Student engagement with simulation: an emotional journey analysis

Simulations are an increasingly popular teaching and learning tool, receiving growing attention in both the academic literature, and in the classroom. Many students who engage with this type of learning are experiencing it for the first time. As such, their thoughts provide an excellent source of data on the psychological and sociological effects of simulation learning. Our study is based on a public relations crisis simulation where students work in groups to manage the reputation of a brand experiencing a reputational issue. Using a qualitative content analysis, we examine 65 student-authored reflections of the experience to examine how they engaged with the simulation. Key findings include student thoughts on leadership versus teamwork, and student engagement with skill development. Beyond this, our data provides the first examination of the student’s emotional journey in the available literature, which are ‘negative-neutral-positive’, 'positive-negative-negative', and least common of all, the 'negative-negative-negative' journey. Attending this session will help practitioners who are looking to engage with simulation learning for the first time to understand more about student perspectives. Practitioners who are already using this technique can use this information to further improve student engagement in their own simulations.