INTERACTIVE TECHNIQUES FOR LEARNING

Everyone is sold on the need to "engage" learners through the learning process. But, many think just playing games, having fun, and ensuring participants have a great time translates into effective learning. There's more to it than that! For decades now Thiagi has shown us how to use instructional games and simulations to facilitate learning. Interactive Techniques for Learning is the culmination of that work, in partnership with his long-time disciple and business partner, Matt Richter. Together, with Esther Richter, they provide the processes and methods that enable Thiagi's activities to work. They explore: 1. An overview of the learning process and how it happens. 2. What instructional games and simulations are and how to use them effectively 3. How to create more intrinsically motivating learning environments 4. How to choose which activity to use 5. ‎How to debrief an activity 6. How to evaluate both the activity and the overall learning program 7. ‎Conducting and modifying activities 8. Their instructional design principles and procedures 9. ‎The differences between training, facilitation, and facilitative training 10. And more Then, as one might expect from the man himself, you get 60 activity protocols categorized into 11 different interactive strategies. Some are oldies, but goodies, updated for the 21st century. Others are brand spanking new.

This book is for trainers, educators, professors, instructional designers, learning leaders, facilitators, coaches, manager who want to engage their teams, and anyone interested in using activities to facilitate learning. The book is divided into three parts. PART ONE. THE WHAT AND WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO. The authors give you a bit about the Thiagi way of doing things. They provide the framework for how they approach activities and the facilitation of activities. They even give an overview of the science of learning as an opening salvo since learning is the purpose of what they do in the first place. Some of the content will be familiar but updated, given their own latest experiences and the current research out there. Some will be new to readers of their work but hopefully as useful as the previous material.
 PART TWO. THE HOW TO DO WHAT WE DO. In this section, the authors really get into the mechanics. How they do instructional design. How they organize their activities. How they choose which activity to use. How to debrief an activity. How to evaluate whether an activity worked, and so forth. PART THREE. THE ACTIVITIES. The authors provide eleven chapters on different interactive strategies. Each contains three to six activities, a total of sixty for the book. These are the eleven they tend to use the most, and they're the author's favorites.
 The book is a major update of previous books and articles. No Thiagi book has put together both the theory, the mechanics, and the protocols all in one place since the 1990s. Think of this book as the official and most up-to-date Thiagi book.

Dr. Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan is CEO of the Thiagi Group. A master of interactive training techniques, Thiagi has published over 40 books and more than 200 articles over the years.