Every year, the students in MSc International Human Resource Management at a Digital Age take part in a course module in Serious Games. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the module was adapted to face current challenges.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, students, as well as telecommuters, have had to adapt to everything going online. To make online interaction more engaging and efficient, the MSc IHRM students at Grenoble Ecole de Management, with the help of Hélène Michel, Professor in Innovation and Game Design, took on the challenge to gamify online interactions. The idea was to create low tech, low-cost games that could easily be replicated in any company or organisation.
On Wednesday 29th of April, the students had the chance to demonstrate the games for a group of professionals at a Playtest.
The participants had the chance to try four different games:
- "What is your background?": A game to help people to get to know each other and finding common ground by sharing a personal interest as their background image.
- "Monotony": A meeting space on Gather that gives a new touch to traditional online meetings and makes them more efficient and interactive.
- "Quest for comms": An online roleplay on Mural, to practice collaboration skills and team work.
- "Tutti Frutti": A game that is to launch and helps participants stay active and attentive during classes and online meetings.
Sabine Lauria, MSc International Human Resource Management in a Digital Age Program Director on serious games: "We train students on serious games for many reasons, as future HR they will have to train employees or manage training sessions. It is important to know that serious games exist and are a relevant tool to acquire new skills. Moreover, thanks to this program module, they learn about the different processes of learning and how skills can be developed and evaluated."
Mia Mckie, IHRM student and co-host of the seminar says:"Professor Michel is passionate about Serious Games creation. This was an exciting opportunity to see how practical the game mechanisms can be. In addition, we were granted a Game Master Certification by Grenoble Ecole de Management.
We had 20 managers from various industries and specializations join in the PlayTest. To meet and exchange with them was a great pleasure, especially whilst hearing the feedback about our game mechanisms. The opportunity to learn more about serious games influenced me, and I even shared this during my job interviews. This was the project that impacted me the most this year as I was able to link theory to practice and expound upon my experience!"
To learn more about how Serious Games are used in pedagogy at Grenoble Ecole de Management.
