Learnopoly - a game of learning activities

Learnopoly is a game created for exercising skills for instructional design, where competing teams of players race to design learning activities for a set of given topics. Design constraints are determined randomly, by dealing cards and spinning a wheel. The cards decide the topic and type of activity that must be designed, and the spin decides the learning solution--whether the activity will be carried out either synchronously online, asynchronously online, or in a classroom. The purpose of the game is to offer a creative challenge to players to use different learning activities for different learning solutions in effective and engaging ways. Too often we chose learning solutions only because we have tried them already and are comfortable with them. Learnopoly offers a safe and entertaining environment where players have the opportunity to challenge themselves to think out of the box.

Learnopoly - the game of learning activities from Kuna & Parrish

Learnopoly was introduced as a workshop activity at the recent 2014 Eumetcal Workshop held in Warsaw, Poland, from 10 to 13 June. Over 30 players tried out the game, successfully came up with a great set of solutions, and provided useful feedback for improvements.

Spin the wheel

Real life puts constraints on our training projects, usually for good reasons, but not always. In Learnopoly these constraints are determined randomly, which frees (or forces) participants to prepare themselves for those situations in which they will need or want to attempt something different. 

After an introduction to the goals and basic rules, the following game items were distributed to each team:

• Two sets of cards - Learning activities and Topics (job responsibilities requiring training). Learning activities ranged from discussions to simulations. The topics were varied to cater to a range of a team member expertise, from aeronautical forecasting to disaster response.
• Learning Solution Spinner - The spinner randomly selected the Classroom, an Online synchronous course, or an Online asynchronous course as the context for the learning activity.
• Answer sheets to be used by the teams to describe the learning activities they created, according to stated criteria and to achieve a learning outcome appropriate for the selected Topic on one of their cards.
• A board that helped the team track the points awarded and combinations of Learning activities and Learning solutions used. Some combinations earned bonus points.

The player goals were to beat the time constraints and the other teams in coming up with the most and best learning activities. How were the winners chosen? There were two official ways to win, two goals to accomplish:

1) Design the most learning activities in the time allotted and collect the most points. A team was lucky if it randomly chose a combination of a Learning activity and Learning solution that granted them the opportunity to earn bonus points.

2) Design the best (most effective and engaging) learning activity. These were voted by the other teams at the end of the session, after each team nominated one of the activities they had created and described it aloud.

Nightmare on the shift

The winning team for Goal 1 came up with 5 learning activities in approximately 1 hour, and some of these earned bonus points because they done for the more difficult activity/learning solution combinations.

The winning activity elected for Goal 2 was “Nightmare on the Shift”. This Simulation or Role Play activity describes a situation where the weather is changing rapidly from the issued forecast and could result in a potentially dangerous weather situation for the customer.  As such, the customer becomes annoyed due to the operational problems that develop.

Within the activity, learners take one of 3 roles:

1. The duty operational forecaster,
2. The air traffic controller – (or another user)
3. A person to observe the Role Play and provide feedback

Those playing the forecaster role must practice good communication skills and customer empathy in a difficult situation, whilst analyzing and updating the forecast situation quickly and professionally. A debrief between all 3 learners provides opportunity for feedback and deeper learning. The person observing the Role Play provides a more objective perspective on the situation during the debriefing to those playing the active roles, not only in how to communicate the weather but also in how to deal with a difficult customer situation.  

The primary learning outcomes intended for this winning activity are how to communicate regarding a missed forecast, skills for working under pressure, and how to understand the customer perspective.
Many other creative and highly effective activities were generated by the teams, but this one rose to the top in the voting.

What did players say?

After EUMETCAL workshop, players were sent a short survey in which they were asked about the most fun and most difficult aspects of the game.

From the responses given we can understand that the audience appreciated most the game characteristics (fast pace, spinning the wheel, limited time, getting more points and a final prize) and the group-work set up (group brainstorming, discussion and decision making). On the other hand some respondents emphasized that the difficult part was the game logistics and the demands of the creative, fast-paced group work.

"For me the most fun part of the game was the team-work between the participants in my group, and the effort to try to get the answers on time."

We also tried to determine which of the learning activities players had used before, and in which contexts, and whether the game stimulated any new ideas.

"Which learning activities have you used previously…?"

Classroom

Online

In general, fewer had used the activities in online environments. Many had used simulation and role play in the classroom, but not online. Few had used Socratic Lesson in either situation. But 93% of the respondents stated that the game encouraged them to try new learning activities in the future. In other words, one of the key underlying goals of the workshop was achieved.

This underlying goal was to expose participants to a broader palette of learning activities, to show that all the activities could be used online, and to inspire them to try something new as trainers.

Improvements planned/or lessons learned

We plan to work to improve all the the game items to make them clearer and easier to use within the time constraints. The logistics should be streamlined a little, but most of all, communicated more concisely from the start, trusting more that the participants will understand them as they begin their play. Reading and understanding the logistics as a team might be considered simply part of the game play.

We will play it again... ONLINE! 

In October, 2014, everybody is invited to play Learnopoly with us online during CALMet Online. All you need to do is to register for the CALMet Online event (http://www.calmet.org/p/calmet-online-2014.html), and follow our session:

Learnopoly. Patrick Parrish (WMO) and Maja Kuna (EUMETSAT). Dates: 13 October -  26 October

Clearly, the game is going to require some adaptation to make it playable in the online environment. So, as instructional designers, we will have to practice what we preach with the game--to approach our planning of training events with flexibility and creativity to reach the desired outcomes regardless of the learning solution being applied. We plan to use tools within the Moodle course management system to recreate the same randomization element and to use small groups to keep the same level of team interaction. The element that will change the most is the pace of the game. In an asynchronous environment, the game cannot be completed in one hour, but more likely in one week. Will this change the fundamental nature of the game? Perhaps to some degree, but we think the game will still feel like a game, generate competitiveness and creative tension, and that learning outcomes will be preserved.

Conclusion

While there are a lot of ways we think we can improve Learnopoly, we are very happy with its first successful use at the Eumetcal Workshop. We hope the online experience of playing is just as rewarding, and that the things we learned during the first event will help us make it even better.

Have any of you tried games in your training or education activities? Please share them with the CALMet Commons audience!