How To Play diversophy®
Facilitation Guide

diversophy® is designed for optimal learning and requires proper facilitation. It is most effective in the environment of security, mutual acceptance, respect and trust.

It is useful for addressing sensitive topics and emotionally engages players in a low risk gaming environment. Greater diversity of experiences and opinions in the group of participants makes the game more interesting and benefits from attentive and thoughtful facilitation.

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The following is an instruction on how to
organize a diversophy® online training event.

For the Organizer:

1) Learning Objectives

Decide on which game fits best to your learning objectives for the group you intend to engage. If you need some assistance in selecting the appropriate game or are interested in creating a customized game, check our website and do not hesitate to contact us at service@diversophy.com for questions, suggestions and other assistance you may require.

2) Promotion & Registration

Advertise your online event well in advance. If it is an open event, notify us at service@diversophy.com of the time and details of registration or signup and we will promote it as well. Send reminders the day before the event with clear instructions, links and passwords needed for how to sign into the platform you are using.

Do your best to track and establish the number of registered attendees, realizing that depending on the nature of the event (required class or training event vs. open public event) you may have a variable number of no-shows. This is normal.

3) Facilitation

Decide who will be the principal facilitator, if not yourself, well in advance. Advise the principal facilitator that normally she or he should plan on having no more than 4 or 5 participants in the playing event so that all get a good chance to participate.

When there are more attendees, create breakout rooms and be prepared in advance to appoint a facilitator for each breakout room so that she or he can make sure everything begins and proceeds smoothly, answer basic questions and note questions or issues for discussion in the debriefing after the play is over, and, if needed can be forwarded to us after the session.

The breakout room facilitators do not have to be professionals but need to be briefed on the information in this guide which is relevant to them. It can also be helpful if they have a look at the standard Facilitation Guide downloadable from our website. This way we guarantee that they assist participants in such a way that they will have the best possible experience.

4) Material

A selection of 20 cards which best carry your learning objectives is generally enough for a 1 hour session. Make sure that the facilitators have the selected PowerPoint slides 1 or 2 days before the session in order to give them time to read and prepare. Depending on the platform, it is likely that they will have to have the file of these cards ready on their computer desktop in order to share their screen in the main session or in the breakout rooms to conduct play.

If the same game is played several times in a training or classroom, or even publicly, you will have the same participants or some of them. To avoid a situation where the same participants are seeing the same cards during different sessions:

Make sure each facilitator has the same set of cards to play during the same game session.
Note down and keep track of the number of each card being played (these unique numbers are found at the bottom of every card). Do not reselect them for further sessions with the same participants.

For the Facilitator(s):

1) Platform Setup & Preparation

If you have a large group it is good to have a co-host on the platform who can assist in managing technical tasks such as admitting members, assisting in the creation of breakout rooms, alerting you to chat messages, etc. Online interaction can be a bit slower, hence the recommendation of breakout rooms with 4-5 participants, to give everyone a chance to participate. Making the choice of participants in the breakout rooms as diverse as possible enhances the quality of the discussion and depth of learning from each other.

The main facilitator and co-host must become familiar in advance with the technical side of Zoom or the platform being used, i.e., how to: share the screen and enable others to do so; put the PowerPoint in presentation view, change slides, assigning breakout rooms and duration of play in them; managing the return to the main room after the session, etc.

2) Introduction to the game

It is normally the task of the host or main facilitator to give an appropriate introduction. This involves:

Introducing diversophy® as a learning game and introducing the topic of the specific game being played and learning goals of the session.

Giving credit to developers, translators, sponsors of the event, etc.

Presenting and working through the slide that explains “How to Play diversophy®” and asking if there are any questions. Breakout room facilitators should also have this slide in their set and be ready to review it if needed.

