Research on Game based learning

Who is Thiagi

Dr. Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan is the Resident Mad Scientist at The Thiagi Group, an organization
with the mission of helping people improve their performance effectively and enjoyably.
Thiagi's long-term clients include AT&T, Arthur Andersen, Bank of Montreal, Cadence Design Systems,
Chevron, IBM, Intel, Intelsat, United Airlines, and Liberty Mutual. On a short-term basis, Thiagi has
worked with more than 50 different organizations in high-tech, financial services, and management
consulting areas. For these clients, Thiagi has consulted and conducted training in such areas as
rightsizing, diversity, creativity, teamwork, customer satisfaction, human performance technology, and
organizational learning.
Thiagi has published 40 books, 120 games and simulations, and more than 200 articles. He wrote the
definitive chapters on simulations and games for ISPI's Handbook of Human Performance
Technology, ASTD's Training & Development Handbook, and the American Management
Association's Human Resources Management and Development Handbook.
Thiagi currently writes a monthly online newsletter, Thiagi GameLetter. This newsletter, now in its fifth
year, features Thiagi's training games and other creative interventions that deliver results quickly and
effectively. He served as the editor of NSPI Journal and Performance & Improvement for more than 10
years. He currently edits the simulation/game section in Sage Publication's journal, Simulation &
Gaming. He is also a contributing editor of the monthly journal, Educational Technology.
Thiagi has made hundreds of presentations and keynote speeches at professional conferences. At ISPI,
Thiagi holds the "records" for making the most presentations, conducting the most preconference
workshops, and being invited to make the most Encore presentations. Thiagi is also a regular presenter
at Lakewood's TRAINING Conferences and the annual conferences of American Society for Training and
Development (ASTD) and North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA).
Thiagi has been the president of the North American Simulation and Gaming Associating (NASAGA),
International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), and Association for Special Education
WWW.Thiagi.com
Technology (ASET). He has received 17 different awards and Presidential Citations from ISPI, including
the society's highest award, Honorary Life Member. He also received an Honorary Life Member award
from NASAGA as well as its highest award, Ifill-Raynolds Award.
Internationally recognized as an expert in multinational collaboration and active learning in
organizations, Thiagi has lived in three different countries and has consulted in 21 others.
What he do
He designs leadership, soft-skills, and technical training for corporate clients. We work in instructor-led
and web-based environments.
He conducts training in classroom and online situations.
Major difference is the minimalistic use of power point and learning transfer through games and
activities.
Types of games and activities he uses

1. Textra games- It combine the effective organization of well-written documents with the
motivational impact of training games. Participants read a handout, booklet, reprint, or a
chapter in a book and play a game that uses peer pressure and peer support to encourage the
recall and transfer of what they read.
30 different designs for creating dynamic activities from existing documents e.g. Abstracts, best
summary, bingo, cross questions, crosswords etc

http://www.thiagi.com/textra-games.html

2. E-mail Games-are conducted through the internet. They may involve the play of electronic
versions of interactive training games or specially-designed activities that permit asynchronous
communication in which people receive and send messages at different times. Typical e-mail
games exploit the ability of internet to ignore geographic distances and involve participants
pooling their ideas and polling to select best ones.

http://www.thiagi.com/email.html

3. Training puzzles-challenge the participants ingenuity and incorporate training content that is to
be previewed, reviewed, tested, re-taught, or enriched. Puzzles can be solved by individuals or
by teams.

http://www.thiagi.com/puzzles.html

4. Jolts-It lull participants into behaving in a comfortable way and deliver a powerful wake-up call.
They force participants to re-examine their assumptions and revise their standard procedures.
Jolts typically last for a few minutes but provide enough insights for a lengthy debriefing

123 Clap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPBvhr3dxTc

NEWTON: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_0MKTL3lYs



5. Card Games- Involve pieces of information (such as facts, concepts, technical terms, definitions,
principles, examples, quotations, and questions) printed on cards. These games borrow
procedures from traditional playing card games and require players to classify and sequence
pieces of information from the instructional content.

6. Debriefing games- is an instructional process which is used after a game, simulation,
roleplay, or some other experiential activity for helping participants reflect on their earlier
experiences to drive meaningful insights. Debriefing can be used with any experientially rich,
emotionally intense, cognitively complex learning activity
A model for debriefing
Procedural model for debriefing is summarized by seven phases of questions to be used in a
flexible chronological sequence. These seven phases are briefly described below:
I. How do you feel? These questions provide an emotional outlet. The questions and
discussions in this phase make it easier to more objectively analyze participants'
experiences during the later phases.
II. What happened? These questions serve a basic data-collection function. During this
phase, participants recall their experiences from the base activity and discover similarities,
differences, and patterns.
III. Do you agree? These questions facilitate hypothesis generation and reality testing. They
suggest cause-effect relations and explore their generalizability. They encourage
participants to support or reject the hypotheses on the basis of the data from the base
activity.
IV. Deja vu? These questions examine the real-world relevance of data from the base
activity. They encourage participants to discuss analogues from everyday experiences in
the workplace. They also reinforce future applications of present insights.
V. What would you do differently? These questions bring out the second thoughts among
participants. They basically take the form of If you were to go through the same
experience again, how would you behave differentlyknowing what you know now?
VI. What if? These questions encourage participants to extrapolate their insights to new
contexts. They require the players to speculate on the impact of changes in the context.
VII. Can you improve this activity? These questions invite participants to suggest
modifications to the experiential activity. They brainstorm ideas to improve the
instructional and motivational impact of the activity.




