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Games & Simulations: Got Game?
October 20, 2008
Games and simulations in training aren't going anywhere. In fact, they're only gaining in popularity, with new twists on old formats and technologies emerging every year.
By Margery Weinstein
Just when you thought you had enough decisions to make— e-learning, in-person or online classroom, live or asynchronous— add games and simulations to your list of choices, and not just whether you're going to use them. With this technology now routine for many organizations, the question isn't whether or not to use a game or simulation to train, but which to choose. Fortunately, the experts say this is a permanent trend with ever-expanding options.
Easily Applicable
Technology that just a decade ago mostly was reserved for professionals in fields such as medicine or engineering is so widespread today you're liable to see it anywhere, in more accessible, applicable forms than ever before. "Now we have technology where you have avatars and Second Life, and can create simulations in which, though you are playing a game, you're really doing the activity," says David Piltz, managing partner of games and simulation provider The Learning Key. But there's a caveat, he notes, to this upward trend: Not all your workers are comfortable with it yet. While "there's a generation coming in which collaboration is done through Facebook, Second Life, and other electronic means," Piltz explains, achieving behavior change for all your employees means combining these high-tech solutions with low-tech, offline games and simulations, too.
Whether offline or online, experiential learning via games and simulations is a fully integrated training tool today, says Elizabeth Treher, CEO of The Learning Key. "We've always done experiential learning," she says of her now 18-year-old company, "and it was always well accepted by participants; less so by the organizations they were part of. Now it is common and expected." As the games and simulations format has become a greater part of training as usual, it also has gotten much better at bridging the gap between training and on-the-job performance. Whereas in the past companies may have been hesitant to employ a game to teach new skills, the sell to executives has gotten easier with games and simulations that have direct, or even embedded, application to the real work of learners. "That has become more common," she says of today's job-relevant games and simulations. "There are fewer activities where you have to make a big leap. If people are skilled facilitators, you can help participants make a leap from anything seemingly unrelated to what they're doing, but that level of skill doesn't exist in many trainers, and I think that's one of the things that may have driven the trend of simulations specifically tied to the business."
When a game or simulation ties effectively to the work learners do every day, you know it fairly quickly—no elaborate assessment required. "I think you start hearing immediately from participants about how it links to their job," says Treher. Companies with games and simulations that work sometimes will hear employees suggesting improvements to the way they do business based on new approaches tried out for the first time within the technology or simulated activity. It is not uncommon, for instance, for participants in The Learning Key's offline project management simulation to try out new ways of implementing their projects based on what worked in the game, says Treher. Launching a pilot before the "project" was complete worked well in the game, learners reason, so why not give it a try in the real world?
Immersive—Anytime, Anywhere
With the trend of creating games and simulations that link directly to jobs, formats that make use of avatars—thereby giving learners an immersive experience—are gaining traction. Placed inside the program, participants don't have to use their imagination quite as much to understand what it takes to successfully complete new tasks, says Alex Heiphetz, president and CEO of games and simulations provider AHG, Inc. The company, which uses its technology to create training programs within the virtual world of Second Life, is exploring the need for immersive, avatar-based learning sessions that are asynchronous, he explains. The avatars the learner interacts with in the program act as anytime, always-available mentors. "It can show you something, teach you to do something, or help you polish your technical skills," says Heiphetz. The ongoing, true-to-life practice this type of simulation allows is well suited for sales reps, he notes, pointing out its increasing use by pharmaceutical companies. Reps in need of communications skills sharpening, for instance, can check into the virtual world training room anytime to participate in role-play activities with an avatar playing the role of doctor, and the rep interacting with the "doctor" as another avatar within the program.
Immersive gaming in a cooperative format, in which learners are grouped into opposing teams, has gained popularity over the last couple of years, says Jack McGrath, president of games and simulations provider Digitec Interactive. The technology behind many of these programs is the Unreal Engine, a gaming engine developed by Epic Games that allows participants to respond via a keyboard or game controller to action on the screen. Adapting this technology, originally created for recreational gamers, for use in corporations holds a lot of potential for training, says McGrath, whose own company uses the Unreal technology in the games it designs. "The ability to [modify] those immersive environments to apply learning to them is going to be a big trend," he says, "and a tool that's going to be really useful." The code on one of those games could be tweaked, he says, so instead of targeting, say, a laser gun, participants in a sales training session are aiming their efforts at accessing a briefcase filled with corporate research about prospects. The material in the briefcase then would be used to interact with those prospects, which are represented in the game as avatars.
Edu-tainment on Tap
A technology company Digitec works with recently piloted a Digitec-designed game in which the recreational, capture-the-flag video game format was adapted to suit a learning program about computer network security. Instead of working with teammates to capture the other team's flag, participants worked together to secure their team's server, gathering items such as firewalls along the way to achieve their goal. "Your team is navigating through the terrain to find these items, and then you can use those items to secure your flag, so to speak, or server, while you're trying to infiltrate another team's security," McGrath points out, "so it provides applicable learning objectives in a situated way." As for the team approach of many of these games, McGrath says that may be attributable to the preferences of young people today for collaboration. Those who predicted advances in technology would lead to more solitary work styles are apparently wrong. "I think people like to connect and network with other players," he says. "One thing we've found in our research about the next generation of learners is in schools they actually want to learn more about working in teams. I think they want to feel a part of something, and have a common goal." To capitalize on the team-based leanings of young workers, says McGrath, companies may—if they're not already—try tying the game to an online social network "so people will learn by interacting with other members of the team."
While the technology and formats used are based on those used for years in entertainment-oriented gaming, McGrath says some companies shy away from using the term "game" when discussing these programs. "Instead, I'm hearing more about 'immersive learning simulations,'" he says, "because almost everybody agrees simulations are a great way to learn in a safe, secure environment."
Indeed, one of the reasons games and simulations have taken off is the increasing demand for learning that doesn't seem like learning, says John L. Dillon, owner of games and simulations provider C3 Softworks, Inc. "Fun really isn't our objective," he says. "We're trying to engage the audience so we can deliver more information." Dillon, who's been a paramedic for the last 27 years, has begun teaching the same courses he's taught for years on OSHA regulations with games and simulations, to pleasing results. A lecture on infectious diseases delivered to police officers every year becomes much more palatable when taught through the medium of a Jeopardy-style game, he says. "It was kind of like I teased them with candy," he explains, "but in the end I fed them broccoli, and they liked it."
That said, it all hinges on the implementation. Dillon notes his company sold a Jeopardy-like game to a facilitator who didn't get the results his company was seeking. "But that's because he went through it very quickly, didn't read the questions, and didn't stop to elaborate on the information." To boost results, Dillon and his colleagues coached the facilitator until he was able to deliver it effectively. "I firmly believe," he says, "that if a game is used properly, it can be more effective than a lecture."
Editor's Note: There's no question games and simulations will be more fun for your learners than listening to you ramble for an hour, but will they be just as effective, or maybe even more effective, than your old-fashioned lecture? Read "How to Play the Training Game to find out.
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