society Policy Making: a Case Study of using Computer Games to Engage Students in Learning about Public Administration File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Andras Nemeslaki Abstract Sid Meyer´s Civilization series is one of the most popular turn based strategy games, illustrating the complex causalities of economic development, geographical expansion, technology innovation, government structure and warfare. The players experience historical development through the ages of human civilization – starting to build simple ancient huts all the way to modern space exploration – and able to choose different strategies to guide their civilization through the challenges of allocating resources, managing conflicts or deploying technological innovations. Civilization has been used in several classroom experiences for teaching history and complex system analysis. In this paper we explore how Civilization, and - in a more general approach - computer games can enhance public administration (PA) education for entry level students. We pose the research question, how computer games at the early stage of PA studies aligned with systematic curriculum design make educational experiences and the learning process more successful than standard teaching. Methodologically, we present an experiment ran at the National University of Public Service in Budapest during the academic year of 2017/18 written in a case study format. We describe the learning objectives of the Government Studies program in general and the objectives of the Information Society and System Analysis courses in particular, where the students had been exposed to playing Civilization. Our findings suggest promising results using computer games in four aspects of PA: a) Effectiveness and efficiency of learning We show that students have acquired the learning objectives – knowledge and skills – of technology-society relationships and system thinking in an effective and efficient manner. We show that the concept of Civilization has proven an effective method to demonstrate the comprehensive approach in PA – showing how the interplay of event, structure and behavior works on a grand scale. b) Implications of advanced technologies in government studies Our experiment has revealed that if students are presented with the historical contexts of technology and society relationship, their aptitude for the technology-society relationship becomes creative, sensitive, and opens up for appreciating the importance of public policies in the better functioning of governments. c) Further applications of computer games (different uses of Civilization and others) Based on the experiment we developed recommendations how computer and video games can be used in PA education. This is essential given the feedback of our students, given the fact that the genre of PA education needs to be modernized for retaining astute talents for improving the future staffing of PA experts. d) PA problems that can be solve by games: reception of the idea Finally, we have suggested ideas beyond the class room learning for understanding complex PA problems by using simulation games based on our observations. “Games”, in this context, are the popularized versions of complex dynamic simulations of cause-effect relations which often reveal non-intuitive behavior of systems, understanding of which is essential for future public leaders.
