Serafim Máximo, a working student and finalist of the degree in Business Management, was singularly attuned to the concepts of entrepreneurial competences and intrapreneurship that were approached in the Entrepreneurship Course. Realizing that he could use and enhance his entrepreneurial skills in the textile factory he worked for, Serafim sought to identify an objective problem susceptible of being solved by a value-creating, innovative project he could undertake!!

Serafim worked in the yarn warehouse and noticed that the factory wasted a lot of time unloading yarn in the warehouse as the yarn was stored in cardboard boxes but each yarn cone was individually wrapped with plastic - both a real time-wasting problem and environmental waste. Once the problem was identified, Serafim went on to generate solutions. And discovered the solution by opening the fridge and looking at an egg carton! He noticed that the wire cones could stay intact inside the Box if they had 2 punched cards holding them (see attached photo).

After exposing the problem and the solution to the factory management, he was authorized to test his innovative idea. He contacted the supplier in the India and arranged for a box to be sent without plastics but with the protective cards. As soon as the order arrived, Serafim verified that in his “Test Box” the wire cones were practically intact, requiring only minor adjustments. After the final adjustments, the Indian supplier transversally adopted the “Serafim solution” for all its customers around the world, revealing the importance of intrapreneurship.

The greatest challenge as a teacher is to motivate students towards the learning process. If we add variables to this already complex challenge (classes composed of students from different scientific areas; with different nationalities/cultures; large classes), this task can become overwhelming.

In order to motivate these students, I decided to divide the syllabus into modules and use games in my classes to introduce and/or consolidate concepts. Thus, in most lectures, I include an “innocent” game with the aim of facilitating the learning process.

Decide which games are best suited for each syllabus was a creative process, sometimes complicated, that often goes through experimentation in the classes.

For students to be able to identify the game played with the syllabus in question, I created a class Padlet where I put the modules on a wall and inserted photos of the respective games. I also created a Padlet per group to be able to list the tasks developed and give my feedback group by group.

By adopting a game-based-learning approach with the support of a Padlet, I perceived that the students were motivated and that the learning process was successful. But what about the actual perception of the students?

Aiming to assess the perception of the current class, I carried out, on June 3rd, 2022, a voxvote: 26 Master students displayed a 6.67 average of concurrence, on a 7-point Likert scale, that the use of “games” with Padlet support effectively improved the learning process.

With this feedback it was all worth it!!

I am currently applying the game-based learning approach in the Entrepreneurship Course of the Organizational Management Master, a program attended by students from different scientific areas, namely management, pharmacy, languages, secretarial, nutrition and engineering. The use of game-based learning in a multidisciplinary environment seemingly potentiates interaction and the learning process.

Considering the excellent feedback from students on the use of game-based learning in multidisciplinary classes, my goal for the future is to replicate these experiences in regular classes.

The Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave has five Schools in the following fields: Design, Management, Technology, and Hospitality & Tourism, offering a broad range of Bachelor, Master and Professional Short-cycle Courses, and in all these schools the discipline of Entrepreneurship is taught. Thus, my goal is to henceforth create transversal classes for the discipline of Entrepreneurship, promoting the teaching of the aforementioned course to classes with students from the five schools and benefiting from the advantages this multidisciplinary environment brings to a game-based learning approach.

This is a project that involves the coordination of the Board of the five IPCA Schools and requires changes in the “normal” functioning of the degrees. However, it seems fairly evident that, once the initial constraints are overcome, this approach would be highly beneficial for students, both in terms of learning as in terms of expanding student's transversal competencies, thus preparing students for the labour market reality in a much more comprehensive fashion – arguably the end goal of higher education institutions.