Seattle startup Recurrence wants to get college students more engaged in being leaders by “gamifying” their education.
Recurrence has created a new gamification product, which makes a non-game activity more engaging by making it game-like, for college-level business students. It turns the process of learning how to be a CEO or chief financial officer into a game, enabling students to learn leadership and strategic thinking skills through an online multiplayer game.
The Recurrence product, the Signature Case Study, serves as an alternative to pencil-and-paper business case studies. Recurrence built it in partnership with the Center for Leadership & Strategic Thinking (CLST) at the University of Washington.
“We are attempting to revolutionize the way students learn in the classroom and online,” said Brayden Olson, the chief executive of Recurrence, in a statement. “We believe games will be essential to the future of college education.”
Students step into the roles of various high-level executive roles, such as CEO or CFO, as they guide an airline through a series of challenges and crises: a labor strike, a plane crash, a fuel crisis, and a hostile takeover attempt. Students quickly realize that the airline must undergo serious reforms, such as changing its budget and business culture, or face dire consequences. Derived from an in-depth, multi-year research study conducted with a major airline, the challenges in the game are based on real-world data and reflect the sort of decisions that actual senior executives face.
It goes to show you can make a game out of anything, including crashing an airplane. The Signature Case Study provides students with a report that documents their leadership style, as well as real-time feedback on key performance indicators, such as employee and customer satisfaction. The principle goal is to teach students about the consequences of their leadership and managerial choices, with the aim of providing insight on how to improve their leadership in the real world in a fun and engaging way.
“This game is great for students to meaningfully experience the issues of teamwork, leadership, and decision-making,” said Rick McPherson, a management lecturer at the University of Washington, in a statement. “I was impressed by how quickly students understood how the game worked and were able to get into their roles and start making decisions.”
“It establishes a new standard for teaching leadership and teamwork,” he added.
In the past four months, over 30 schools across the country have signed on to use the Signature Case Study in classrooms, including Stanford, Penn State, Wake Forest, Northeastern University, and University of Illinois. The cost is $47.50 per student.
Recurrence has raised $1 million to date, and it has seven employees.
