serious games for human capital management
DESCRIPTION
Advancements in human capital management (HCM) often come about through the incorporation of approaches and technologies from outside the HCM field. Those looking for the next source of big ideas to shape HCM strategies need to keep an eye on the field known as "serious games." An increasing number of enterprises are using games for HCM purposes such as employee recruiting and selection, training, and team building.TRANSCRIPT
Serious Games for Human Capital Management
Panelists:Randy Brown, Chief Technology Officer for Virtual
Heroes.Steve Mahaley, Director of Learning Technology at
Duke Corporate EducationKaren Sopko, President and CEO of Creative
Bandwidth Games
AgendaIntroduction
What’s a game? What is a serious game?Why games? Where do serious games fit within human capital management?Examples of serious gamesWhere to start? What types of games/immersive activities for what type of requirements?Outlook for serious gamingIntegrating games
Discussion
What’s a game?“An artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome." Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, Game Design Fundamentals
“A structured experience with rules and goals that is fun.”Amy Jo Kim
Serious games have an “explicit and carefully thought-out educational purpose and are not intended to be played primarily for amusement,” Clark Abt
Serious games use “entertainment to further government or corporate training, education, health, public policy, and strategic communication objectives,” Mike Zyda
HCM Functional Stack
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Data Sources: ERP / HRMS / External DataBus
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tReporting / Analytics / Bus. Intelligence
Competency Management
UI / Portal / Networking / Collaboration
Integration Services
Why games?Games are a way to train people to handle consequential and high-stakes situations safelyGames provide a powerful way to promote retention and transfer of knowledge and skills
Neurological studies show there is a physiological basis linking the encoding in memory of knowledge and experience and “game play experience”Psychology tells us that games reinforce behavior by providing the right “reward schedules” and by adjusting challenges with player’s changing masteryThe benefits of active learning (learning by doing) are well known: “I hear, I know. I see, I remember. I do, I understand,” Confucius.
Where does gaming fit in?Pre-hire assessmentGiving applicants and prospective employees insight into culture and work environment (“employer branding”)Learning/Training/Career DevelopmentSuccession PlanningTeam-Building / Strategy DevelopmentPerformance ManagementCompetency Model Alignment
New tools for assessmentCan serious games be a reliable/valid means of assessment? Yes. A surprisingly long history of this use.
“Psychometrics”:A means of evaluating the reliability and validity of assessments conceptually and mathematically
Important in development of conventional HCM assessments
The same or improved use of psychometrics in design/validation of games and simulations:
Conventional assessments: Subjects self-report behaviors and motivations or reveal them indirectly in their answers to carefully designed questionnaires
Games/Simulations: Subjects demonstrate behaviors and motivations directly and freely
Serious Game ExamplesHilton Garden Inn® Sony PSP®-based training for front-line employees.“Zero Hour” developed by GWU and Virtual Heroes under a U.S. DHS grant trains EMS workers in disaster-response skills.Cisco's "Mind Share Game" covers most of the curriculum for Cisco CCENT (Certified Entry Networking Technician) certification.WakeMed in NC and many other hospitals use of sophisticated anthropomorphic simulation equipment for medical training.Farmer’s Insurance using IBM’s Innov8 2.0 to train 11,500 employees on customer service/call center operations.Many, many more…
When to consider serious games?What types of games match which
requirements? How to get started?
1. Core curriculum -learning outcomes and content topics
2. Apply decision filter for GBL method usage
3. Apply second (design) filter to understand format and integration aspects
Filter 1Nature of the problemNature of the problem
Filter 2Key design questionsKey design questions
When to consider gaming – decision filters
TOPICSTOPICS
- Curriculum areas where practice in context is required OR
- Problem-based learning in scenarios that elicit common errors OR
- Team challenges – difficult or expensive to replicate in real life - that draw out desired behaviors AND
- Sufficient population; 1000’s annually.
- Single-player or multiplayer?
- Synchronous or asynchronous?
- Archetype? (metaphoric vs. simulation; Alternate Reality Game vs. computer-only; narrative vs. open)
- Technical and programmatic integration
© Duke CE 2009>11
© Duke CE 2007>12
Scenarios are listed. Brief descriptions are provided. Instructor selects scenario.
Players log in to the session. Instructor assigns roles. Role descriptions are provided. Text and voice enabled.
Players can be anywhere on the client network. Voice and/or text used for communication.
An example: Multiplayer gaming for new hires.
The issue: Time-to-proficiency in role was taking too long.
The solution: Provide a live, online scenario based on a real business situation.
>13
Observers (non-visible players) mark events, and link comments to performance metrics.
Instructors cast votes for all observers –votes on individual and team performance based on corporate, role-specific competencies.
Instructors lead debriefing, rewinding the recorded performance, highlighting marked events, drawing from observer commentary, and reviewing individual and team scores.
The design: Multiple roles, repeatable experience, with unexpected events triggered at will by instructors.
Integration: Programmatic (part of a learning sequence) as well as technical (on client systems) .
© Duke CE 2009
OutlookGovernment and entertainment-sector investments trickle down to advance the state of the art in serious games.Last year’s entertainment best seller, becomes next year’s serious game platform through licensing.
Game engine. A platform and tools supporting efficient games creation – authoring tools minimize code development, feature reusable design elements.“Mod.” An extension to core game functionality made by third-party developers.
While serious games are not new, many observers describe them at an “inflection point” where their use will accelerate. Why? What are the economic and technological forces that will shape this space over the next 5 years?
LMS Integration
Integration Today
Learning/PerformanceManagement
System
RuntimeServices
Browser-BasedSelf-PacedLearningSharableContentObject
Basically has been used to:• Monitor learner progress (where in a course at what time?)• Communicate basic score information
Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)“Run-Time Environment” (RTE)
RTE communication often handled on the basisof standardized ECMAScript API. For example:
Emerging Integration RequirementsBrowser-Based
Self-PacedLearning
MobileDeviceClients
Computer/Console
Serious Games
MultiplayerGames/
Virtual Worlds
Learning/PerformanceManagement
System
RuntimeServices
Combinationsof the above
delivery/learning modes
• Learning, Education, Training Systems Interoperability (LETSI.org)• LETSI has begun “communitysource” project to develop/maintain web service server andclient components.• Available under business-friendly “BSD”license.• Code contributions by BBN Technologies, Booz Allen Hamilton, Rustici Software (scorm.com), etc.• Become a contributor or financial sponsor. Visit www.letsi.org.
DiscussionDiscuss the aforementioned and other examples of serious games fulfilling HCM functions (corporate recruiting, assessment, learning, etc.).Are serious games best for topics requiring “3-D reasoning”? What are examples of serious games for “soft-skill” development? Where do you start? A serious game is obviously a multi-disciplinary endeavor. Who does a company need to involve in the creation of a game and how are teams managed?
ResourcesPanelist Web sites:
http://www.virtualheroes.com/http://www.dukece.com/http://www.cbandgames.com/
Many conferences! Next up:Learning and Entertainment Evolution Forum: http://www.leef2009.net/
Integration w/ Gameshttps://letsi.orghttps://letsi.org/rte
