Can Your Students Save the World? Utilizing Pandemic®, a Cooperative Board Game, to Teach Management

Can Your Students Save the World? Utilizing Pandemic®, a Cooperative Board Game, to Teach Management

Can Your Students Save the World? Utilizing Pandemic®, a Cooperative Board Game, to Teach Management

Chantal van Esch, Todd Wiggen

Abstract

“This article focuses on using the cooperative board game Pandemic® to teach management. In Pandemic, players must work together to cure four diseases and save the world. In this article, we suggest how it can be used in the classroom to teach decision making and also give guidance on how the game can help students learn how to reflect and put into practice the leadership, teamwork, goal setting, and ethical theories presented during management, leadership, and organizational behavior courses. Pandemic is a useful experiential teaching tool that engages students in complex decisions.”

Reference

van Esch, C., & Wiggen, T. (2020). Can Your Students Save the World? Utilizing Pandemic®, a Cooperative Board Game, to Teach Management. Management Teaching Review, 2379298120933626.  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2379298120933626

Keywords

cooperative board games, Pandemic®, group decision making, student engagement, team-based approaches, experiential exercises, COVID-19