Games Based Learning Improving Soft Skills - Leadership in action - 24/02/2014
Games Based Learning Improving Soft Skills
- Leadership in action -
(publicado em EAI Endorsed Transactions on Serious Games)
M.J. Sousa1 and E. Costa2
1 UNIDE/ BRU; Universidade Europeia
2 Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação
Abstract
This paper intents to analyse project management soft skills in Games Based Learning (GBL) context, during the international project GREAT development.
Although the skills under analyses were leadership, team management and time management in this article only the leadership skills are under analysis. The main goal was to verify if the use of GBL would enable the development of that kind of competencies during a training process.
The game suggested to the participants was SimCity Social and the main goal was to achieve 5000 inhabitants in three weeks, with the help from the training colleagues and also the trainer.
The main product of the project was a GBL course and each group needed to select one of the competency proposed: leadership, team management and time management, in order to play assuming a specific role.
The group which selected leadership competencies assumed the Mayor role and needed to use competencies like organization, decision making, resources management, and financial skills, in order to decide what kind of city was under construction: more ecological or more industrial or even more targeted for entertainment.
The collaboration and the active participation of all was very important to accomplish all goals, other kind of complementary competencies were developed, like the use of ICT and an eLearning platform, because this was a bLearning course.
Also the use of another language (English) besides the mother language during all course development created some resistance from the participants, but in the end most part of them finished all course activities.
Keywords: Games Based Learning, Project Management, Soft Skills
Received on DD MM YYYY, accepted on DD MM YYYY, published on DD MM YYYY
Copyright © YYYY Author et al., licensed to ICST. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unlimited use, distribution and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.
doi: 10.4108/_______________
1. Introduction
This main goal of this research was to analyze project management soft skills in Games Based Learning (GBL) context, during the international project GREAT. The research was developed according qualitative methodology – namely content analysis using the information shared among the participants of several courses using GBL and SimCity Social as a mean to accomplish the objectives of the project.
After the introduction, we can find the literature review on GBL and soft skills, followed by the research methodology, analysis and discussion, trainee’s skills development and conclusions pointing out the main findings from the research.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Games Based Learning Concept
GBL – Games Based Learning is a concept that is structured around a learning process that uses as the main pedagogical tool a specific games which helps to arise and develop competencies.
Games can foster social skills and also technical skills. They can provide several kinds of contexts and scenarios for the learners.
Several game scholars like Gee, Kurt Squire, Constance Steinkuehler, David Williamson Shaffer often refer to the learning component in game-based learning as games for higher order thinking and social skills (e.g., Schaffer, Squire, Halverson, & Gee, 2005; Steinkuehler & Duncan, 2008).
There are three perspectives according to games based learning the first and also the identified as the dominant conceives game-based learning as a learning approach driven by game technologies (e.g., Gee, 2003; Prensky, 2003) – the learning occurs predominantly as a result of game play.
Another perspective assumes that the games based learning process is driven not only by game technologies, but also by pedagogies. The learning process takes place within a game, but also through several defined activities that are created around the game and that are complementary to the game.
The third perspective assumes that game based learning is more a pedagogical/learning innovation informed by game design principles. This perspective gamifiy the learning process using game mechanics like role-playing, achievement, competition and reward system (e.g., Kapp, 2012).
The project Great assumed the second perspective and created a course around a social game – SimCity Social with the goal to develop project management soft skills.
2.2. Soft Skills in Theory
The importance of soft skills is discussed widely in the management literature (Kinkus, 2007). It can be defined as interpersonal, human, people or behavioral skills necessary for applying technical skills and knowledge in the workplace (Rainsbury, Hodges, Burchell & Lay, 2002).
James and James (2004) also suggest that soft skills are a new way to describe a set of abilities or talents that an individual can bring to the workplace.
Other authors categorize soft skills as: 1) intrapersonal and interpersonal skills; 2) personal and social skills; and 3) cognitive skills (Muzio, Fisher, Thomas & Peters, 2007).
In respect to project management soft skills Bolton (1986), while outlining the skills and practices of successful managers, asserts: “The emphasis of the future has to be in the leadership and interpersonal skills that ensure sound project-management practices “.
