Exploring Students’ Opinion towards Integration of Learning Games in Higher Education Subjects and Improved Soft Skills—A Comparative Study in Poland and Romania

Abstract

This study aimed to explore and compare Polish and Romanian students’ opinions towards the integration of learning games in Higher Education subjects and to highlight the improved soft skills by participating in learning games. This article reports the results of a quantitative study that was designed to explore and compare the opinions of 103 students from 2 universities towards the integration of learning games in the Project Management subject. The students ranked 71 items found in the questionnaire in 7 scale questions. The items are presented in the form of skills that can be developed by participating in educational games and aspects that are important in Project Management. In the analysis of the data, the T test—two sample test—was used, and the nonparametric Wilcoxon rank-sum test, using the SAS Studio application to assess whether the average responses are different between the two groups (α = 0.05). There were significant differences in the case of some items related to the skills that can be developed by participating in two educational games (communication, empathy, awareness, problem-solving, work productivity, and time management), but also items that help students understand the importance of some aspects related to Project Management after participation in educational games (work productivity, team dimension, time management, and following request).

1. Introduction

Whether we talk about the first industrial revolution—Industry 1.0, when the transition was made from manual labor to the use of machines driven by the force of steam or water; the second industrial revolution—Industry 2.0, which took place at the end of the 19th century and culminated with the emerge of electricity; the third industrial revolution—Industry 3.0, which began in the second half of the 20th century; and intertwines with the fourth industrial revolution—Industry 4.0 when with the advent of the Internet, appears digitization, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, augmented virtual reality, the internet of all things; or it is about the first stages of Industry 5.0 are highlighted—when people, organizations, and things are connected through a digital network and the internet of brains appears; it is obvious that education and industry are essential components of any country’s economy, and these components are interconnected [1].

Taking into account the recorded trends, when talking about the future of education, we talk about digital education, the digitalization of education, the transformation of the educational process, about education with virtual teachers, about learning for sustainable development [2].

Technological developments, scientific research, and the digital revolution are causing major changes in today’s job profiles. In this context, it is necessary to develop new skills and competencies in order to access the labor market. Future job offers will be both human and digital, strictly related to the trends that are changing the world today. All participants in the labor market will have to show flexibility to the changes recorded, and employees will have to upskill in order to acquire the new skills needed to take up new jobs. According to Paul A., 2022, the needs that will be found in the future in the labor market are the need to reduce the time spent at work, the need to make working hours more flexible, the need to increase the level of satisfaction at work, the need to reduce costs, the need to produce faster, the need to produce more easily, the need to make products easier to use, the need to improve the safety and reliability of products and services, and the need to reduce the adverse impact on the environment [1]. Regarding the skills required of future employees, the following were identified as mental flexibility, the ability to solve complex problems, critical thinking and analysis, creativity, sociability, transdisciplinary knowledge, computational thinking, STEM knowledge—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, SMAC knowledge—social, mobile, analytical, and cloud [1].

The development and improvement of human skills, competencies and capacities through education, learning and work overwhelmingly ensures economic success, the well-being of the population, and social cohesion [3].

According to Sir Ken Robinson, one of the current challenges is the transformation of education systems into systems suitable for the needs of the twenty-first century, and at the heart of the transformation a different approach to human intelligence and creativity must be found. Education performs a decisive role in the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential for economic growth and vitality [4].

A considerable part of the problems in all sectors of the labor market are due to education systems. Employers often complain that the education system does not generate the employees they need, namely, people able to adapt, to think, to be creative, confident in their own forces, communicative, and to work in a team [5].

The shift towards sustainable development of the labor market is defined by the expansion towards new technologies, new sectors and markets, interconnected economic systems, and information that are spreading rapidly and have a wide coverage of economic areas. The last decade of technological advancement has led to a major change in jobs, an acute shortage of skills needed in many areas, and a competitive claim to the unique nature of human intelligence, now caused by artificial intelligence. The challenges of the next decade are related to leading towards a sustainable development of the labor market that values human potential and creates large-scale prosperity [3].

Skills that can be associated with achieving sustainable development are: looking at global problems from the perspective of people from around the world, understanding how to create change, understanding how human activity is affecting nature, considering ethical issues linked to a subject, the causes of inequality in the world, challenging the way we do things now (such as business, politics, and education), solving problems by thinking about whole systems—including different connections and interactions, communicating complex information clearly and effectively to different types of people, using resources efficiently to limit the impact on the environment and other people, looking at a problem using information from different subjects or disciplines, and planning for the long term, and the short term [6].

