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 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.
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:
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.