Sample Activity- Roleplay
ANGRY CUSTOMERS
Training Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) to handle angry and abusive customers is a tough challenge. Effective
communication with an angry customer requires a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. As a part of our training
session, we use this rapid roleplay activity.
Objectives
Conduct an effective conversation with an angry customer.
Time
40 minutes.
Flow
Brief the participants. Explain that all participants will alternate between team discussions and one-on-one roleplays to
increase their ability to conduct an effective conversation with an angry customer.
Form groups. Divide participants into two equal groups and identify them as Group A and Group B. If one group has an extra
person, make her an observer or you join the other group so both groups have equal number of participants. Place different
colored dots on the nametags (or foreheads) of members of each group to make it easy to identify the group to which each
participant belongs.
Get ready. Ask members of the two groups to move to opposite sides of the room. Ask members of Group A to take on the role
of a frustrated customer and brainstorm a set of provocative statements, questions, and demands. Give examples such as
these:
This is the fifth time I am trying to get someone to fix my problem.
Your salesman cheated me. He did not tell me that I have to buy a monitor separately.
I don't like your attitude. Can I talk to your supervisor? I am not leaving until I talk to someone who cares.
At the same time, ask members of Group B to take on the role of CSRs and brainstorm effective statements for defusing an
angry customer and empathic reactions to provocative statements.
It's clear that you are frustrated. Let's try to reduce your frustration by solving your problem.
You are right. It's our fault and let's get it straightened up.
Sir, I am sorry you feel that way. If you insist, I am can set up an appointment for you to talk to my supervisor tomorrow. We can
save your time by fixing your problem right now.
Announce a 3-minute time limit.
Conduct the first rapid roleplay. After 3 minutes, blow the whistle. Explain that you are going to conduct a series of one-on-one
conversations between an angry customer and a CSR. Ask each participant to pair up with a member of the other group. Explain
that the person from Group A will initiate an angry conversation by asking a question, making a provocative comment, or
demanding an outrageous concession. The person from Group B will respond to it in a calm and empathic fashion to defuse the
hostility. The two people will continue their conversation.
Also explain that once every minute you will blow the whistle. Participants must stop the conversation immediately (even if it is
in the middle of something) and pair up with a different member of the other group. Instruct them to begin another angry
conversation with this new person.
Blow the whistle to start the first conversation. Blow the whistle once every minute or so. Conclude the activity at the end of
about 5 minutes.
Getting ready for role changes. Explain that participants are going to switch their roles and conduct more rapid roleplays.
Before doing that, invite everyone to get ready for their changed roles by reflecting on what they experienced during the first
round.
Ask members of Group A to think back on what happened during the earlier one-on-one conversations. What did the CSR do to
listen empathically, focus on solving the problem, and reduce the level of hostility? What best practices can you borrow from
your interactions when you are playing the role of the CSR?
Ask members of Group B to think back on the provocative statements and sarcastic questions used by the angry customers.
When you play the role of an angry customer during the next round, what kinds of hostile statements and questions can you
come up with?
Invite participants to work with members of their group to get ready for the next round of rapid roleplay. Announce a 3-minute
time limit for this preparation activity.
Conduct the second rapid roleplay. Explain that you are going to conduct another series of rapid roleplays as before with the
same rules but with different roles: Members of the Group B will pair up with members of Group A. Group B members will
initiate the angry conversation. Group A members will respond to it in a calm, reassuring, and business-like fashion. Whenever
you blow the whistle, participants will stop the conversation and pair up with a different member of the other team.
Blow the whistle to start the first conversation. Blow the whistle once every minute or so to change partners. Conclude the
activity at the end of 5 minutes.
Conduct a debriefing discussion. Thank everyone for their enthusiastic participation. Invite the participants to discuss what
they learned from the two rapid roleplay sessions. Ask them to forget all about making provocative, angry, and sarcastic
comments. Instead, focus on the techniques for disarming angry customers.

Get the discussion rolling with these types of open-ended questions:
What are some of the techniques and statements that worked effectively for defusing and calming down an angry customer?
Let's focus on different types of statements used with angry customers.
1. Empathic statements demonstrate your understanding and sympathy. Can you give some examples of empathic
statements?
How do empathic statements help you in dealing with an angry customer? When will you use this type of statement?
2. Apologetic statements involve regretting personal inconveniencewithout accepting unrealistic responsibility for the
situation. Can you give some examples of apologetic statements?
How do apologetic statements help you in dealing with an angry customer? When will you use this type of statement?
3. Reassuring statements promise specific action on your part. Can you give some examples of reassuring statements?
How do reassuring statements help you in dealing with an angry customer? When will you use this type of statement?
4. Limit-setting statements prevent the angry customer from abusing you and making unreasonable demands. Can you
give some examples of limit-setting statements?
How do limit-setting statements help you in dealing with an angry customer? When will you use this type of statement?
What are some common elements among different types of statements?
When you listened to angry statements from the customer, how did you react to them? How would you have reacted if this
were a real-world situation?
Did you observe the behaviors of the angry customeror did you absorb them? Did you take the customer's rude behavior
personally? How would you have felt about these types of customer behaviors in a real-world situation?
What one piece of advice would you give to an inexperienced CSR who is worried about her ability to handle an angry
customer?