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Crossing a Virtual Divide: Wargaming as a Remote Teaching Tool

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2023

Benjamin Norwood Harris Open the ORCID record for Benjamin Norwood Harris [Opens in a new window]  and
Suzanne Freeman Open the ORCID record for Suzanne Freeman [Opens in a new window]
Benjamin Norwood Harris
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Suzanne Freeman
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
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Abstract

In Fall 2020, political science instructors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) partnered to conduct a virtual-learning wargame centered on Taiwan. This article presents its design and execution along with the results from pre- and post-game surveys and interviews with the participants that were conducted to measure the achievement of its learning objectives. The game conduct and empirical results demonstrate two main findings. First, wargames are effective tools of active learning that aid in classroom instruction and grab the attention of students—even over Zoom—in a way that traditional methods of instruction do not. Second, wargames can bridge gaps between different fields. The MIT–NPS wargame tackled the civil–military divide by bringing together military officers at NPS and academics from MIT. These results show that wargaming holds promise as a bridge-building tool of instruction that can engage students, scholars, and practitioners in achieving positive learning outcomes.

Type
Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , July 2023 , pp. 431 - 437
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

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Supplementary material: Link

Harris and Freeman Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/XTUKEA
Link