According to the results of a study conducted in the United Kingdom in 2021, attended by more than 8500 students studying in higher education, 79% of respondents believe that universities should be required to develop social and environmental skills through the courses they offer to students. Regarding the ways the respondents agreed on for the development of social and environmental skills within the courses, these are offering placements or work experience (83%), linking coursework or dissertations to the issues (79%), building the material into the existing content in the course (75%), run extra-curricular activities within the students’ union, offer a specific module on the course, and run extra-curricular activities within departments. According to the same study, students appreciate that the skills acquired through attending courses, which prove to be important when engaging, are the ability to communicate complex information clearly and effectively to different types of people (89%) and long-term and short-term planning (88%) [6].

Looking to the future, and taking into account the needs of the labor market and the skills required by employers, educational systems must develop/transform/reinvent in order to endow students/graduates with skills for sustainable development (problem-solving, teamwork, leadership, communication in written and oral form, career management, creativity, cognitive flexibility, and emotional and social intelligence) [5].

The purpose of the present article is to explore and compare Polish and Romanian students’ opinions towards the integration of learning games in Higher Education subjects and to highlight the improved soft skills by participating in learning games. The main research questions designed in the present study are: (1) How do students rank the integration of learning games in the Project Management discipline? (2) What are the skills developed by students in the Project Management discipline after participating in learning games? and (3) Are there significant differences between the opinions of Polish students and Romanian students regarding the integration of learning games in the Project Management discipline?

The article contains seven main sections. The first section is assigned to introduction.

The second section is dedicated to a literature review where we give an overview of aspects related to play, games learning, educational games, and main findings of relevant studies regarding the integration of didactic games in various forms in educational activities. The third section, Research design, includes information about the research instrument, participants in the study, curriculum of Project Management subject and integration of educational games, data collections, and data analysis. The fourth section presents the results of the study and it is followed by the fifth section, Discussions. The article ends with the limitations and implications of the study, conclusions, and future research perspectives in the direction of the integration of educational games in didactic activities in higher education.

2. Literature Review

This section covers the concepts of play, game and learning, educational games, and the benefits of educational games.

2.1. Play, Game, and Learning

This section considers the fundamental actions of human beings that are taken at certain stages of the age of growth, play, and game have a high formative potential. This is valid for the self-determined, spontaneous game, or the competent, structured, and guided game, which can take the form of the didactic game applied in the educational environment [7].

In the literature, the game is a specific action with meanings and tensions carried out according to accepted rules outside the sphere of material necessity and accompanied by feelings of cheerfulness, relaxation, and tension [8]. Additionally, the game is regarded as a primary manifestation of the creative attitude towards what surrounds us, activating imagination and thinking [9], but also as work, good, duty, and the ideal of life [10].

The size of the game is a complex one and can be approached from an artistic, historical, and psychological point of view, and the realization of a complete taxonomy of the games is an open issue. Figure 1 synthetically presented the typology of games through the prism of the didactics of games.

Practical and pedagogical approaches show that a game experience can take shape in the form of a learning exercise in which participants can be positioned in various playful contexts with a formative character [11].

Regarded as a process, learning involves the permanent elaboration and re-elaboration of cognitive structures and operators that ensure progress in the sphere of human knowledge through a sustained intellectual effort. The game is pure learning; in this sense, it can be used as a teaching tool but also as a motivational tool since it stimulates emotions of joy and well-being, thus amplifying learning through genetic expression and neuronal growth in the brain [12].

2.2. Educational Games

The concept of a didactic game takes on multiple variants, depending on the formative, informative goals, and the intendedness associated with them. From a psychological point of view, didactic game contributes to the development of cognitive processes, the development of affective processes, the development of motricity, and motivation of the participants. Due to its accessibility, the didactic game is one of the methods that develop engaging and motivating activities and can be easily integrated because it imprints an interactive character to educational activities [11].

Considered a method of learning through practical action but also an active method of training, the didactic game offers integrated educational experiences through which formative tasks of the educational process are achieved [13]. Figure 2 presents the formative tasks of the educational process achieved by integrating games into teaching activities, as identified by Pânișoară, 2022 [13].

The didactic game is chosen, most of the time, to achieve the objectives of the activity [14] and is less used in acquiring new knowledge [15]. Whitton și Moseley believes that there are five types of challenges in the structure of the game: knowledge and recall, puzzles, problems that require creativity, concrete tasks, and social challenges [16].

The development of the didactic game involves going through some moments in order to stimulate the learner on the intellectual, actional, and attitudinal level:

• Introduction into the game through preparatory discussions, capturing attention, and presenting the material;
• Announcing the title of the game and the objectives targeted;
• Explaining and demonstrating the rules of the game;
• Fixing the rules by performing the trial game;
• Execution of the game by the participants;
• Complicating the game through new variants;
• The end of the game through general conclusions and assessments [13].

Educational games aim to create similar mechanisms for various purposes. Through educational games, learning processes are facilitated, for example, by maintaining motivation, effort, and increasing the degree of involvement during the game [17].

Dieleman and Huising apud Pânişoara G. state that through the game, all four learning styles of D. Kolb can be successfully used, centered on concrete experience, reflective observation, conceptualization, and active testing [18].

