In cooperation with lecturers and students from Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences (HVHL), NHL Stenden and the professional field, 8D Games developed an educational board game early this year for business successors in the agricultural sector: Om Tafel. Due to the great interest in this serious game from agricultural education, HVHL decided to produce additional board games and also link a user course to it. On Thursday, 1 December, the first students started working with the game at the college in Leeuwarden.
The board game ‘Om Tafel’ was developed to make a difficult topic, namely the takeover of a (family) business in the agricultural sector, discussable in an approachable way. Gelein Biewenga, as a lecturer-researcher one of the project’s triggers, said. ‘We want to learn more about it. How is it used in practice? What do students or families learn from it? Where are opportunities to develop the game further? In that, we can always do something for each other.’
Foto’s: Stefan Martens | Hogeschool van Hall Larenstein
For Bas Altenburg, involved as a game designer from 8D Games, it was a valuable experience to scrutinise the game together with the students. ‘One of the course participants had already used the board game once and told me that the students were spontaneously more motivated afterwards during the lesson, even though it was a fairly “dry”, accounting subject. They were better able to place the importance of such a subject in the big picture of business succession. That, of course, is great for me to hear. This form of learning could also work well for other sectors.’
Those seriously interested in ‘ Om Tafel’ have since been contacted and the next course dates have also been planned. Course participants will come to HVHL in Leeuwarden on 8 or 16 December, where they will attend the half-day course with game explanations. After attending the course, they will receive a certificate and two board games to use at their own educational institution.
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