The Serious Game Superwisor has won Re-Imagine Education Bronze Awards for the MBA & Executive Education Category
When we decided to create the serious game Superwisor, our goal was to improve the doctoral supervision practice. It was, at the beginning, specifically for the Grenoble Ecole de Management Doctoral Programs. To develop the online serious game, we launched a co-design process to gather the different stakeholders (students, supervisors, program directors, and administrative staff). Step by step, the project grew, integrating new stakeholders and, new points of view. And in December 2017, Superwisor won the bronze award at the prestigious Re-Imagine Education conference!
A first prototype was developed thanks to the participation of students in the Master of Science in International Human Resource Management. Then, for three months, a team of game designers and a game artist at the GEM Playground worked on developing the project.
We interviewed supervisees to collect their feedback and stories about the doctoral guidance. We also talked to supervisors to identify their representations of “good supervision.” In total, 83 interviews of supervisors and supervisees were completed. We focused on three key moments in the supervisee-supervisor relationship: the first meeting, the extended research proposal, and the publishing process. Then, based on these three moments, we split the game into three scenarios in which supervisors are prompted to make decisions through their dialogue with the student. The frameworks and resources are based on research about supervision conducted by the Grenoble Ecole de Management Doctoral School.
Superwisor deals with the supervision process and highlights best practices. The main goal of the game is to improve the supervisor-supervisee relationship, to lead students to succeed in the program by writing good theses and publishing them in top-tier journals. At the end of the game, we assess their performances and suggest best practices as well as resources for continued improvement. Our goal is to train 50% of GEM supervisors in year 1, 65% in year 2, and 80% in year 3 and to award a certificate upon completion. The game and the certification will be available for other international organizations in 2018.