2.3. Benefits of Educational Games

Numerous studies highlight the positive effects that learning through play has (concentration, joy, and enthusiasm for learning), but also that elements of play can also cause negative emotions, such as frustration when mistakes are made. However, even negative emotions can make a game a pleasant and challenging experience [19,20,21,22,23,24].

The main purpose of educational games is to educate or inform. Educational games are designed to combine the concentration required by challenging activities, and the pleasure experienced through the full use of skills [25]. Catalano and Albulescu state that the capitalization of the game within educational programs as a formative approach is often hampered by a series of curricular constraints and the educational system and advocates for the transfer in different weights of the attributes of the game in as many of the forms of expression of the educational process as possible (teaching–learning and evaluation activities, educational relations, the organization of the educational environment, and the valorization of material and space resources) [7].

Numerous articles have been developed on the basis of studies that have focused on the elaboration and development of didactic games, implications, and effects generated by the use of didactic games in different forms in educational activities, in different countries, at different educational levels [26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34].

A relatively small number of articles were published on the basis of research whose purpose was to find out the opinion, perception, interest, and attitude of students and teachers toward the integration of games in various forms in teaching activities [35,36,37,38,39,40].

The benefits of educational games integrated into teaching activities are recognized by both teachers and students [41,42,43,44]. Most of the teachers who are using games in their classes observed student engagement in games and cognitive learning outcomes as effects of game integration in formal teaching settings [41]. Combining gamification with traditional learning methods can be enhanced learning outcomes of students. In addition to this, student learning is influenced by the content of the game, instructions, and the motivation for participation [45]. The challenge of the game can be an important factor for engagement but also for learning through play [25]. Competition, as an important mechanism in the game, has a positive impact on students’ learning effect and learning motivation [46]. Integrated in various forms in educational activities, didactic games can facilitate the teaching and learning process [25,44,47,48]. By participating in game jams, students activated at participants’ skills, such as creativity and critical thinking, and also are developed skills, such as communication and team collaboration skills [47]. Implementation of the serious games determined a strengthening of the students’ sustainable curriculum through the development of related skills. The improvement of skills, such as strategic thinking, collaborative thinking, and self-awareness, in addition to encouraging systemic, critical, and problem-solving thinking, assure success in education for sustainable development [44]. Video games can be an effective means of challenging learning, being perceived by students as interesting and enjoyable and resulting in engagement and immersion in the game-based learning task [25].

Most of the studies focused on evaluating educational outcomes and how the development of certain skills and competencies is influenced [49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56]. In the studies undertaken, the research methodology is diverse, uses qualitative and quantitative methods, and the collection of information is mainly done through questionnaires and interviews [42,56,57,58,59].

Studies show that the integration of games into educational activities can influence the social opportunities and problem-solving skills of students. Additionally, educational games improve students’ conceptual understanding of different subjects, involve them in funny activities, and enhance their motivation to learn and even their performance [44,60,61,62,63].

3. Research Design

Starting from numerous studies that aim at the use of games in various forms in the field of education and at different educational levels, the presented study focuses on students’ opinion on the integration of games in the discipline of Project Management and the effects they can generate in the learning process (increasing motivation/interest to participate to didactical activities, increasing self-trust, discovering new abilities, increasing creation and innovative capacity, improving communication skills, and solution orientation). In order to attain the purpose of the article, the following steps have been made: establishing the appropriate research methods and tools, literature review, questionnaire design, questionnaire pre-testing, questionnaire application, data analysis, and conclusions drawing. The methodological steps can be seen in Figure 3.

3.1. Research Instrument

In the presented study, students’ opinion on the integration of didactic games in the didactic activity was found by participating in a structured quantitative survey. The survey was developed in order to obtain the students’ opinions on the integration of didactic games in the discipline project management (how they appreciate the integration of games in the didactic activity, what are the aspects they consider important after participating in the games, and what are the skills developed). The survey was conducted by applying an online questionnaire developed in Google Forms [64].

The questionnaire has 2 sections with 10 questions, 3 of them are single-choice question, and the other 7 are using evaluation scales. Those single-choice questions are related, to gender, age and country. Using an evaluation scale from 1 to 5, the students appreciated a number of aspects regarding the skills acquired through participation in didactic games, the integration of games in the activities carried out in the discipline Project Management, the effects of integrating games in the process of active learning (Figure 4). Rating note: 1 means not at all, 2 means small measure, 3 means appropriate, 4 means largely and, 5 means very much. Before being applied, the questionnaire was pre-tested on 10 students in order to clarify and discover confusing instructions related to going through the questionnaire in terms of time and formulation of questions. Following the pre-testing, some of the questions in the questionnaire were simplified.

