Higher Education

Tackling diversity dilemmas through play

Letting academic staff practice handling complex diversity- and discrimination-related issues with interactive dilemma scenarios

Client

Copenhagen University: Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Organisation

Higher Education

Audience

KU – Educators in Academia

Purpose

Reflection and learning on diversity and bias in teaching situations

Practice handling real problems through imagined, interactive scenarios

Academic workers and educators experience a variety of complex situations related to discrimination and bias in their work, whether in the classroom, between students, or even among colleagues.

This dilemma game takes players through a number of different scenarios related to bias and diversity, from political disagreements between students and other faculty, to students asking to be exempt from assignments for mental health reasons. Each scenario plays out as a short, interactive story, with players’ choices about what to do moving the story forward – sometimes in unexpected directions.

The game was developed as part of a comprehensive course on diversity and bias in education for academic staff, and builds directly on what participants have learned in the course. Rather than a conventional eLearning tool, it’s played collaboratively, with participants discussing the options and outcomes together, and voting on the best course of action. A facilitator helps structure and frame these discussions, using the diversity in participants’ answers to highlight different perspectives. There are no right and wrong answers to these dilemmas – rather, the game aims to help academic staff think through the complexities of these issues, so they’re better prepared when problems arise.

We developed the scenarios and game content in close collaboration with department diversity specialists, with them providing the domain knowledge, and us helping to shape that into engaging interactive stories.

To maximize the usefulness of the game, we set it up so that facilitators and participants can choose between the different themes, and adapt the game to different contexts. For the same reason, we also developed a single-player version. Although we believe strongly in the facilitated, collaborative game experience, we also wanted to make sure that the client’s needs were met, and that the game was able to reach as much of the academic staff as possible.