Changing to learn

As a coach I encourage my clients to try and look at things from a number of different perceptual positions and notice what difference that makes to their understanding. With that in mind it seems useful to apply the same discipline to my research; I started from a perspective of e-Learning and I’m now looking at it from the perspective of change. Why? Because change is what coaching is all about. If a client doesn’t want to change in some way there is little point in them being coached. Over the next few days I’m going to considering a number of different views on change. In particlular I’ll be looking at Prochaska and DiClemente’s Stages of Change model, Boyatzis’s Intentional Change Theory, and Gardner’s Changing Minds Theory.Prochaska and DiClemente, researching the success of various therapeutic interventions identified five stages, and found that each stage needed different therapeutic approaches. While coaching is not about therapy it is about change and so the stages of change model is likely to be relevant.At the pre-contemplation stage, the client is not yet aware that change is needed. In coaching terms I would say that the client may be aware that some sort of change is necessary but not what that change might be. So, they may want to become better leaders, without knowing what changes they would need to make to achieve that aim.At the contemplation stage they have yet to make a commitment to a specific change. I would expect this to be the situation when the client is considering being coached, or possibly even during the initial part of the first coaching session, when coach and client are designing the coaching alliance; in other words, agreeing on the sort of working relationship they want to have.The preparation stage involves identifying the problem and planning how a solution will be reached. This in essence is what most of the coaching session is about; identifying where the client wants to be and how they will get there.The action stage takes place mostly outside the coaching sessions, because that is where the client is practicing the new behaviours that will lead to their goals. The coach will usually provide some support during this period. Often just checking progress will be sufficient.Finally, the maintenance stage will make sure that the new skills are kept up to date and in practice.My research is concerned with managers learning coaching skills, and the simulation program or game software being tested is focused on the action stage. The managers will be practicing the necessary skills and these involve listening, questioning, and familiarity with the coaching process or model being used.An inevitable question concerns motivation. Many of the therapeutic processes used, during progress through the five stages, are concerned with motivation for change. In the coaching process the coach helps the client identify why they want to change and what additional motivation, if any, they will need. However, the managers who will be using my game or simulation are in a self-directed learning environment where they will have chosen to learn coaching skills because they want to. As research has shown, adults learn what they want to learn. So it will not be motivation as such, but ensuring that the programs will not turn them off! Will the games provide them with fun during their learning, or will the challenge of the simulation be enough on its own to keep them practicing. That is the nub of my research question.

Conferencing

When it was suggested that I look for suitable conferences to attend or even, perish the thought, present at, they seemed a bit like buses. none around when you want them and then suddenly three all at once. Well, not quite. It’s probably that as I started looking I became more aware of them.

The first that came into view was the European Mentoring & Coaching Council 15th annual conference in Prague form the 4th to the 6th of December. As an executive coach the EMCC is my professional body. Their call for speakers was addressed to coaches, those who train coaches, and those who employ coaches. Not only am I a coach but I also train managers in coaching skills, and indeed, that is the focus of my research: how to help managers learn coaching skills effectively through some form of e-Learning. By December I will have developed both a simulation and a game but probably won’t have any reliable results by that stage. But I could give a progress report and get views from the coaching world that might be quite different from those of the Human Computer Interface world that I’m mixing with just now. it sounds like a good case of BOGOF – buy one get one free. I keep my coaching credentials while acquiring another perspective on e-Learning. So, I’m seriously considering Prague, and must put a proposal forward by the 6th of March.

Last week my supervisor emailed details of the Narrative in Interactive Learning Environments 2008 conference that will take place in Edinburgh from the 5-8 August. Papers for this one need to be in the conference organiser’s hands by the 3rd of March. I use storytelling in much of my management development work, and the simulated coaching sessions are narratives so this seems like a worthwhile event to attend. But the 3rd March deadline for papers isn’t very far away!

And then, when I though that was it, Gareth kindly sent me details of the 2nd European Conference on Games Based Learning, in Barcelona, from the 16-17 October. The title couldn’t be more appropriate for my purpose, and I’m very fond of Spain. But it’s potentially very difficult to get papers accepted – there’s lots of competition for the limited time available – and so it might be more appropriate to aim to present in 2009, when I should have some results to talk about. But definiely one to attend. A poster perhaps, if they go in for posters?

This year them it looks like two that I’ll seek to present at, Prague and Edinburgh. Watch this space!

What is a game?

Games, simulations, simulation games, serious games; all terms that are used with varying degrees of understanding and precision to describe activities in eLearning. So it seems essential that I get to grips with them. I started with the intention of finding an answer to the question – What is the essence that makes a game distinct from a simulation?I chose five authors or research teams on the basis that each has surveyed a range of other papers and came up with a list of up to six characteristics:

Competitive, interactive, bound by rules, specified goals, depend on skill and often involve chance, imaginary settings (Randel et al(1992)              

 Rules, goals and objectives, outcomes and feedback, challenge/conflict, interaction, story or representation (Prensky 2001)

 Imaginary worlds, rules and goals, sensory stimuli, challenge, mystery, and control (Garris et al 2002)

 Defined by the author or assumed by the reader to be a game, has goals, interactive, is rewarding i.e. Has feedback (Vogel et al 2006)