3.2. Participants

The participants in the study answered the questions of the same questionnaire; these were students from two faculties belonging to a university in Poland and a university in Romania (Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology—Faculty of Management, and University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara—Faculty of Management and Rural Tourism). The number of participants in the study was 103 students. The discipline of Project Management was chosen because it was considered to be a discipline to which the integration of didactic games is suitable in order to set the theoretical notions taught in the course [42,65]. The 103 students who participated in the study went through the discipline of Project Management and participated in at least two games applied in the teaching activities of the discipline (Marshmallow Challenge and 5S Game).

The students’ participation in the study was done voluntarily and anonymously.

3.3. Curriculum of Project Management Subject and Integration of Educational Games

According to the curriculum of both faculties, project management is assigned lectures, seminars, and projects. In Poland, in the discipline of Project Management, seminars hold a share of 50% of the total hours allocated to teaching activities, and in Romania, the share is 33%. In the seminar, classes are used in addition to applications, exercises, role-playing games, tests, case studies, and didactic games in order to develop the skills and competences of the students to use concepts related to project planning and education of project design, development, and management skills.

At the same time, emphasis is placed on the awareness of the importance of aspects, such as resource management, risk management, the development phases of a team, the size of the teams involved in projects, the roles of team members in projects, and implicitly the development of skills required/requested by employers. Additionally, it was aimed at boosting the classes, increasing the students’ motivation, involvement in the activities carried out in the discipline, networking, and collaboration between students, and developing creativity, innovative spirit, and team spirit.

The gaming activities with the students were conducted by teachers from Poland and Romania who are teaching Project Management. The aim was to create a similar framework; for this purpose, teachers discussed and agreed on learning games and the procedure for integrating and applying the learning games.

Therefore, in the activities carried out, games have been integrated that train students, involve them, and challenge them to experience a different approach to the discipline in order to develop skills, such as communication, responsibility, problem solving, creativity, time management, adaptability, and collaboration. Some of the games integrated in the teaching activities of the project management discipline can be found described in

Table 1. Teaching games integrated into the discipline of Project Management.

Game	Objective(s)	Short Description/Presentation	Resources	Approximate Time (Minutes)	Skills
Paper plane	Icebreaking participants’ inter-knowledge	Each participant writes on a sheet of paper three things about him and builds an airplane. All planes are launched into the hall. Students take a plane at a time, read the ones written on paper, and try to identify the “owner” of the plane.	Sheets of paper writing instruments	10	Active listening Attention to details Enthusiasm Proactivity experimentation
Publication	Stimulating and developing the capacity for teamwork	Participants are divided into teams. Teams have to create a publication (newspaper, magazine, etc.). In the first stage, the participants will have to decide, in a group, what is the type of publication (general information, special information—magazine type, modern, etc.), the title of the publication, its sections—which each member will assume. In the second stage, the groups will be dissolved, and each member will draw up an article for his/her rubric. At the end, each member will present his “article” within the group, there will be discussions and amendments to each article, with the idea of creating a unity of them and the publication will be made up.	Sheets of paper writing instruments	30–40	Achieving goals Attention to details Awareness Collaboration Communication Cooperation Creativity Creative thinking Experimentation Leadership Open-mindedness Organization Proactivity Responsibility Results oriented Task management Time management Work ethic
Marshmallow challenge	The attainment of an objective, setting out the ways in which it can be achieved increasing group cohesion following the requests organizing and managing the resources Increasing self-trust Improving communication skills Solution orientation Increasing motivation to involve in project teams Discovering new abilities Increasing creation and innovative capacity Awareness of the importance of team size	Participants are divided into teams of different sizes (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). Teams must build the highest stable structure with the resources made available, observing a set of rules: the marshmallow must be found at the top of the construction, the structure must be self-sustaining, not glued to the table or hung, etc. Parallel between the objectives set and the way in which they are intended to be achieved.	20 spaghetti 1 m thread 1 m tape 1 marshmallow Timer	18	Achieving goals Adaptability Attention to details Awareness Collaboration Communication Creativity Experimentation Innovation Integrity Organization Perseverance problem solving Responsibility Results oriented Time management Work ethic
5S Game	Improving productivity The importance of standardization stimulating and developing the capacity for teamwork Awareness of the importance of team size	Participants are divided into teams of different sizes (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). Teams must find and score in ascending order the numbers from 1 to 49 on the boards made available under time pressure. The results obtained by the teams are recorded and then compared.	Work drawings Writing instruments timer	15	Attention to details Awareness Collaboration Communication competitiveness Experimentation Integrity Organization Perseverance Responsibility Time management Work ethic
The ball of thread	Awareness of the importance of each team member and identification of the qualities of the team members, increasing motivation to involve in project teams	Participants are seated around a table. One of the participants has a ball of thread whose end sticks out in front of him on the table with scotch tape. It places another participant’s ball using the following formula: “I like X because...” The one who received the ball, without breaking the thread, will stick with scotch the part of the thread in front of him and will place the ball further using the same formula until the ball with thread passed through all the participants and a “grid” was created. At the end, some portions are detached to highlight how the links between the team members are affected if some of them leave the “game”	Thread Tape	10–15	Awareness Active listening collaboration experimentation Proactivity
The game of chairs	Achieving an objective, setting activities to achieve the objective of increasing group cohesion following the requests organizing and managing the resources Increasing self-trust improving communication skills solution orientation	Place the participants in a circle and have to go through a full tour, observing a set of rules. Each participant has in front of him a chair supported on two legs, which he supports with his hand. Participants must pass in front of each chair, being allowed to support it in order to stay on two legs, but the seat must be supported by one hand. If one of the seats falls on all four feet or on the back of the chair are the hands of two participants resume play. In this way, in order to achieve the objective, the participants had to collaborate and devise a “strategy”.	Number of seats = number of participants	-	Achieving goals Attention to details Collaboration Communication Coordination Leadership Optimism Organization Perseverance Results oriented Work ethic
Construction	Increasing group cohesion Following the requests organizing and managing the resources Increasing self-trust Improving communication skills Solution orientation Increasing motivation to involve in project teams	Participants are divided into teams. One member of each team is blindfolded. An image is projected with a construction made of Lego pieces. The construction will be carried out by the person blindfolded at the indications of colleagues.	Lego pieces	10	Achieving goals Attention to details Collaboration Communication Experimentation Integrity Organization Perseverance Results oriented Time management Work ethic
Ball/ Pass the ball	Completing a session in a pleasant way	The ball is passed from one participant to another; when catching the ball each participant had to summarize in one word the experience of the day, provided that the word is not repeated.	Ball	5	Awareness Active listening Proactivity

