THE LABOR HISTORY GAME: PLAYING WITH THE PAST PERKS PARTICIPATION Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 THE LABOR HISTORY GAME: PLAYING WITH THE PAST PERKS PARTICIPATION James E. Wanek. Boise State University ABSTRACT This paper discusses the process of creating and implementing a board game for use with undergraduate college students as a participative classroom activity. “The Labor History Game”, described in this paper was used as a primary review and quizzing tool to cover U.S. labor history and labor law. INTRODUCTION Business students often voice a strong preference for material and knowledge that they can use immediately or in the near future. Given such a bias, historical perspectives about people, events. or developments that led to current situations are often viewed as unnecessary consumers of valuable time. The development of the “Labor History Game” grew from a desire to find an alternative or supplement to lecturing which would more actively involve students in the process of learning about the key people, organizations and events in the growth of the American labor movement. Inspiration for this game came from ideas presented for professional trainers by Eitington (1989), and Sugar (1987). Learning can, and often should contain an element of fun to involve learners, and can be particularly useful when teaching students or corporate employees during “down” times such as after lunch, or late in the evening. With college courses, nearly any break from the all too typical lecture experience can help to get students involved. DEVELOPMENT This game was developed for use in two undergraduate Employee and Management Relations classes at Boise State University. Both Classes were using Labor Relations: Development, Structure. Process. (Fossum. 1995) as their assigned text. Much of the content material for the game can be found in Chapters 2 and 3 of that text, with supplemental material coming from An Introduction to Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations, (Katz & Kochan. 1992). Developing Objectives Development of the Labor History Game began with consideration of the learning objectives. Rote memorization of dates was not an objective but rather that students recognize the names of key organizations and people and associate them with the events they are known for, as well as to recognize provisions of the major laws governing labor that were passed because of those people, organizations, and events. Formally stated, the objectives were: 1) Engage participants’ active interest; 2) Enliven a topic which some students find difficult to learn; 3) Create an atmosphere of fun; 4) Provide an alternate format to lecture presentation. Given the perceived “dryness” of the material, a format more involving than lecture was desired. The format was also limited to one hour and fifteen minutes for instruction, presentation, discussion, and evaluation by the afternoon class period. The popularity of games of knowledge. like ‘Jeopardy” and “Trivial Pursuit” seemed to indicate that a game format could work with this material and time constraint. Game Board Design Once it was decided that a game could be developed, the "frame" had to be constructed. The frame is the part of a game board to be filled in with rules, instructions and information which 82 Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 should be friendly, yet challenging to players, while meeting training objectives (Sugar. 1987). In this instance, as with Sugar’s game. a board track similar to that of “Monopoly” was adopted because it was thought to be familiar to potential players and the square or rectangular board shape could accommodate 4-5 players comfortably. The track was designed to offer a good balance between action spaces where players had to draw a card from a category and answer a question and other spaces with an element of chance or luck. Too many knowledge spaces would make the game progress too slowly, while too many chance spaces would be seen as unfair by students who value performance. The 24 spaces (12 less than Monopoly) included five spaces for each of three knowledge categories: Laws & Judgments; People & Events: Organizations & Rules: and three Chance spaces, and six other spaces which did not require that cards be drawn or answers given. The order of the category spaces was varied around the board to add uncertainty to the game. and to counteract any bias in the dice used to advance play. Light gray foam board was used to make the 16-inch by 20-inch game board. Bright colored card stock was chosen for the spaces and game cards to add visual stimulation. Colors used for the categories and related cards were as follows: Organizations & Rules - rocket red: People & 83 Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 Events - terra green Laws & Judgments - lunar blue; Chance - solar yellow; Go, Other game spaces and instruction cards - cherry. Once the tracks were assembled on the game boards (using glue sticks and student office personnel. the entire board was covered with clear contact paper for protection. The most legwork associated with constructing this game was in the hunt for pawns for players to use. While buttons, pen tops, coins, or just about any other small objects could be used, there was a desire to give the game a “professional” appearance. An attempt was made to find actual Monopoly pawns since the shoe, iron, wheelbarrow, etc. were appropriate items for a labor game, however local toy stores did not sell