Decision games in the development of soft skills
What are decision games?
Marek Kalinowski PhD. from University of Gdańsk, Poland, states that a decision game is "an interactive, dynamic representation of reality, and its participants strive for achievement of parameterised goals". He also emphasises, that from games developed for entertainment, a decision-making game is distinguished primarily by the didactic aspect.
Decision games draw on the popular "gamification" of exploitation mechanisms known from role-playing or computer games to increase involvement of participants. They do this primarily by releasing emotions and the feeling of high satisfaction, epecially when the participants, as a result of the next steps, achieve the intended results.
Decision-making games are quite popular in training people who deal with the human element at work, people who saves lives, or who make sure the operational flow of the organisation is solid. Companies also use these tools to train dispatchers, whose fast decision-making is an essential part of their job.
Decision games in shaping social and personal competencies
Increasingly, decision games are being used in other contexts, for example where human lives are not at stake, health, or maintaining the operational flow of the company. As mentioned previously, Kalinowski, discussed the use of this tool in human resource management.
Another interesting example can be found on the FERI Platform. Decision Games published on the educational platform intend to focus on soft skills and help to develop social and personal competences of students in the industry of economy and administration.
One of the available applications allows individuals to learn how to work remotely effectively, maintain motivation to act, adjust working time and tasks to needs your own chronotype, and how and when to rest. Another prompts participants what they should do to be effective in the international work environment. It also addresses the issues of change and crisis management.
Other development tools
FERI Platform was created as part of the Polish-Irish-Cypriot project "Transversal
skills in a time of COVID" co-funded by the European Union. The consortium's leader is the Kraków-based Foundation for Education, Development and Innovation (FERI). The cooperation aims to strengthen personal and social competencies in vocational education in the economic and administrative sectors. Tools for achievement and development - decision games; podcasts; lesson plans for teachers and educators dealing with, for example, openness to change, creativity, communication, and working in a multicultural environment- were created and are free to download in three different languages.
Reports and guides for educators complement the whole of the project platform. Platform users will get detailed information about the state of personal and social competencies in the economic and administrative sectors in all countries the project partners represent. They will also discover what is needed in the context of employers' needs and what shortcomings they signal, especially about people starting work. Educators can reach for this guide, which systematises knowledge regarding remote learning and the catalogue of available tools. Our study also includes a roadmap for conducting thematic social and personal competencies activities.
We hope you will enjoy our educational platform and download our material.