3. Research Methodology
The methodological approach of this research was a qualitative one and we used the method of cases or intensive analysis. The option for a qualitative analysis puts in evidence some methodological and epistemological questions that matters to point out:
1. From the epistemological point of view, the qualitative analysis allows a better knowledge of the situation because of the proximity from the object studied and privileges direct and an interpretative approach;
2. From the methodological point of view, the qualitative analysis is comprehensive and inductive. Therefore, it allows the characterization of certain specificities from particular cases.
Regarding the specificities of this research the main technique used was content analysis from the Great Course forums. Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words or concepts within texts or sets of texts. In this case the important text to analyze was the reflections of the participants related to the activities and the development of the skills used in all phases of the game.
The process used in content analysis included the quantification and analysis of the presence, meanings and relationships of words and concepts. The final phase of the process is to make inferences about the messages within the texts and the posts of the trainees.
4. Analysis and Discussion
4.1. Project Great Developing Project Management Soft Skills
The project Great1 main goal was to equipping educational agents of methodologies and tools for the proper use of games in the learning process through the transfer of innovative methodologies previously developed by a Leonardo Da Vinci program - Engage Learning Project2
GREAT was a Life Long learning project also supported by Leonardo Da Vinci EU programme, Transfer of Innovation. The project aim was to transfer innovative methodologies in learning and training, to enable trainers and teachers and training provider’s representatives to improve their work performance, by enhancing their creativity and innovation through game-based learning.
Traditionally, educational and training systems promote an educational paradigm focused on the trainer as the center agent of the action, and less as a facilitator/mentor of knowledge and learning experience. In this sense, game based learning includes paradigm for the future of learning and takes importance on the E&T 2020 strategy, as part of informal and non-formal learning that promotes every dimension of these activities.
4.2. Objectives
The specific objectives of Great project are the following ones:
Document methodologies for developing and implementing game-based learning for training and higher education actors and for the learning community in general.
Production of needs analysis assessment instruments for developing and implementing game-based learning for training and higher education actors.
Production of learning content and training methodologies (b-learning) for trainers and teachers developing and implementing game-based learning.
Production of assessment instruments in accordance with the methodologies for developing and implementing game-based learning.
Offer targeted workshops/seminars for supporting trainers/practitioners/teachers/tutors in developing a predictive and proactive capacity to select games for their use.
Disseminate existing project outcomes, as well as for ongoing projects related to the application of games for learning and the valorization of these.
Documentation of findings and research results (reports, compendium, and proceedings)
4.3. The Course Structure
The main product of the project is a course that uses the GBL – Games Based Learning methodology. The course is structured in three modules, each one with several learning activities associated to the game selected in order to help developing the skills – leadership, team work and time management.
Table 1. Course Programme
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In this forum participants can socialize and share some doubts about the use of the platform. The main goal is that the other participants could ansewer. |
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The first quiz is a diagnosis about the GBL concept. |
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The MOD 1 integrates the activity plan and Videos about GBL and also several articles to be analysed by the participants. |
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Module 2 includes the Social SimCity Game Exploitation Pedagogical Guide. |
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MOD 2 - Social Simcity Game - Exploitation Pedagogical Guide |
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The activity of Mod 3 is playing the game according to the trainer orientation. |
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Module 3 encompasses the resources from the three skills: Leadership, Team Management and Time Management. |
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MOD3: Forum Time Management |
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MOD3: Forum Team Management |
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5. Trainees Skills Development
5.1. Context
The skills development occur in GBL context. The trainees learning process was based in a social and collaborative online game – SIMCITY Social on Facebook.
SimCity Social on Facebook is a more simplified version of the city-building simulation game series developed by Electronic Arts.
The social version on Facebook can be played in a collaborative way. With the Facebook app, it was possible to play with other players and watch the cities evolve in different ways based on the decisions made about where and what to build.
Players can visit one another's cities and use parts of them to help with tasks in their own cities. They can also build player alliances or declare rivalries with other cities - players can take positive or negative actions while visiting their friends' cities.