3) Facilitation in the Main and Breakout Rooms

Reading the section of the Facilitation Guide on dealing with difficult situations and questions that may occur in groups can assist facilitators to make things run smoothly. Facilitation involves:

Being familiar with the slides that will be played and being ready to comment on them to encourage participants to play in case of silence, know the answers to CHOICE and SMARTS questions and revealing the answer slides when discussion suggests it.
Ask if participants if they prefer to play for points or not. They may play by taking turns or even responding spontaneously to cards on the screen if counting points is not important to them. Playing by taking turns is the normal way as it is likely to guarantee fuller and more diverse participation. When playing by taking turns.
Make sure as facilitator to write down list of participant names on paper – the order of participant images on the screen is likely to change.
Though it may be occasionally impossible for some, encourage participants to share their video as this enhances the sense of group cohesion and some cards ask for responses or gestures to be shown to each other.
Make a mark next to each name after the person has responded. This avoids confusion and shows which participants are less active. Use it to ask for additional comments - some people need encouragement.
After a player answers a CHOICE and SMARTS cards, ask others for their answers or comments on the question as well. This animates the session, makes it less formal, and increases the fun aspect of the game as well as enriches the learning from each other. GUIDE, RISK and SHARE generally ask for some form of response from the group as well as the player who drew the card, so encourage it. While some groups or individuals may appear hesitant at first, if the facilitator creates a friendly and encouraging attitude the participants will connect well and participate more.
When there are multiple breakout rooms, keep time and save the last 5 minutes for a debrief on the experience and learning before coming back to the main room. There should be a Debrief instruction card in the PowerPoint set. The organizer or main facilitator may choose to modify the questions on the Debrief card to suit the learning objectives and needs of the group.
Also encourage participants to give feedback and write comments in the chat, then if useful, copy feedback and comments from chat to send to the organizer or if needed to the diversophy team.

4) Closing

If there have facilitators for a short summary of the experience or the individual debrief sessions. Ask for and answer any remaining questions. Thank everyone and invite them to the next session if one is planned.

5) After the session

Your diversophy® team will be most interested in hearing about your experience, receiving feedback on the game process and content for possible improvements as well as suggestions for the enrichment of this facilitator guide. Contact us.

See our games library

How To Play diversophy® Facilitation Guide

The following is an instruction on how to organize a diversophy® online training event.

For the Organizer:

1) Learning Objectives

2) Promotion & Registration

Do your best to track and establish the number of registered attendees, realizing that depending on the nature of the event (required class or training event vs. open public event) you may have a variable number of no-shows. This is normal.

3) Facilitation

4) Material

If the same game is played several times in a training or classroom, or even publicly, you will have the same participants or some of them. To avoid a situation where the same participants are seeing the same cards during different sessions:

​

Make sure each facilitator has the same set of cards to play during the same game session.

Note down and keep track of the number of each card being played (these unique numbers are found at the bottom of every card). Do not reselect them for further sessions with the same participants.

For the Facilitator(s):​

1) Platform Setup & Preparation

2) Introduction to the game

It is normally the task of the host or main facilitator to give an appropriate introduction. This involves:​

3) Facilitation in the Main and Breakout Rooms

Reading the section of the Facilitation Guide on dealing with difficult situations and questions that may occur in groups can assist facilitators to make things run smoothly. Facilitation involves:

Being familiar with the slides that will be played and being ready to comment on them to encourage participants to play in case of silence, know the answers to CHOICE and SMARTS questions and revealing the answer slides when discussion suggests it.

Make sure as facilitator to write down list of participant names on paper – the order of participant images on the screen is likely to change. ​

Though it may be occasionally impossible for some, encourage participants to share their video as this enhances the sense of group cohesion and some cards ask for responses or gestures to be shown to each other.

Make a mark next to each name after the person has responded. This avoids confusion and shows which participants are less active. Use it to ask for additional comments - some people need encouragement.

Also encourage participants to give feedback and write comments in the chat, then if useful, copy feedback and comments from chat to send to the organizer or if needed to the diversophy team.

​