In the past few years I have learned and incredible amount of insight to using “Jeopardy” style games both as an education tool and as a promotional tool for a event or trade show. But it is the educational side I want to talk about. I have found that there are many opinions about the use of games as a serious teaching tool. Some are very valid but many are simply based of the wrong ideas or more to the point on how many use or misuse games I should say that perpetuate many of the negative feelings people have about using these types of games as a way to help teach any topic. Here is a list of the common mistakes I see with instructors using games as an educational tool.

1. They play the game like it is a TV show. Okay, but isn’t that the idea? Yes and no, you are using a familiar game concept that will appeal to your class, but remember your objective is to teach, not entertain where as the TV versions is to entertain. Let me put it this way, on TV they may go through 3-4 games with 25 questions each in 20 minutes. When I use a game it typically will take me 45-60 minutes to get through one game of 26 questions. Big difference. Your objective is to deliver the content in a way that all the students can absorb. Not just the person or team with the fastest finger on the buzzer. Slow down the speed of the game. Read the questions and go into more information about the question. The software I use to create my games allows me to add teaching points in a summary and in a preview area prior to a question that allow me to deliver additional teaching points.

2. They judge the success of the game on the student’s reactions. Okay this is huge, and many instructors wrongly think that because students raved about the game for months or for years afterwards they think it was a great educational tool but in end it was just a lot of fun. I have sat through conference speakers that made me pee my pants because they where so funny, but when I inventory what I learned from the talk, I come up empty other than I should learn to use the restroom before the next session. I remember one incident when I first created a game to review a topic, the employees loved it. It was a huge hit, but many in the administration thought it didn’t cover the subject well enough. And it didn’t primarily because of many of things being discussed in this very article.

3. They use the game as fun review. Okay you may be scratching your head on this one. This by far is how must people will use games in training, but you maybe selling the games short. Now I know sometimes this has value and sometimes we do need to fill time, but many people view games a luxury item. If they all of sudden have to cut time, usually the game is cut. Primarily because it was a fun way to fill time and not really based on sound teaching objectives. But my main point here is that the instructor is concentrating on the “fun” not the educational aspect of the game. This leads us to the next point.

4. Have a clear, concise teaching objective. If it is used for teaching, you should have an objective for what you want to accomplish. Go beyond the question and answer. Many instructors think since the question is based off of subject matter that is all the need to make it educational, Tell your audience why it is right or wrong. Provide more information then just the question and answers. Just because a team gets it right doesn’t mean everybody else gets it. Use the questions as a way to promote discussion or as spring board for you to go into more detail. I sometime will spend minutes going into more information about the question so everyone understands why the answer is correct or incorrect. Remember the question is really a reminder of what you want to cover.

5. Don’t call it a game! Okay, but you think, “well it is a game!” Well it’s all in how you say it. I learned this years ago when I was telling a potential client how much fun his employees where going to have if he chose us for his training vendor. Wrong answer! His response to that was; “They are not here to have fun!” Thankfully I am quick on my feet and responded back with this; “What I mean is, we have found ways to make our training more engaging so the students, will get much more from the class which will benefit you and your company. Simply put we feel that the participants enjoy the training process they will be able to absorb more information. Now who can argue with that? What I do now when I talk about games I emphasize my teaching objective, not having fun. It just so happens that fun will help me achieve my primary goal, but truthfully it is not my primary objective. If you are selling the idea of using a game as a tool to your boss, call it a learning exercise or an engagement tool or something else. The word game too many still implies a luxury, something fun, but not educational. This is changing but we still have a ways to go.

I hope you found these 5 tips to avoid helpful. But the interesting thing is if I wanted to use a game for purely entertainment purposes like at a trade show or public event I would actually do some of things that I just told you to avoid. It just depends on what your objective is you are trying to achieve.

Learn more visit: www.c3softworks.com

In today’s workplace, how often do we really assess what our employees know? Can you imagine during a training session, giving a “pop” quiz? It sounds plausible and even reasonable, but the reality is, in many workplaces this rarely happens. So how can you assess your employee’s knowledge in a friendly and productive way without intimidating them or putting them on the defensive? Well, the answer to that may vary depending on what your objective is. Here are four options for assessment, that involve using games and Audience Response Pads:
 

1. Assess what they know as you deliver information in the classroom. Wouldn’t it be great if, as you deliver a topic, you could have a basic knowledge of what your audience knows about the subject as you deliver it? In this scenario, you can adjust your delivery based on what the audience knows, real-time. So, if you find that on a particular question or topic that most people got it wrong, you can adjust your talk tract to go into greater detail.
 

2. Assess what they know without them knowing it. This is a great way to assess what your audience knows (and their depth of knowledge) and can help you assess the effectiveness of your training.
 

3. Assess each trainee individually in a training session. This is a way to track individual’s knowledge of a topic while providing group training.
 

4. Use the audience response pads with a game so that everyone participates. Truly making a game that everyone is a participant. And behind the scenes you collect data on what your audience knows.

Audience Response Pads
Probably one of the fastest growing trends in training is the use of Audience Response Pads or ARS. These devices are commonly used with PowerPoint as a polling device or as a way to deliver Q and A. In the later, results may be shared in the classroom or reviewed later, to determine how each trainee answered.

Using Games and Audience Response Pads
Assessing student comprehension can be tricky. Sometimes the best way to see what your students know, is to do it in a way that is non-threatening, where they do not know they are being assessed. Games played with audience response pads provide you a way to employ this method. Imagine this: you set up a game with questions based on your subject, you then break your audience into teams, and each member of each team has their own audience response pad. In this scenario, trainees get the sense that they are involved in a team game. To the audience it looks and feels like a game, but in reality it is a serious assessment tool, as you track individual answers.

