Meet the Women of COBL

Introduction: I'm Gillian Vesty, an associate professor who loves researching serious games. Gaming has come a long way and has become a part of our culture. We all just love games. I believe that gamification is fun and can be a part of learning. But what do games have to do with accounting? To answer that question, I need to tell you a little bit about my past.

Gillian's background: I began my career as a nurse at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. While working in nursing and management, I realized the importance of understanding numbers and ensuring that accounting has a social context. I thought that connecting the worlds of nursing and accounting could be achieved through gamification and serious games.

Serious games: Currently, the project I'm working on involves building real-world dilemmas. We use serious games to tackle issues such as fraud, healthcare expenditure, and climate change. The industry is eager to support and collaborate with us in designing serious games because they see it as a safe way to engage with challenging topics.

Our most current game is called "Bogart." It is a serious game that teaches practitioners about the new restructured code of ethics. Another serious game we have is "Lucro Island," which focuses on budgeting and managing a hotel. Within these serious games, players can make decisions that may destroy a business or harm a patient, but they can do so safely within the game environment.

Outro: Gamification is an essential part of our future. It allows us to build models that can tackle the wicked challenges in the world and make a real difference.