Learning by Design: Integrating Experiential Learning, Gamification and AI in Entrepreneurship Education

Abstract

This paper introduces the LUDO Methodology, an experiential, game-based instructional design framework integrating narrative learning, gamification, and artificial intelligence. Developed at the Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, the methodology was piloted in a mandatory first-year undergraduate accounting course for marketing and cybernetics students and tested in cross-programme workshop settings. Accounting serves as a high-friction educational context to examine the robustness and transferability of the framework for non-specialist learners. The instructional design follows a semester-long narrative centred on a fictional entrepreneurial character, with a seminar structure aligned with the experiential learning cycle. The study adopts a design-based research approach and reports qualitative observations from two semesters of classroom testing and four public events. Findings suggest consistent engagement and conceptual coherence across contexts. The paper contributes a transferable pedagogical design framework and outlines directions for future empirical validation.