MANAGE. CREATE. PLAY. PRACTICES FOR TEACHING DESIGN PROJECT MANAGEMENT THROUGH THE CREATION OF BOARD GAMES
Year: 2015
Editor: Guy Bingham, Darren Southee, John McCardle, Ahmed Kovacevic, Erik Bohemia, Brian Parkinson
Author: Moreira e Silva Bernardes, Maurício; Gaiger de Oliveira, Geísa
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Section: Problem Based Learning
Page(s): 536-541
ISBN: 978-1-904670-62-9
Abstract
In Brazil, it can be seen that courses and lectures in most undergraduate design programs usually focus
more on design creation than on project management itself. As a result, undergraduate education and
training promote the development of skills and abilities but fail to address project management tools.
In an attempt to modify the context described above, a course on design-oriented project management
was planned and implemented in an undergraduate design program in a Brazilian university.
The above-mentioned course is taught in the eight semester of the design program, and students are
urged to develop a board game delivered in a marketable format that can be played within one hour. In
the last eight semesters, 98 undergraduate design students developed 23 board games. The course
taught the students how to lead a project while facing constraints and difficulties that resemble those
found in the market; thus, they had to combine the creativity of design with the need to manage a
design project efficiently. At the end of the course, students submitted a project management plan
containing all documents generated, controlled and reviewed for the development of the game.
This paper describes the practices applied for teaching design-oriented project management, in order
to make it more attractive to students. We reflect upon our experience with the course and the contents
that the students have learned in order to review and update their managerial goals, based on the
creation of the board game and the project management plan itself.
Keywords: Project management, board games, collaborative design, learning by doing, assessment and feedback