those pieces separate from the boxed games. One store, however, did have a jar of inexpensive miscellaneous plastic game pieces in bright colors from which sets of 5 were made for The Labor History Game. Developing Game Rules Game rules were developed which supported the training objectives while keeping the pace of the game moving. The order of play is determined by each player rolling one die, with the highest score starting play, and then proceeding around to that player’s left Players select their own pawn in rank order based on their roll of the one die. One person volunteers, or is designated as “The ScoreKeeper” to write down points awarded to, or subtracted from each player on a score sheet. The score sheet lists each player by name in a column, with each round of play numbered from Ito 12 in rows. Each player starts with 100 points and is awarded 10 points for each correct answer but not penalized for wrong answers. They also win 10 points for passing “Go” as an annual bonus and can win or lose points from Chance cards. Two other board spaces: “Union dues collected lose 5 points”, and “Strike fund helps out collect 5 points” can affect scores. At the end of play scores are added up with the highest score determining the winner. For classroom purposes winners can be given bonus points toward their grade or first exam score to motivate preparation and stimulate competition. In the event of tied scores, bonus points can be awarded to both players, or a "sudden-death" play- off of one question each can be used as a tie- breaker. Play begins with the first player rolling two dice and advancing their pawn counter-clockwise that many spaces on the board. When a player lands on a space requiring that a card be chosen, the person to the right of the current player draws and reads the question. If the wrong answer is given, the reader gives the correct answer, which is at the bottom of the question card. If a player takes too long to answer, the Score Keeper gives a 10- second countdown to allow the player a last chance to answer, after which the correct answer is read and play moves on. The group can decide if a given answer is “close enough”, with the instructor acting as final Arbitrator. For example, a number of laws are widely known by the name of their congressional sponsor such as The Wagner Act, instead of by their actual title, in this case The National Labor Relations Act. The game progresses through 12 rounds of play, which lasts about 45 minutes when there are four players. A time limit, such as one hour can be used instead of a limit on the number of rounds of play. Selecting Material and Writing Question Cards Material for question cards for The Labor History Game came from a number of sources, but predominantly from Fossum's Labor Relations text. Chapter 2 “The Evolution of American Labor”, and Chapter 3 "Labor Law and Federal Agencies”. After reading the chapters and consulting previously written lecture notes, the three knowledge categories of Laws & 84 Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 Judgments, People & Events, and Organizations & Rules were determined to cover the subject matter. The TABLE function in Microsoft Word was used to create a grid of nine 2-inch by 3-inch cards with each page containing cards for just one category. The questions and answers were formulated and written directly into the card spaces provided. (In hind sight. it would have been faster and easier to use the test bank available with the text for writing the cards. however that option didn't occur to the author while the creative juices flowed!) Development Time and Expense A rough estimate of the total time spent putting the game together, considering both the author Initially, at least eighteen cards were written for each knowledge category, however more cards were added after the first time the game was played. In the current version of the game there are 35 Organization & Rules: 27 Laws & Judgments: 31 People & Events. There are 17 Chance cards. Sample questions from each category are listed below: and student help, would be about 26 hours. This time estimate includes conceptualizing the game, and creating draft and final versions of the board - 2 hours: writing questions and game rules - 15 hours; printing and cutting out cards and game spaces - 1 hour: assembling and laminating game 85 Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 boards - 6 hours: and purchasing game pawns and dice - 2 hours. The actual cost of fabricating 8 game boards and pieces came to approximately $28.00 for purchased parts and supplies, and S16.00 for copying costs. The games are sturdy enough that they should provide several years of use, and justify the modest investment in time and money IMPLEMENTATION A number of methods were used to introduce the labor history material prior to playing the game in class. Students viewed two short films, “The Rise of Big Business” and “The Rise of Labor” during the first two class periods, followed by a brief lecture presenting an overview of the historical development of unions contained in Chapter 2 of the text. Students were assigned Chapter 2, and Chapter 3, which contained more in-depth coverage of specific labor laws, as required reading. Additionally, a 2-4-page paper answering one of the discussion questions at the end of Chapter 3 was assigned. Finally, the class before playing the game, students were told that they would be involved in a group exercise based on the material from Chapters 2 and 3 