Learning & Teaching

Title of case study	Simulating international climate and energy negotiations: Bringing COP back to Glasgow
School / subject	School: Social and Political Sciences Subjects: Politics, International Relations
Lecturer	Andrew Judge and Kelly Kollman
Course	Global Energy Politics POLITIC4168 Global Environmental Politics POLITIC4007
Student Level	Undergraduate Honours
Class size	40-50 in each (80-100 total)
Location	Ideally in large flat teaching space on campus, with flexibility for moving desks.

Brief summary 

Students take part in a simulation game that models the international climate negotiations. Working in groups, they role-play as different countries who are negotiating an international agreement to address climate change while also defending their national interests. Through this game, students develop key skills in communication, problem-solving and teamwork. This type of exercise also promotes empathy and perspective-taking, which helps students to develop a deeper understanding of course content and how it can be applied in the real world. This game has also been adapted to other negotiation topics (artificial intelligence, international trade) and for other teaching contexts (Collaborative Online International Learning, Curriculum for Life).

Objectives

The primary objectives of the game are: (1) to give students the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned on their courses about the politics of addressing energy and environmental issues through the medium of role-play; (2) to compel them to reckon with the challenges of complexities of political negotiations where participants have different interests and perspectives; and (3) to develop their skills in effective teamwork, communication and problem-solving. Each of these objectives are highlighted to students from the outset of the game and are revisited as part of post-game reflection exercises.

What is done? 

Students are assigned to groups and know their role in advance of the game. In preparation, they write a briefing paper on the energy/environmental policy of the country they will be role-playing as during the game as one of their summative assessments. They also meet with members of their group during seminars the week before the simulation game to discuss their negotiation positions and strategy.

The game is structured around at least two negotiation rounds. During each round, we normally have parallel negotiations on different topics such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, climate finance and the phase-out of fossil fuels. There is a shared ‘text’ for each topic which the participants will amend throughout the game (although we sometimes get external volunteers to chair these negotiations on our behalf).

Each group must send one person to each negotiation but are also encouraged to separately meet with members of other groups to discuss possible areas of compromise and side-deals. At the end of each negotiation round, we hold an indicative vote in which each group indicates whether they could support the agreement or not. At the end of the final negotiation round, they vote on whether to accept the agreement or not. Agreements are only passed by consensus – meaning that every group has a veto. Students know this in advance and are expected to factor this into their negotiation positions and strategy.

During the game, we play a few different roles to guide students through the game. For the most part, we are representatives of the United Nations who set the agenda for the session. However, we also sometimes play the role of news anchors cutting in to deliver ‘breaking news’ about the (lack of) progress towards reaching an agreement. We mainly use these roles to guide and influence proceedings and to help with the world-building aspects of the simulation game.

Following the game, we step out of our in-game roles and lead participants through a guided reflection of how they played the game and what this tells us about the complexities of global energy/environmental politics and political negotiations more broadly. We do this based on the extensive scholarship on the use of educational simulation games, which suggests that learning primarily takes place by actively and explicitly reflecting on learning.

The session usually takes place over four hours. This is essential when the game involves large numbers of students, as there needs to be enough time for providing instructions. For smaller numbers of students (20-25) it is possible to do a shorter session of around two hours.

What works well? 

The simulation is effective at modelling some of the dynamics involved in international political negotiations and for providing a setting in which they can think, act and respond in creative ways. It’s a great sandbox in which they can apply their knowledge and practice their skills.

It is also an enjoyable form of learning for many students (and for the staff running the activity). Aside from the knowledge- and skills-based benefits, it is also a good way to engage students by bringing the course material to life.

Benefits (students & staff) 

Based on our own observations and student feedback, this game can help students get a much better understanding of why collective decision-making is difficult – particularly in international political settings. This is something that students often struggle to understand based solely on reading academic articles and discussing in class. This has benefits for teaching some of the later topics in our courses, which focus on emerging political challenges. Having taken part in the simulation, students are better able to think through different perspectives on how to respond to these challenges which enables more fruitful and critical discussions in class.

The other key benefit is that students get to practice their skills under pressure. In various other Politics and International Relations courses, students have ample opportunities to develop skills in communication, problem-solving and teamwork. However, in this game they need to respond to uncertain and changing circumstances and adapt under pressure (in a supported learning environment).

Challenges (students & staff)

One of the main challenges with these kinds of simulation games is that role-play can often take students outside of their comfort zone. While this may have pedagogical benefits it can also act as a barrier for some students, preventing them from fully engaging with and learning from this experience. Likewise, some students may not be able to access this experience on the same basis as others. This is why it is vitally important to scaffold and fully integrate the game into the course rather than treating it as an add-on and to also ensure that you are inclusive in your approach to game design. This may involve, for instance, constructing roles and associated learning tasks that students can take part in outside of the formal game that can nonetheless influence the gameplay.

One of the main challenges for staff is that it can be quite difficult to arrange for a suitable teaching space on campus. We need a space large enough to bring together multiple groups from two courses at the same time. This is why it is very important to plan, be as flexible as possible about the exact timing and space requirements and work with timetabling teams early to find a viable solution.

What did you learn?

Developing simulation games takes time, but the effort is worth it. Not only are they effective for all the reasons stated above but these are the kinds of learning experiences that students remember long after they have taken part in them.

The other thing we learned is that things will go wrong or won’t work out the way you expected. Students will find ways around the rules of the game or will play their roles in ways you did not anticipate. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, this can open up opportunities for post-game reflection that would otherwise have been missed. It can also help instructors see how different game design choices play out in practice and make ongoing adjustments. That said, we also think it’s good to build in a ‘god clause’ to the rules that explicitly allows you to change things at any point in time if necessary – just in case things get out of hand or go too far off topic.

What advice would you give to others?

First, keep it simple. These games can seem very complex, but they are usually based around some simple mechanics. Having a set of rules and roles will allow learners to engage with the exercise more easily and will also allow them the space to be more creative in how they navigate different situations.

Second, review the scholarship. There are a lot of journal articles and online resources about educational games. In our case, for instance, we drew from games such as the World Climate Simulation and others published in disciplinary journals and blogs such as the Journal of Political Science Education and the Active Learning in Political Science Blog. Our fields of Political Science and International Relations are particularly well served by scholarship on these topics, but it’s also worth reviewing literature on business education for similar games that pertain to other less governmental settings.

Third, create an immersive experience. In our case, this mainly involves having flags for each country group and the United Nations and having UN-branded negotiation texts. While it is unlikely that this has any direct impact on learning, it does help to set the tone for the session and to communicate instructions and expectations to participants before and during the game. It therefore serves a useful function. Just be careful to not allow your world-building to take up all your time or to take precedence over the design of the game itself.

Fourth, don’t neglect the post-game reflection. One of the consistent findings in the scholarship is that this is where much of the learning takes place as students look back on their thoughts, actions and responses during the game and start making connections to the course material and key skills. It’s very important to manage the time effectively so you don’t run out of time or try to compress reflection into the last few minutes of the session. Our advice is to schedule more time than you think you’ll need.