Source: Own processing.

.

3.4. Data Collection

Completing the questionnaire was done by accessing a link or by scanning a QR code made available to students by the teachers in the discipline. The survey was conducted simultaneously in both countries, between 5 and 17 October 2022. All the information obtained was organized in a database in order to analyze the results of the survey by applying statistical tests.

3.5. Data Analysis

Following the application of the questionnaire, for each question provided in the questionnaire, two sets of data resulted, a set related to the answers given by the students from Poland and a set related to the answers given by the students from Romania.

In order to assess whether the average of the answers is different between the two analyzed groups, T test—two sample test—was applied, and the Wilcoxon rank-sum test using the SAS Studio application [66].

The null hypothesis (H₀) for all the questionnaire questions assumes that the values of the answers indicated by the Romanian students do not differ from those of the answers provided by the Polish students.

The level of significance chosen is α = 0.05.

4. Results

By processing the data resulting from the application of the questionnaire with the help of the two t-tests and the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, it emerged that out of the total of 71 pairs of statistical series (items from the questionnaire) in 48 situations, both statistical tests used, led to the rejection of the null hypothesis. In this case, it was considered that the answers differ significantly between the two groups of students from Romania and Poland, respectively. In the other 23 pairs of statistical series, at least one of the tests does not indicate the rejection of the null hypothesis, thus understanding that there are not enough statistical arguments to confirm that the students in the two groups responded differently.

By participating in the Marshmallow Challenge, the two groups of students specified to what extent they had developed a range of skills. The two groups of students appreciated differently 7 items out of the total of 11 in the Q.II.1 set. The development of skills, such as communication, integrity, empathy, problem solving, adaptability, work ethic, and time management, presented a higher average of responses in students in Poland compared to those in Romania. In the case of the other four items, responsibility, active listening, awareness, and creativity, the two applied tests do not indicate simultaneously that the average values of the students’ responses in Poland are significantly different from the answers of the students in Romania.

The values of the tests t, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, respectively p are rendered in

Table 2. Average responses and results obtained by applying T test—two sample test and Wilcoxon rank—sum test to Q II.1.

Item	Mean PL	Mean RO	T Test		Wilcoxon Rank—Sum Test
			t	p	z	p
Q.II.1.comm	4.39	3.96	2.53	0.013 *	2.20	0.027 *
Q.II.1.integr	4.39	3.73	3.52	<0.001 **	2.94	0.003 **
Q.II.1.empath	4.35	3.65	3.71	<0.001 **	2.87	0.004 **
Q.II.1.probl	4.52	3.92	3.47	<0.001 **	2.75	0.005 **
Q.II.1.adapt	4.27	3.88	2.46	0.015 *	2.25	0.023 *
Q.II.1.work	4.35	3.73	3.76	<0.001 **	3.27	0.001 **
Q.II.1.time	4.45	3.78	3.76	<0.001 **	3.11	0.001 **
Q.II.1.resp	4.19	3.86	1.97	0.052	1.54	0.121
Q.II.1.activ	4.33	3.88	2.44	0.016 *	1.83	0.066
Q.II.1.awaren	4.25	3.78	2.44	0.017 *	1.41	0.156
Q.II.1.creativ	4.23	4.09	0.88	0.382	0.58	0.561

Significance: *—p < 0.05, **—p < 0.01. Source: Own statistical processing using SAS Studio.