During Great Project Pilots each group of trainees included at least 15 participants/players and they had several challenges to overcome as a team. The main goal was to reach 5000 inhabitants in two weeks, with a time constraint - they only had one hour a day to play. It was important to define individual and also group strategies in order to share resources, energy and also to accomplish several activities helping each other’s.
The main idea was to create some kind of association of all that gaming process with the organisational process within a company and identify what kind of competencies they needed to use to overcome the obstacles and to be successful.
5.2. Trainees Soft Skills Development – Leadership
5.2.1. Leadership Types
The course main goals were to develop three competencies in project management. One of these competencies is leadership and in game context participants needed to assume a role as mayor of a virtual city.
Figure 1. SimCity Social: Types of Mayors
The first challenge of participants were to decide what kind of leader competencies was important to develop according to the role they would assume:
Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic leadership is an extreme form of transactional leadership, where leaders have complete power over their people. Staff and team members have little opportunity to make suggestions, even if these would be in the team's or the organization's best interest.
The benefit of autocratic leadership is that it's incredibly efficient. Decisions are made quickly, and work gets done.
The downside is that most people resent being treated this way. Therefore, autocratic leadership often leads to high levels of absenteeism and high staff turnover. However, the style can be effective for some routine and unskilled jobs: in these situations, the advantages of control may outweigh the disadvantages.
Autocratic leadership is often best used in crises, when decisions must be made quickly and without dissent. For instance, the military often uses an autocratic leadership style; top commanders are responsible for quickly making complex decisions, which allows troops to focus their attention and energy on performing their allotted tasks and missions.
Transactional Leadership
This leadership style usually involves the organization paying team members in return for their effort and compliance. The leader has a right to "punish" team members if their work doesn't meet an appropriate standard.
Although this might sound controlling and paternalistic, transactional leadership offers some benefits. For one, this leadership style clarifies everyone's roles and responsibilities. Another benefit is that, because transactional leadership judges team members on performance, people who are ambitious or who are motivated by external rewards – including compensation – often thrive.
The downside of this leadership style is that team members can do little to improve their job satisfaction. It can feel stifling, and it can lead to high staff turnover.
Transactional leadership is really a type of management, not a true leadership style, because the focus is on short-term tasks. It has serious limitations for knowledge-based or creative work. However, it can be effective in other situations.
Democratic/Participative Leadership
Democratic leaders make the final decisions, but they include team members in the decision-making process. They encourage creativity, and team members are often highly engaged in projects and decisions.
There are many benefits of democratic leadership. Team members tend to have high job satisfaction and are productive because they're more involved in decisions. This style also helps develop people's skills. Team members feel in control of their destiny, so they're motivated to work hard by more than just a financial reward.
Because participation takes time, this approach can slow decision-making, but the result is often good. The approach can be most suitable when working as a team is essential, and when quality is more important than efficiency or productivity.
The downside of democratic leadership is that it can often hinder situations where speed or efficiency is essential. For instance, during a crisis, a team can waste valuable time gathering people's input. Another downside is that some team members might not have the knowledge or expertise to provide high quality input.
Laissez-Faire Leadership
Leaders who allow their people to work on their own. This type of leadership can also occur naturally, when managers don't have sufficient control over their work and their people.
Laissez-faire leaders may give their team’s complete freedom to do their work and set their own deadlines. They provide team support with resources and advice, if needed, but otherwise don't get involved.
This leadership style can be effective if the leader monitors performance and gives feedback to team members regularly. It is most likely to be effective when individual team members are experienced, skilled, self-starters.
The main benefit of laissez-faire leadership is that giving team members so much autonomy can lead to high job satisfaction and increased productivity.
The downside is that it can be damaging if team members don't manage their time well or if they don't have the knowledge, skills, or motivation to do their work effectively.
Transformational Leadership
The transformation leadership is often the best leadership style to use in business situations.
Transformational leaders are inspiring because they expect the best from everyone on their team as well as themselves. This leads to high productivity and engagement from everyone in their team.
The downside of transformational leadership is that while the leader's enthusiasm is passed onto the team, he or she can need to be supported by "detail people."
In many organizations, both transactional and transformational leadership styles are useful. Transactional leaders (or managers) ensure that routine work is done reliably, while transformational leaders look after initiatives that add new value.
