endnotes


Chalkface Team work


If your boss is planning some spring team building activity and you’re less than keen you may want to suggest the business fashion for such events is on the wane. At least according to Kate Mercer, co-founder of Leaders Lab and author of A Buzz in the Building which was published in March. She says that many people have come to equate ‘team building’ with doing creative or sporty activities. However, according to Mercer they do very little to build a team for four reasons. Wandering around Dartmoor (assuming you are not a park ranger) has little to do with work back in the office. Drawing parallels between falling into a stream and the printer packing up are hard to conjure up, even for a skilled facilitator. It does not take much to work out many of us aren’t fit, confident or sociable enough to build Lego in a group or bang


the bongos. So why make us? Team building could be actually associated with the work you do. You don’t have to be patronised by someone trying to make it fun. Finally, says Mercer, never confuse team building with leisure, social or entertainment – which all have their place at work. Chalkface has a simple golden rule: if someone wants the team to zip wire first it should be tested out as an online game and discussed at length in the pub.


Perking up If bosses can’t win over all employees through the right type of team building, they might have fared better by offering the right sort of employee incentives. But it seems British employers have a lot more to do with recent research suggesting that over 60% of UK workers don’t believe they receive enough perks. It seems comparisons are made with


‘extreme employee incentive’ (not an over familiar term) offered by tech darlings such as Google and Netflix which go above and beyond ordinary perks. The company that commissioned the research said that while free lunches and yoga are fine, employers are missing the simple step of actually asking staff what would make them happy. According to the Direct365 survey, the top request – named by 35% of respondents – said that they were really waiting to be offered flexible working, either by time or by location. It was somehow reassuring to read that the next most popular would be perk was a company car – with 27% opting for wheels paid for by the business. It certainly outstripped the 14% who said they wanted gym membership. It seems there is a pattern emerging in what employees really want…perhaps some team building would help shift attitudes.


Special report The Future of Game-Based Learning Learning through games offers considerable benefits when compared to other forms of learning


All those involved in the e-learning sector should be asking themselves questions about games-based learning. These include : n Is interest in games just another fashionable hot topic for the learning Twitterati, or is there a real trend that is going to significantly impact?


n If demand for games-based learning is there, what are the implications for suppliers?


n In the future could the LMS migrate on to your Xbox or PS4, or is the concept of educational games consoles beginning to happen already? These and other questions are scrutinised, endorsed or debunked in a Unicorn and Amuzo White Paper ‘The Future of Game-based Learning’. In 2015 Unicorn with Amuzo commissioned Bournemouth University to conduct a Serious Games Market Assessment. This sparked the White Paper published in association with e. learning age and launched at Learning Technologies 2016. ‘The Future of Game-based Learning’ explores the trend of games and gamification in learning, including their purpose, behavioural outcomes and benefits. It examines current trends and forecasts, plus looks


e.learning age april 2016


at the technologies and tools which are acting as enablers. It examines who and why games in learning can most benefit and looks at designing serious games and maximizing engagement. Serious games work as a powerful teaching tool because they encourage the persistence required for effective learning. But corporate learning is not primarily about entertainment so a fine balance is needed to introduce a spirit of fun without it becoming a distraction.


Learning games don’t have to be fully immersive


3D extravaganzas with the production standards of Call of Duty. There is a fertile middle ground, where the best principles of engagement from the world of gaming can be applied without busting budgets. Peter Phillips, Unicorn CEO, said: “This report delivered an insight into the real-life, on-the-ground challenges and opportunities the e-learning industry faces in combining fun with learning substance, which planted the seeds for this White Paper. “Games and gamification have been the hottest topics in the industry for the past couple of years, but we wanted to better understand if this was likely


to be a fad, soon to go the way of ‘The LMS is dead’ or Google Glass, or if there was something real and commercially viable behind this trend, that is going to make this one stick.”


By 2018 over half the UK’s working population is set to be part of ‘Generation Y’- born between 1980 and the early ‘90s. The White Paper assesses how and why games could revolutionize workplace learning for ‘Gen Y’, before concluding with how the e-learning industry can capitalize on the opportunities game-based learning presents, without massive budgets. Mike Hawkyard, Amuzo managing director, said: “There is an evident element of ‘fear of the unknown’ surrounding the subject of learning through games and gamification. However, there are over 12 million reasons why mobile learning games are the solution to building upon and enhancing the effectiveness, productivity and confidence of your workforce. Those 12 million reasons are Gen Y.”


To read the report see http:// tinyurl.com/z4bgz28


33


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38