.

Similarly, the results of statistical tests for the other questions are presented.

Regarding the development of skills by participating in the 5 S Game (Q.II.2. Appreciate how you have developed the following skills by participating in 5 S Game), the two groups appreciated six different items: communication, empathy, awareness, time management, work ethic, and problem solving. Thus, the average values of the responses indicated by the students from Poland are between 4.25 and 4.44, while the students from Romania indicated answers with an average between 3.67 and 3.93. In the case of the other four items (responsibility, integrity, active listening, and adaptability) the two tests did not simultaneously indicate that the differences between the responses of the two groups of students are significant (

Table 3. Average responses and results obtained by applying T test—two sample test and Wilcoxon rank—sum test to Q II.2.

Item	Mean PL	Mean RO	T Test		Wilcoxon Rank—Sum Test
			t	sig.	z	sig.
Q.II.2.comm	4.37	3.92	2.58	0.011 *	2.08	0.037 *
Q.II.2.empath	4.35	3.67	3.70	<0.001 **	2.91	0.003 **
Q.II.2.awaren	4.43	3.73	3.81	<0.001 **	3.09	0.001 **
Q.II.2.time	4.35	3.73	3.86	<0.001 **	3.49	<0.001 **
Q.II.2.work	4.25	3.78	2.70	0.008 **	2.29	0.021 *
Q.II.2.probl	4.39	3.75	3.44	0.001 **	2.54	0.012 *
Q.II.2.adapt	4.39	4.01	2.15	0.034 *	1.34	0.178
Q.II.2.resp	4.13	3.84	1.64	0.105	1.09	0.273
Q.II.2.integr	4.19	3.82	2.05	0.044 *	1.25	0.207
Q.II.2.activ	4.31	3.82	2.82	0.006 **	2.13	0.348

Significance: *—p < 0.05, **—p < 0.01. Source: Own statistical processing using SAS Studio.

).

To question Q.II.3., After participating in MARSHMALLOW CHALLENGE, to which extend did you realized the importance of the following aspects in Project Management?—the two groups appreciated a total of six items. For four items the opinions were different: work productivity, team dimension, time management, and following requests. For two items (organizing and managing resources, and communication) the answers are not significantly different (

Table 4. Average responses and results obtained by applying T test—two sample test and Wilcoxon rank—sum test to Q II.3.

Item	Mean PL	Mean RO	T test		Wilcoxon Rank—Sum Test
			t	p	z	p
Q.II.3.workprod	4.52	3.92	3.93	<0.001 **	3.50	<0.001 **
Q.II.3.team	4.35	3.71	3.62	<0.001 **	3.09	0.001 **
Q.II.3.time	4.47	3.82	4.00	<0.001 **	3.37	<0.001 **
Q.II.3.request	4.33	3.86	2.76	0.007 **	2.18	0.028 *
Q.II.3.omr	4.15	4.09	0.39	0.6969	0.04	0.960
Q.II.3.comm	4.27	4.03	1.39	0.1692	0.57	0.567

Significance: *—p < 0.05, **—p < 0.01. Source: Own statistical processing using SAS Studio.

).

By question Q.II.4., students were asked to appreciate to what extent they realized the importance of aspects (six items) for Project Management after participating in the 5 S Game. In accordance with the answers given, for three items, there were recorded significantly different opinions between the groups of students from Poland from Romania, respectively: work productivity, team dimension, and time management. For 3 items, three organizing and managing resources, communication, and following requests, the tests do not simultaneously indicate that opinions have significant differences (

Table 5. Average responses and results obtained by applying T test—two sample test and Wilcoxon rank—sum test to Q II.4.

Item	Mean PL	Mean RO	T test		Wilcoxon Rank—Sum Test
			t	sig.	z	sig.
Q.II.4.workprod	4.56	3.98	3.72	<0.001 **	3.14	0.001 **
Q.II.4.team	4.41	3.96	2.68	0.008 **	2.22	0.026 *
Q.II.4.time	4.5686	3.73	4.62	<0.001 **	3.92	<0.001 **
Q.II.4.request	4.333	4.01	2.04	0.044 *	1.52	0.127
Q.II.4.omr	4.2353	3.96	1.71	0.090	1.13	0.254
Q.II.4.comm	4.3725	4.05	1.71	0.090	0.92	0.357

Significance: *—p < 0.05, **—p < 0.01. Source: Own statistical processing using SAS Studio.

).

To question Q.II.5., Appreciate how you have developed the following skills by participating in ALL learning games integrated in Project Management subject—groups of students responded to 31 items. For 24 items, both tests simultaneously showed significant differences between the two groups of students (

Table 6. Average responses and results obtained by applying T test—two sample test and Wilcoxon rank—sum test to Q II.5.