 Players take on roles or make decisions, obstacles to progress, rules, predetermined goal(s) and artifical nature (Sauve et al 2007)

One thing that most of these characteristics have in common is that they could also be defining life at work. Take Sauve’s criteria for example; a majority of people at work nowadays are given role descriptions by the HR Department rather than job descriptions, work follows rules and involves overcoming numerous obstacles to achieve the objectives of the organisation or department, and one might even suggest that people recognise the artificial nature of work when they talk of their ‘work/life balance’.Perhaps the characteristic that is most ‘game’like’ relates to the imaginary world within which the game is played. And perhaps the other aspect, hinted at in ‘defined by the author’, is the purpose of the activity. If its main purpose is to have fun then perhaps it is a game; if its main purpose is learning, or competing in the market place, then even if fun is involved, it is not a game. By contrast, their definitions of simulation seemed somewhat simplistic. They were generally regarded as systems, representing the real world, with inputs related to outputs but without necessarily having goals. It was interesting to notice that the lists of features that supposedly define simulations have virtually none of the features listed for games. Yet characteristics such as the existence of rules and goals, interactivity, challenges in one form or another, and feedback on outcomes, are all essential aspects of effective simulations. Even a ‘story’ is usually present as part of the context-setting, whether it is an airline flight deck crew flying their simulator to Hong Kong, or a group of managers tackling the ‘beer game’.Clark Aldrich (2005) simplifies the situation by linking simulation and gaming with pedagogy, stating that in an educational experience there are elements of all three, in different proportions depending on the situation.Perhaps the real question concerns why we are interested in games and simulations. At a time when many teachers find it hard to interest their students, they look enviously at games that seem to engage their students with total involvement, often for long periods of time. And they wonder if they could transfer the magic ingredient to the learning situation and see their charges engrossed in their school or college subjects with the same commitment they show to their games.Is the real question – what motivates people to learn?  That is the subject of another blog.   References Aldrich, Clark (2005) Learning by Doing, John Wiley (Pfeiffer) San Francisco, CA Garris R, Ahlers R, and Driskel JE (2002) Games, Motivation, and Learning: A Research and Practice Model Simulation & Gaming 33(4) 441-467Prensky M (2005) Digital Game Based Learning, McGraw-Hill Randel JM, Morris BA, Wetzel CD, and Whitehill BV (1992) The Effectiveness of Games for Educational Purposes: A Review of Recent Research Simulation & Gaming 23(3) 261-276Sauve L, Renaud L, Kaufman D, Marquis J S,(2007) Distinguishing between games and simulations: A Systematic review. Educational Technology & Society, 10(3), 247-256Vogel JJ, Vogel DS, Cannon-Bowers J, bowers CA, Muse K, Wright M (2006) Computer Gaming and Interactive Simulations for learning: A Meta-analysis. J Educational Computing Research 34(3) 229-243 

New Directions

Why would someone start a DPhil at the time that most other people are retiring? I’m still reflecting on exactly why I felt that the time was right, and no doubt all will be revealed at some stage during the history of this site. So what am I doing?

Stimulated by a course in e-Learning design and particularly the course tutor, I seriously considered taking some time out from a very satisfying career as an executive coach and management development consultant to do some research. I was doing some work with a progressive organisation that was encouraging self-directed learning and was looking for new ways to support their staff. Naturally, considering what I had spent so much of my professional life doing, I was interested to see how well e-Learning could cope with what are commonly called the soft skills, (despite the fact that they are actiually quite difficult for many people), skills such as assertiveness, dealing with conflict, negotiating, skills that we might also describe as interpersonal skills. In addition to coaching managers at all levels, I also ran workshops for managers to learn how to use a coaching style of management, so it seemed an appropriate subject to tackle.

Workshops in coaching skills have a number of problem areas, especially in finding enough time to practice – because practice makes perfect, or more realistically, practice provides the manager with enough confidence to try his or her new skills in the workplace and not just in the workshop. The other major problem is role playing. Most people going on courses dislike role plays intensely, and yet it’s usually necessary as a means of realistic practice. You can only really learn to coach by coaching. So on two counts it seemed to me that coaching skills is an area that would benefit from an e-Learning package.

I have a number of questions that I’m interested in but the core one concerns effectiveness. What is the most effective way to help someone learn coaching skills using some form of e-Learning. Flavour of the month in e-Learning are approaches based on games. Why? Because games seem to have the ability to keep their players fully engaged, something that we want for learners. So, I’m going to compare an approach using a game with one using a simulation. I’m still considering what aspects of a game should be included or are relevant and you’ll learn about my thinking in a later blog on this site.

Considering that my first sally into this area will be in a company promoting self-directed learning, I am also very interested to see what level of support will be necessary. After all, one of the concepts behind self-directed learning is just-in-time learning. Fine, the learner can pick the DVD off the shelf and start working on it, but will they need external support or can it be built into the package? How about concepts such as collaborative learning?

How far have I got? Well, I started this programme in October 2007, and I’m about to produce my prototype simulation. Oh, and I’m also just starting a brief course in advanced technical communication. Watch this space.