To Brief or Not to Brief: Using the Same Simulation for Different Learning Goals

In this paper, we discuss the development of a basic coalition bargaining simulation based on the post-election negotations in the German Bundestag. After several iterations and sharing the coalition with others, two of the original developers found their intended learning outcomes diverging (one using it primarily to teach bargaining and party fragmentation theoretically, the other to teach the German case more specifically and deeply) and found their approaches to breifing and debriefing students diverging as well. We then compare the two approaches taken to the SoTL literature on simulation, developing hypotheses about how different forms of debriefing and game design might suggest different briefing/debriefing plans while maintaining the same basic simulation. We then present a research design (and seek panel feedback) on how to test these hypotheses across different insitutions in the 2025/2026 academic year with more formalized lesson plans on briefing and debriefing.