Item	Mean PL	Mean RO	T test		Wilcoxon Rank—Sum Test
			t	sig.	z	sig.
Q.II.5.conflict	4.49	3.69	4.47	<0.001 **	3.80	<0.001 **
Q.II.5.negotiation	4.37	3.44	4.85	<0.001 **	3.87	<0.001 **
Q.II.5.public	4.41	3.50	5.12	<0.001 **	4.36	<0.001 **
Q.II.5.leader	4.47	3.55	4.74	<0.001 **	3.82	<0.001 **
Q.II.5.learning	4.49	3.88	3.61	<0.001 **	2.95	0.003 **
Q.II.5.open	4.35	3.92	2.61	0.010 *	2.11	0.034 *
Q.II.5.risk	4.50	3.80	4.01	<0.001 **	3.26	0.001 **
Q.II.5.experim	4.39	3.88	2.92	0.004 **	2.14	0.031 *
Q.II.5.creative	4.54	3.88	3.76	<0.001 **	3.10	0.001 **
Q.II.5.optimism	4.37	3.86	2.80	0.006 **	2.30	0.021 *
Q.II.5.growth	4.45	3.98	3.23	0.001 **	2.69	0.007 **
Q.II.5.proactivity	4.35	3.86	2.91	0.004 **	2.38	0.017 *
Q.II.5.critical	4.29	3.63	3.55	<0.001 **	2.88	0.003 **
Q.II.5.aip	4.50	3.92	3.74	<0.001 **	3.27	0.001 **
Q.II.5.task	4.33	3.98	2.40	0.018 *	2.03	0.042 *
Q.II.5.emotional	4.47	3.65	4.73	<0.001 **	3.95	<0.001 **
Q.II.5.solution	4.41	4.03	2.50	0.014 *	2.00	0.044 *
Q.II.5.attention	4.47	4.03	2.71	0.008 **	2.11	0.034 *
Q.II.5.integrity	4.50	3.88	4.07	<0.001 **	3.46	<0.001 **
Q.II.5.perseverance	4.41	3.94	2.98	0.003 **	2.64	0.008 **
Q.II.5.achieving	4.50	4.09	2.85	0.005 **	2.52	0.011 *
Q.II.5.results	4.50	4.01	3.42	<0.001 **	3.13	0.001 **
Q.II.5.honesty	4.50	4.00	3.25	0.001 **	2.55	0.010 *
Q.II.5.empathy	4.54	3.94	3.40	0.001 **	2.62	0.008 **
Q.II.5.collaboration	4.43	4.51	−0.64	0.525	1.00	0.315
Q.II.5.orgniz	4.33	3.90	2.40	0.018 *	1.66	0.096
Q.II.5.enthusiasm	4.33	3.92	2.33	0.021 *	1.86	0.062
Q.II.5.cooperation	4.39	4.07	1.83	0.070	1.10	0.269
Q.II.5.awareness	4.45	4.13	2.02	0.047 *	1.31	0.187
Q.II.5.responsability	4.45	4.13	2.12	0.037 *	1.43	0.150
Q.II.5.active	4.33	4.23	0.66	0.508	0.18	0.852

Significance: *—p < 0.05, **—p < 0.01. Source: Own statistical processing using SAS Studio.

).

Regarding the effects of integrating didactic games in the teaching activity (Q II.6.), the students appreciated four different items (increasing motivation to participate to didactical activities, increasing self-trust, discovering new abilities, and increasing creation and innovative processes). In the case of the items improving communication skills and solution orientation, the answers are not significantly different (

Table 7. Average responses and results obtained by applying T test—two sample test and Wilcoxon rank—sum test to Q II.6.

Question	Mean PL	Mean RO	T Test		Wilcoxon Rank—Sum Test
			t	sig.	z	sig.
Q.II.6.motivation	4.47	3.98	2.97	0.004 **	2.24	0.024 *
Q.II.6.self-trust	4.25	3.84	2.74	0.007 **	2.22	0.026 *
Q.II.6.new	4.50	4.00	3.25	0.001 **	2.45	0.014 *
Q.II.6.creation	4.39	3.94	2.77	0.006 **	2.18	0.029 *
Q.II.6.comm	4.39	4.05	2.01	0.048	1.10	0.267
Q.II.6.solution	4.35	4.07	1.75	0.083	1.00	0.315

Significance: *—p < 0.05, **—p < 0.01. Source: Own statistical processing using SAS Studio.

).

Regarding the integration of games in the discipline of Project Management (Q II.7.), the answers do not show statistically significant differences in the case of the two groups of students who participated in the study (

Table 8. Average responses and results obtained by applying T test—two sample test and Wilcoxon rank—sum test to Q II.7.

Item	Mean PL	Mean RO	T Test		Wilcoxon Rank—Sum Test
			t	sig.	z	sig.
Q.II.7.gameintegr	4.6078	4.6538	−0.44	0.6580	−0.7272	0.4671

Source: Own statistical processing using SAS Studio.

