The design and implementation of a simulation game for teaching knowledge management

Knowledge management is a discipline that has rapidly gained attention from both practitioners and academics over the last decade. However, the number of simulation games designed for knowledge management education has been limited. This is largely due to the emerging nature of knowledge management, whose domain the established gaming and simulation community has yet to enter. For this reason, the value and relevance of knowledge management simulation games is highlighted in this article by detailing the design and implementation of a simulation game entitled The Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO). The study was intended to meet two objectives: (a) to provide a template for designing knowledge management simulation games, and (b) to determine the effectiveness of CKO through a pretest-posttest research design. An empirical study which involved 32 final-year Business Studies students reading an elective module entitled Knowledge Management Systems in an institute of higher education in Singapore was conducted. The findings confirmed that CKO was a viable and effective instructional tool for imparting knowledge to the participants. In addition, the scores obtained from CKO had a moderating effect on the participants' attitude towards the subject matter.