All of these leadership types are associated to specific skills that emerge according to the type of leader assumed in specific situations.
During the project development and implementation several kind of leaders has emerged from practice and also framed by theory. In the next point of this article we will present and discuss this kind of leaders associate to a set of competencies that were identified through the methodology approach used in this research.
5.2.2. Leadership Competencies
The main goal of this research was to identify the leader competencies:
Coach (coaching team members)
Facilitator (developing the skills of team members)
Change agent (promoting creativity, eliminate resistances)
Communicator (feeding back team and individual performance)
Motivator (motivating using a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards)
This competencies will be discussed below:
Facilitator
The leader, facilitator challenges the employees thinking and creates lists of important points to discuss and realize. He promotes knowledge sharing helping to solve problems and raises questions to bring out different viewpoints. Guides discussions, but does not lead it - provides constructive criticism.
He understands the goals of the organization and keeps the group on the agenda and moving forward, involving everyone in the organization activities.
Makes sure that decisions are made democratically.
Figure 2. Leader - Facilitator
The main competencies identified were:
Capacity of communication from management to meet goals.
Capacity to motivate employees and enhance productivity and efficiency through communication.
Results orientation.
Focus on the big picture and delegate smaller tasks to the team to accomplish goals.
Capacity to take advantage of the differences.
Capacity to anticipate and influences change.
Coacher
Coaching is a collaborative partnership centered on achieving goals and the primary objective of coaching is to develop the person being coached. It is a way of leading that supports guides and challenges to individuals maximize their potential and performance, through the following activities:
Identifying strengths and challenges;
Motivating and delegating;
Relationship/team building;
Providing feedback;
Resolving every day workplace challenges;
Helping employees become more self-aware;
Change problematic behaviours or seize opportunities to grow and improve.
Believe in workers abilities.
Willing to invest time in the workers development.
In exchange for the trust and investment, the coacher expect workers to try their hardest.
Figure 3. Leader - Coacher
The main competencies identified were:
Capacity to listen and observe,
Capacity to analyse workers profiles and to realize who are the employees that learns best and what are their strengths.
Capacity to delegate (always make clear what the parameters are when delegating (i.e. time, budget and other resources)).
Capacity to transform errors in learning opportunities.
Capacity to help the employees to learn how to solve problems themselves
Coaching can be applied to a wide variety of management situations (see table 2):
Change Agent
The Change Agent acknowledge the need to change and give immediately feedback in order to overcome employee’s resistances.
This leader understands the common pitfalls that can lead to derailment and is targeted for training and people development. He is a good mentor.
Figure 4. Leader – Change Agent
In order to be a change agent the leader must:
Create and foster a vision of a new future
Face up to behaviors, values and norms in current culture that must change
Initiate and lead the change
Create a willingness to separate from the past
Sell key stakeholders and build shared ownership through organization-wide participation
Communicate the changes and new cultural messages
Create a sense of urgency and excitement
Model the behavior that supports the new vision
Reward behavior which supports the new vision
Maintain focus on the goal
Sustain momentum
Bring in resources who uniquely add value to the change effort by modelling new ways to act, think and view things
The main competencies identified were:
Capacity to give feedback to employees as part of the organisational change.
Capacity to share power.
Capacity to acknowledge employee limitations and identify what they stand for.
Capacity to put the interested of the team ahead of personal ambition and self-interest.
Capacity to access both employee emotional and rational sides.
Capacity to project a positive, upbeat, and optimistic outlook.
Communicator
The communicator uses continual feedback to enable progress and refocus the efforts of all. He expresses the organisational culture in numerous ways, including:
The formal statements of philosophy, values and goals.
The criteria used for reward, selection, promotion, and termination.
The stories, legends and myths about key people and events.
Critical incidents and crises, norms and values.
Organisational design and structured (reporting).
Organisational systems and procedures.
Figure 5. Leader - Communicator
The main sources of feedback from the leader communicator include:
Interviews with coworkers
Performance appraisals
Employee attitude surveys
Management style assessment
Teambuilding sessions
One-on-ones with leader
Assessment centers
The main competencies identified were:
Presentation skills
Capacity for asking effective questions
Capacity to listening
Capacity for facilitation and problem solving
Capacity for conducting high impact conversations
Coaching and mentoring skills (one-on-one communication).