). This fact shows that, from a didactic point of view, the games are favorably appreciated by the students, and the integration of the games in the didactic activity in the discipline of Project Management is carried out in a similar manner from a qualitative point of view.

Closely analyzing the 48 different items mentioned by the two groups of students, it is noted that the average of the answers provided by the students in Poland was in all cases higher than the average of the answers offered by the students from Romania.

Additionally, by achieving an average of the response averages for the analyzed groups, it is observed that students in Poland have an average of responses of 4394, while students in Romania have an average of 3908. Even if both groups favorably appreciate the integration of educational games in the discipline project management and are aware of the acquisition and development of skills by participating in these games, the average responses show us that students in Poland have a greater openness for educational games and the skills developed through them compared to students in Romania.

The increased interest on the part of students in professional career development may also be due to participation in career counseling activities and involvement in extracurricular activities, given that in both universities, there are active career counseling and guidance centers.

5. Discussion

Chosen by teachers due to their formative valences, didactic games challenge students to perform complex instructive-educational tasks in an atmosphere of a good mood, engaging, and motivating [42,45,46]. By integrating didactic games, educational activities become more dynamic, relaxed, and even fun, the variety of activities preventing the appearance of boredom and fatigue [13].

The appreciation of the integration of educational games in teaching activities and the skills that can be acquired and developed also shows a recognition on the part of students of their importance for career development [42,44,46]. The interest of students in the development of key skills and competencies for easier integration into the labor market denotes an increased interest on the part of students for professional career development and, implicitly, good information on current trends in the labor market and the requirements of employers [67]. We mention that Project Manager is an emerging job, finding itself in the Top 20 job roles in increasing demand, occupying in 2020 the 11th position out of 20 [3]. Additionally, given the expected major changes in the labor market, some emerging jobs present significant opportunities to transition to jobs with increased demand in the future because of effective career pivots. In this context, Project Management represent a source job family for the destination job of tomorrow such as Product Development, Sales Data and AI [3].

6. Limitation and Implication

We mention that it is difficult to identify the determined factors and argue the identified situation because it was not one of the objectives established at the beginning of our study, but this could be a starting point for future studies undertaken by the authors.

Increasing the learning efficiency in the discipline of Project Management can be achieved by creating interactive learning environments by using methods, such as problematization, project-based learning, and learning through play, and the development of skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, organizing and managing resources, creativity, time management, and leadership occurs due to the permanent transfer of ideas and opinions between students and teachers.

Schools, through their teachers, must create an environment conducive to the teaching-learning process, an environment in which students are actively involved. The active involvement of students implies that they have their own reflections, to ask questions, to formulate problematic situations, to listen and understand different points of view, to examine situations without retrials, to adopt an ethical behavior in relation to the ideas issued, to argue the positions adopted, to have a logical reasoning and complex thinking to strengthen and develop the professional and transversal skills required by the representatives’ epistemic community. In this context, educational games, applied in various forms (traditional games, serious games, video games, simulation games, etc.) can be successfully integrated.

The students who participated in the study voluntarily responded to the questions of the questionnaire, so they showed a positive attitude towards the integration of the games from the beginning.

Limitations of the study are related to the survey participants (103 students from 2 universities). Since participation in the study required that the participants fulfill two conditions (taking the Project Management course and participating in at least two games applied in the didactic activities of the course), the number of participants was reduced. Conclusion drawing is limited only to the groups analyzed. The same analysis could be conducted with a larger sample size to generalize the phenomena or could be extended over the years with different generations of students to obtain more evidence for the study.

7. Conclusions

By integrating the educational games within the teaching activities, in accordance with the topic of the Project Management discipline, a number of positive aspects have been identified at the two universities studied. In this sense, educational games can be considered an effective way to achieve the objectives and tasks provided in the curriculum for the acquisition of modes of action. Teaching games are in the form of opportunities for the formation of skills and abilities, even being a motivational factor for potentiating learning efforts, a technique for executing actions, developing opinions, beliefs, moral feelings, cultivating attitudes of respect, acceptance, fair play, and empathy.

The students showed a positive attitude when they were offered to participate in the teaching games. The manifestation of a positive attitude on the part of the students toward the integration of didactic games in the teaching activities in the discipline Project Management facilitated the teaching-learning process.

Regarding the skills developed by students through their participation and involvement in the activities carried out in the discipline of Project Management, we can mention personal introspection and management, personal integrity and trust, personal communication, networking and involvement, leadership, teamwork, conflict and crisis management, inventiveness, negotiation, and results orientation.

The skills acquired and developed by students through participation in educational games are skills required in the labor market, and this fact can give students/graduates a competitive advantage in the process of selection and recruitment, and integration into the workplace. Some skills developed through participation in integrated teaching games in the MP discipline are found in the Top 15 Skills for 2025 [3].