and that there would be 10 point bonuses given to the winners of the exercise. Students were not told the nature of the group exercise. Given time constraints, a formal pilot study was not conducted prior to using the game with an actual class. The rules of the game appeared quite straightforward to the author, and the difficulty level of the questions was similar to typical exam questions. The first class to play the game completed an evaluation and gave verbal feedback, which was used to modify the game before the second class. The most frequently received suggestion was for a reduction in the punitive Chance cards and spaces. Originally, 9 different Chance cards were written and printed twice to yield a stack of 18 cards. Four of the cards were “punitive” in that players lost points or a turn, while five contained positive outcomes. With duplicates in the deck, students felt they were coming across too many cards that adversely affected their scores. To remedy the situation, half of the punitive cards were eliminated, that is only one set of four in the deck. Additionally, three bonus question cards worth 15 points, one for each knowledge category, were added to the Chance deck. Perhaps the most unexpected behavior occurring during the game, was the number of students trying to take notes! Two groups in the first class were writing down every question and answer, and consequently lagging far behind the other groups. Those students were encouraged to concentrate and rely on their memories, rather than trying to make study notes for material that they should have had prepared and been familiar with. EVALUATION OF THE GAME Both classes completed an evaluation of the game exercise, however, as described in the previous section, modifications were made to the game before being played by the second class. In response to the question, “Did the game exercise achieve its stated objective?”, all 51 participants said that the game achieved its four stated objectives. They also responded that the game questions reflected the material covered by the text, films, and class discussions, and each category adequately covered a broad body of knowledge. Six of the fifty-one students thought there should be more cards with a greater variety of answers. A couple of comments suggested there were too many questions for which “The Wagner Act” was the correct response, however that over- emphasis on the premier piece of labor legislation was intentional. Regarding the pace of play and number of players. 48 students thought that four players was the “right” number. 2 people thought more players would be better, and. I 86 Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 person thought the suggestion of playing in paired teams might be worth trying. No statistically significant difference was found between the two classes on their rating of the amount of chance in the game, even though changes had been made to that category following receipt of the first class’ feedback. (Mean ratings of 2.81 (n=26) and 2.72 (n25) for the first and second classes, respectively.) However, given that a rating of 3=About Right, further play and evaluation will be conducted before other changes are made. Comparison of the classes’ mean ratings on the difficulty level and pace of the game showed no statistically significant differences. Both classes thought the difficulty level was between “About Right” and “Difficult”, (3.46 for the first class and 3.72 for the second), and the pace was neither too fast or too slow. (3.0 and 3.1, respectively). SUMMARY Educators are faced with the challenge of encouraging students to become life-long learners who develop a focus that goes beyond, “What do I need to know for the test?” One way to break the cycle of lecture note taking followed by test regurgitation is to make learning active and fun, rather than passive through methods like this game. Although still in the developmental stage, the results are encouraging, especially regarding student acceptance. In the words of one student, "Can't you just write up new cards every week so we can keep playing this game?” Responses like that deserve consideration, after all, when’s the last time you had a student beg for a lecture? REFERENCES Eitington J. E. (1989) The Winning Trainer, Second Edition Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Company, 94-98. Fossum, J. A. (1995) Labor Relations: Development, Structure Process, Sixth Edition. Chicago, IL: Irwin. Katz H. C. & Kochan T. A. (1992) An Introduction to Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations New York: McGraw-Hill. Inc The Rise of Big Business Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation, 1970. (Film) The Rise of Labor Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation, 1963. (Film) Sugar, S. E. (1987) Training’s the name of the game. Training and Development Journal, Dec., 67-73. 