Motivator
Motivation is a goal-oriented characteristic that helps employees achieve his objectives.
Figure 6. Leader - Motivator
The leader motivates employees and helps people to find courage, knowledge, and skills to make the needed changes. He provides the following support:
Psychological Support—Help employee deal with their doubts and fears. Build employee’s confidence. Affirm their talents and determination to succeed. Remind employees of their previous successes.
Training Support—help people learn and acquire new knowledge and skills. Help people use and apply their new skills.
Reward and recognition—Provide frequent recognition and rewards for employee’s efforts and accomplishments.
Feedback Support—Give frequent feedback. Performance feedback reinforces desired behaviour and defines when new behaviour is needed.
The leader behavior can influence the employee’s motivation:
Harmonize and match the employee’s needs with the Organisational needs.
Appreciation and rewards are key motivators that influence employees to achieve a desired goal.
Being a role model is also a key motivator that influences employees in reaching their goals.
Encouraging employees to get involved in planning and important issues resolution procedure motivates them.
Developing moral and team spirit certainly has a key impact on the well-being of the organisation.
A meaningful and challenging job accomplished inculcates a sense of achievement among employees. The leader must make their employees feel they are performing an important work that is necessary for the organization’s well-being and success. This motivational aspect drives them to fulfil goals.
The main competencies identified were:
Capacity to build employee confidence.
Capacity to help employees to use and apply theirs skills.
Capacity to drives employees development.
Capacity to being supportive.
6. Conclusions
Project Great was a spillover from engage learning project with the goal to transfer innovative methodologies in learning and training, to enable trainers and teachers and training provider’s representatives to improve their work performance, by enhancing their creativity and innovation through game-based learning (GBL).
Using GBL methodology we tried to use games not serious thus seeks to find games available on the Internet and at no cost, but that accomplish the desired goals.
The selection of SimCity Social was, at the time, the best game for the project aims – develop soft skills competencies in project management.
The major question was “what kind of leader/mayor have you been to the citizens of your city (SimCity Social)?”
Others questions also emerged from the gaming process:
a) Think of a time when you, or another leader, used the authoritarian (autocratic) style of leadership.
b) Think of a time when you or another leader used the participative (democratic) style of leadership.
c) Think of a time when you or another leader used the delegative (Transformational) style of leadership.
The main findings of the research were the leader competencies identification:
Coach (coaching team members)
Facilitator (developing the skills of team members)
Change agent (promoting creativity, eliminate resistances)
Communicator (feeding back team and individual performance)
Motivator (motivating using a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards)
The competencies development was not only associated to leadership, but also a learning process with parallel acquisition of other skills - this is a very important element, because participants developed so many skills related to ICT that initially were not expected.
References
[1]Babić, V.; Slavković, M. (2011). Soft and Hard Skills Development: A Current Situation in Serbian Companies. Management, Knowledge and Learning, International Conference, Celje, Slovenia
[2]Bolton, R. (1986). People skills : : How to Assert Yourself, Listen to Others, and Resolve Conflicts, Prentice-Hall
[3]Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy, New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
[4]Gee, J. P. (2007). Good video games and good learning. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
[5]http://personalweb.about.com/od/facebookgames/fr/Simcitysocial-For-Facebook-Review.htm Accessed 22-01-2014 (2:45 pm)
[6]Kapp, K. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: game-based methods and strategies for training and education. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
[7]Kinkus, J. (2007) Project Management Skills: A Literature Review and Content Analysis of Librarian Position Announcements. College & Research Libraries 353-363
[8]Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1. On the horizon, 9(5), 1–6.
[9]Prensky, M. (2003). Digital game-based learning. Computers in Entertainment, 1(1), 21–21.
[10]Schaffer, D., Squire, K., Halverson, R., & Gee, J. (2005). Video Games and the Future of Learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 87(2), 105–111.
[11]Steinkuehler, C., & Duncan, S. (2008). Scientific habits of mind in virtual worlds. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 17, 530–543.
1(http://www.projectgreat.eu/project)
2(www.engagelearning.eu)
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