This puts a different twist on using games to review. Many instructors understand the power of games as a way to review content. Now, you can not only review content that you’ve presented, but also assess your trainees’ understanding of your material.
Things to keep in mind:

With this method, you can know which concepts the group is having difficulty grasping. By assigning a specific clicker with a unique identifier to each player, you can also know how each student did with each of the questions. By tracking individual answers, you can identify people that may be having difficulty with the information and determine steps for remediation.
Another thing to consider, if you want to truly assess what your audience knows as individuals, is how they are grouped in a training room. Since the teams are based off of the response pads, players for a team can be spread out, to discourage the sharing of answers among team members. This is dramatically different from a conventional game format, where a team will collaborate to come up with an answer.

If you want to get a sense of what your employees know, you may be better off to hand out the response pads and not specifically assigned them to a person. If you want to know how specific individuals are doing, you can assign a specific response pad to each student. This will allow you to compare knowledge student by student. Keep in mind, many audiences are savvy enough to know the difference, and the results may vary if your audience thinks they are being assessed. So, sometimes keeping the results anonymous has its advantages. If you choose this option, just hand out the response pads without assigning them to individuals.

In a more conventional training environment, you may want to track individual responses to questions. This will allow you to assess each student’s progress.

Summary:
Using Audience Response pads, combined with a game, creates a unique way for you to gather information on what your audience has learned. You can effectively gather information that will help you identify areas that may need improvement in your current training sessions. You have a lot of options, when using Audience Response Pads, to get your students more involved in the training process and help you gather information.

To learn more, visit http://www.c3softworks.com/resources_support/training-game-tips.html

John Dillon has been a Paramedic for close to 30 years and currently works with the Woodbury Public Safety Department, with many of those years spent as an educator as well as a practitioner. As an instructor John has always looked for ways to engage his audiences to make learning a more enjoyable process. John currently works for C3 SoftWorks, which makes software for trainers.
 

Studies have shown that games are an entertaining and highly effective method to review topics. Would the use of games as a pure instructional medium to teach learning objectives also be effective? The correct answer is “Yes, Absolutely!”

Instructors know their classroom lectures should be engaging, interactive and encompass proven instructional strategies. They also know the importance of assessment and feedback to check for understanding. All these elements can be accomplished using a game in the classroom.

Games Bring Learning to Life
Games make situations come to life. They give your student the opportunity to collaborate with others in a team environment, demonstrate leadership, solve problems, organize details, create and tell stories.
How do you begin to use a game as an instructional tool? Here are Ten Steps & Guidelines we recommend to help you jump-start the design of your game:

1. As with any session you are teaching, define your performance objectives. Make certain they have the three elements of a solid objective:
Task; what do you want your student to be able to do when they leave your classroom?
Condition; under what condition will they perform the task?
Standard; what will be the measurement for knowing what “good” looks like?

Once you have your performance objectives written and approved, you can move on to the next step.

2. Create questions based on your performance objectives. Remember your goal is to effectively communicate the objective, not necessarily to create fun. Granted, you are using a fun method to help you achieve your goal.

3. Choose a game format. Most people are familiar with the Jeopardy-style game format. This format translates well to the classroom because instructors can use multiple categories with four or more questions in each category. Try to vary the question formats by using true-false, open ended, multiple choice, and even questions based upon a display of images or video. Another popular format is the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?-style game. Participants have increasingly difficult multiple choice questions to answer with the aid of the audience, a 50-50 elimination or with the help of other players.

4. Control the pace of the game. Try not to rush through the questions and answers. This will increase comprehension of the questions and retention of the answers. Slow down the game and allow sufficient time to review key points in more detail.

5. Go beyond the questions and answers. Do not limit yourself to using questions or answers in your game to deliver your teaching points. Use your questions as a stepping point to your key points. You can use a question to drill down and talk about multiple points within a game.

6. Use appropriate images, video and audio whenever possible. Having the option of using video files, graphic files and even audio files to review the topics in greater detail enhances the experience for visual and auditory learners. Granted not everyone can run or have access to video, but if you can add images or audio, this will bring the presentation up to another level.

7. Re-purpose your PowerPoint presentation. Chances are you already have content and images in your PowerPoint presentation you can re-use to build your questions and answers. Following the answer portion of your question, you can also deliver a mini lecture within your game using multiple slides from PowerPoint. It is simple to convert a slide to a .SWF or .JPEG file format and import it into the Summary Area. To help you, there are many programs available that will convert slides from PowerPoint into a .SWF format.

8. Read the questions aloud to your audience. This helps with a previous point about pacing. You want your audience to clearly understand the questions so they can answer them correctly and increase their understanding. If it’s taking more than seven seconds for your audience to answer, then repeat the question. It’s the question that gets the audience thinking and this will enhance the learning.

9. Use props or demonstrate procedures. Don’t limit yourself to the visuals or just the questions and answers on the screen. For example, show the class how to perform a three or four-step procedure to process a skill leaving out one step. Ask your audience to identify the next correct step. Base questions off of scenarios that proceed a question. Don’t forget to include those conditions or standards we discussed in Step 1 in your possible answer options!

10. Use summary points. When you watch TV game shows, the objectives are to entertain the viewer, sell commercial advertising and move the game along because it is essentially a competition. Their objective is not to teach or inform. If you are using a game as an instructional medium, always discuss and summarize your key points after each correct answer. This reinforces learning and increases retention.
Summary

Whatever game format you choose, it is your framework for creating an interactive, fun and challenging method of teaching performance objectives. Games help you maintain your audience’s attention longer than traditional lecture coupled with demonstration. Everyone ends up a winner when you help your class retain more information after playing a game.

To learn more: http://www.c3softworks.com