Use of games to teach teamwork and communication skills to engineering students

The use of video games in education is nothing new, but often these games are specifically designed for one or more specific learning objectives. These games focus on maximizing the learning outcomes and are paired with a curriculum designed to cover the selected materials. However, that does not always translate to fun games or games played outside of the classroom. Students will associate these educational games as part of the class, not something they would do for fun. These games can be beneficial, but they can also be limited in scope. Since these games have a limited purpose, they are often used for that purpose and not used for anything else. This paper will review a trial run conducted in Fall 2020 using a popular and mainstream puzzle-solving game to teach engineering students teamwork and communication skills. First, we will outline our methodology for conducting this trial and the plan we followed in executing the trial using teleconference tools due to COVID-19. Next, we will discuss both pros and cons of using this game and the lessons we learned from this trial. Finally, we will review the data collected from this trial and the future work to continue using these games as an educational tool.