Project GREAT - Train the trainer, my testimony

(This text was written on November 2013 / Este texto foi escrito em Novembro 2013)

Introduction

I always used games and simulations in training but until March 2013 I had never played any computer games. Maybe this explains my interest in project GREAT and why I enrolled on the Train The Trainer course. I was curious to see how a Facebook game – SimCity Social - could be used to develop soft skills.

So, the first challenge was to play, play, and play and that was my commitment. I’ve played SimCity Social for around 200 hours, since March 2013 until the game had been shut down 4 months later.

The second challenge was to develop one of the three project management related competences “available” in the scope of the project GREAT. I chose to develop Time Management (the other two were leadership and team management).

The Training

So, how did it go?

First, the available resources were of high quality. Resources related with the competences to be developed but also related with games and gamification. These last two were very important to show me the possible uses and expected benefits of non-serious digital games in training and education, and the possibilities of gamification.

Secondly, the course was well prepared and we had very good tutoring, and this was really important. The kind of support we had from the tutors is shown on the following points:

1) They gave us an objective to accomplish – to have a city with 5000 inhabitants until the 20^th March (the course started the 8^th March).

That was my first concern – to guarantee I would achieve the objective (equivalent to successfully manage the project) and that was a good motivation to keep me playing in those first days when I was still trying to understand the game (and Facebook) environment, lacking any experience in both (I opened my Facebook account the day before the course began).

2) By their advice I kept a playing log where I’ve registered important facts related to time management development: tasks to perform and objectives to achieve each time I played, achieved objectives, time I kept playing, indicators’ values at the end of each playing, and other.

This log helped me planning my playing and made it more effective, a cause-effect relation relevant to develop time management competences - I analysed the indicators’ evolution which helped me making better decisions.

3) They guided us on making the transfer to real life of our findings in the game space.

I kept comparing my behaviors in the game with my behaviors in real life, analyzing the impact of my decisions in the game, getting real life examples that mirrored those in the game and find out how I could improve in the game having in mind improvement in real life.

Thirdly, the game was well chosen – it was easy to start playing even with small knowledge of it; allowed us to keep doing things even if the main resource (energy) ended; gave room to other meaningful experiences, for instance in the social domain.

The Learning and Its impact

About the learning I can say I got some important things from playing SimCity Social and I believe these are things that many people could get from playing it.

Below, I summarize some aspects I believe were the cornerstone of my reflections in order to make the transfer to real life situations. They are also those I find more relevant regarding time management in a project management context:

·         Being able to make good time estimations for concluding a task.

Importance of analyzing the information available in the game to improve time estimations and planning - in real life we can say it’s equivalent to define key performance indicators and keep tracking of them to change and adjust as needed

·         Keep defining and writing objectives and defining milestones - mandatory so time can be used in an effectively and efficient manner.

·         Doing a good preparation / planning – in real life allow time on your planning for planning!

·         Importance of being able to deal with the unexpected to keep making the best use of time.

I experienced this in the game the first time I was with no energy a few minutes only after I started playing. Until then it had never happened. And so I had to find out the best way to keep on playing (I had already collected all possible energy bonuses I could get from visiting my neighbors) and I found out I could improve my town and increase the inhabitants number just by making layout adjustments that didn’t needed any energy.

·         Importance of understanding which resources are mandatory and which tasks have to be completed so you can go on playing – in real life make sure you know and have all the resources you’ll need; make sure you know what tasks are really important (different from being urgent!)

·         Asking for help - important when we want to reach objectives and we are fortunately enough to have people around (in the game, the neighbors) that can help.

Allow time to socialize - some social interactions can be interruptions, but others are important to develop a “support network”

·         Even 3 minutes are important! The game can help us understand how valuable 3 minutes (time between energy refills) are; we find out there are a lot of things we can do in just 3 minutes.

·         Importance of discipline to stick to the plans (even if flexibility is important).

And as a tutor, I learned that we need to play a lot if we want to be able to help learners doing the transfer of their game experiences to real life situations.

 Finally, some of the most important questions regarding any learning event: “Did learning and development last? How long? Did it have a strong impact? Will it last?”

As a learner developing time management competences, I believe this training had impact:

·         I keep doing to do lists with time estimations that I keep refining every two weeks based on data analysis

·         I’m becoming more disciplined in sticking to my to do lists and time estimations.

·         At least twice a week I do an evaluation of my time management performance to see where I can improve.

·         I feel I have improved my time management in what relates to stress management – I feel less stressed because now I have more control over my time.

But since this was a Train the Trainer it is also important to analyze its impact as a trainer/tutor/adult’s training professional and I believe it also had impact:

·         I keep studying and developing myself regarding game based education and gamification.

·         I invest time in playing other games to understand how they can help in soft skills development. So now, every time I play a new game I have in mind what kind of skills we can develop by playing it and what game situations can enable reflection and transfer.

·         Now, I always consider the use of games or gamification in training and recruitment and selection (another area I work on) and analyze the possible benefits learners or users can get from its use.

A last remark. Even if I cannot say the course impact had been bigger because games were used, since I don’t have another course to compare with, I can say for sure that this TTT course was motivating and engaging because I was challenged to do something different - to use a video game to develop a soft skill - and it allowed me to work and develop in a different and motivating environment – the game – having fun! 

Be a GREAT learner!