INOVAFUN: produção e avaliação de um jogo digital para desenvolvimento de habilidades sociais aplicadas a atividades de inovação na formação de engenheiros

Abstract

The great area of engineering is supported by a training system based on rules and traditions that are strongly rooted, but which since the end of the 20th century have been debated and questioned. Research started at the dawn of the 21st century and expanded in the last decade highlights the importance of social skills in intrepreneurship and innovation, topics that are currently prominent in society as they represent an important support for economic development. Digital games have been widely used as an element to support the learning of children, youth and adults and some successful experiences have also been reported in the development of social skills in children. However, there is a scarcity of research aimed at analyzing the development of digital games with social skills content applied to the training of university students, especially not being found any reference associated with engineers. The general objective of this study was to develop a digital game on the theme of social skills in innovation activities with evidence of content validity, usability and playability. Based on Design Science, the Suggestion and Development stages are described, which relied on the continuous evaluation of users (engineering students) and specialists in social skills and innovation, whose responses to focus groups, questionnaires and scales fed back the progress from prototypes to the operational version of the game. The results show that users and experts rated the game positively in terms of usability, playability, and content. It is concluded that the game is effective in favoring the training of engineers and the understanding of the role of social skills in an innovation activity