87 Table of Contents Volume 24, 1997 Incorporating Computer Telephony into the MIS Course A Learner Oriented Infrastructure for videoconferencing Based Distance Education Courses The Identification of Temporally Related Structural Elements of the Experiential Component of Electronic Spreadsheet Tasks Does Involvement Influence Learning from Simulation Participation? Some Relationships with Helpfulness and Performance Outcomes Musings on Business Garne Performance Evaluation Performance on a TE Simulation: What does it represent? The Business Policy Game: An International Simulation - An Assessment Tool Students in Free Enterprise as Experiential Learning The Role of Computer Models in Wargames: A Practitioner's view Using Focus Groups as a Tool to Research Learning: A Demonstration and a Discussion Using Medical Simulations to Teach Multi-Cultural Diversity Using the World Game to Internationalize International Exchange Game Community Services Needs Assessment: An Innovative Approach Introducing Students to Potential Total Quality Management Ethical Dilemmas Privacy in the Workplace: A Situational Analysis Antecedents of Learning in Simulations Demonstrating the Learning Effectiveness of Simulation: Where we are and Where we need to go The Use of Computer Simulations as a Pedagogical Aid in Teaching Management Information Systems Evaluating Simulation Learning in a Distant Learning Instructional Model Financial Engineering of Global Investments The Labor History Game: Playing with the Past Perks Participation Assessing Negotiator's Proficiency with a Negotiation role-play The Art of Negotiating Enhancing Learning and Employee Development through the Assessment of Learning Pedagogy Preferences across selected Dimensions of Culture: A Preliminary Investigation Cooperative Learning: What are we Learning? Effective Use of Mastery Based Experiential learning in a Project Course to improve skills in system analysis and Design Simulations and Learning: Can we prove a relationship? (Seminar) Predicting and Reviewing NYSE Stock Prices by use of Basic Statistical Analysis and Logic Toy Car Depreciation Exercise ABSEL as Home Community: An Interactive Exploration Service Learning: Linking Academic Study to Community Development and Business Enhancement Ability of Efficient Evaluation of Knowledge-Based Management Strategies Corporate Ethics Training Programs Modeling Attributes in Demand Functions of Computerized Business Simulations: An Extension of Teach's Gravity Flow Algorithm Expert Systems Combined with Neutral Networks: Tools to Benefit the Marketing Researcher Computer Game Design: New Directions for Intercultural Simulation Game Designers Consistency in Simulation Performance over Time and Across Simulation Games The Impact of an Artificial Market Leader on Simulation Competitor's Strategies Business Plans, Case Studies, and Total Enterprise Simulations: A Natural Co-existence An Exploration into the Non-Use of Business Simulations The Market Game: Interactive Learning Through Market Simulation Plotting Brand Trajectories with the COMPLETE PPM package: A Market Segmentation Analysis and Positioning Tool Me and Mine Inc: An Exercise in Management Theory Learning to Differentiate Leadership from Managerial Position Business Ethics Survey: A Perspective from the Retail Industry Experiential Learning in Demand Analysis for an Agricultural Commodity Marketing on the Internet: A Pedagogical Exercise College Students Need Simple Computer Simulations, Especially for International Business Courses An Analysis of Student Attitudes, Performance, and Strategies in a Simulation Competition Based on a Controlled Product-Market-Entry Game Structure The Crystal Enterprise: Application of a Non-Computerized Simulation Model in a Process of Organizational Change Threshold: A Windows-Based Behaviorally Oriented Total Enterprise Simulation Coaching Business Game Teams Using a Decision Variable Optimizer Rock and Roll is here to Stay: Enhancing Experiential Pedagogy with Musical Exercises An Example of Business Process Analysis Simulation for Customer Software Support The Use of Business Gaming in Hong Kong Academic Institutions Using the Integrative International Simulation INTOPIA Mark 2000 in a Concentrated MBA Curriculum A Group Experience as an Integrated Part of the Core Management Course Empowered Learning in the Classroom The Inter-Group Interaction: An Innovative Approach to Cooperative Learning Courses that Utilize Student Team: An Approach to enhancing their Effectiveness Thoughts about the Measurement of Learning: The Case for Guided Learning and Associated Measurement Issues Measuring Student Learning Using Business Simulations: A Theory Based Perspective On the Use of PC Fingame in an Undergraduate Finance Course How Managers get Things Done: A Virtual Soundbite Internet Experiential learning in the Principals of Marketing Classroom: A Pedagogical Approach Current Student Perceptions Relative to Business Simulations Beyond Capitalism: Designing Business Policy and Social Justice The Use of Boards of Directors to Evaluate Reports and Presentations in an Undergraduate Business Policy Course Beacon Lumber: An Experiential Introduction to Financial Accounting The Application of Organizational Motivation Principles: The Experiential Business Simulation Motus Manufacturing Avoiding a Bogey: Grading Case Discussions Scientifically Communicating Consumer Behavior II: A Modified Exercise Using Personal Consumption Journals in Condensed Courses Designing Instruments for Assessing the Effectiveness of Simulations, (Seminar) 360º Performance Feedback: Appraisal vs. Assessment The Cafeteria Approach to Managing an Academic Career: Remaining Non-Perishable while Doing Your Own Thing An Experiential Exercise Related to Person-Organization Fit and it's Consequences For Today's Dynamic and Changing World, Business Simulations need to be expanded to encompass Much Greater Complexity: A Demonstration The Incident Process: A Case in Reverse Contextually-Anchored Business Simulations The Energy Factor: Building Motivation in the Simulation Gaming Environment The Design of an Internet Game