At a recent lunch event I was speaking with some of the
other attendees about this and that when my ears perked up at a conversation
happening at another table. I zoned in on one person’s moaning about some
training they were about to take. I thought to myself, in a tough economy it is
nice that people are getting training. But the complaining continued “Taking a
week off of work to attend training is going to be painful. In all likelihood I
will forget what I learned, and still have to catch up on Monday.”
I wasn’t really sure what training they were taking but I
asked what the format of the training looked like.
“It is 3 days of lecture with an exam at the end, oh, and
a day for a simulation.” They said as they rolled their eyes. “Like I have time
to play games.”
As they mentioned the simulation I started to think back
many years ago when I was an adolescent playing dungeons and dragons in various
basements in my community. Despite my parents concern of the game I loved to
play. Even years later I clearly remember how the rules worked, interactions
between character types and what activities were going to get my character more
gold pieces and keep them from harms path.
Simulations as they pertain to training are similar in many
ways. In my opinion they can enhance knowledge that can be shared in a few days
as well as promote learning. Think about the amount of content that you are
expecting students to absorb in the timeframe of a few days and then expecting
them to regurgitate that data to pass an exam at the end. For me, the student’s
ability to learn can only happen if
they truly understand the knowledge that
is shared over the 3 or 4 days.
I see simulations or role-playing as an opportunity for
the students to understand not only the information reviewed in the course but
also the behaviour that accompanies that information as it pertains to the
bigger picture of integrating this knowledge back into a working (day to day) environment.
You have likely heard that students
recall only 10% of what they read and 20% of what they hear; they remember 90%
of their actions and statements combined. Think about it in these terms:
Active learning not only increases comprehension, but also enhances problem solving skills as it relates to the subject.
This may be a welcomed change to increase interest in the subject after days of reviewing content (which depending on the instructor could seem long).
- It allows participant to see, if even only in a limited way, that there are other perspectives and viewpoints within the context of real world application of the subject being simulated.
Remember that even though this may just be a game there
is contextual information embedded within the game itself to further promote
the subject being taught.
After my dungeon master flashback I made sure to relay
this information to the person at the event. They agreed that they had never
really thought of simulation on that level, and began to look forward to that
part of the training.
So go ahead, roll your icosahedron dice and slay the
business dragons – enjoy your simulations and all that they help you to learn.
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Labels: ITIL, ITSM, Learning, Service Management, Simulations, Training
