How to boost the effectiveness of cultural competence using cartoons.

In this weeks podcast Lucy Fogarty and Mohit Rajan founders of Culture Buff Games talk about developing country specific cartoon games to teach adults and teens about cultural values, emerging trends for online learning tools in the intercultural training field, the benefits of cartoons and gamification over traditional learning methodologies to impart cultural knowledge and the drivers behind future demand for online learning solutions in the intercultural field.

[powerpress]

Culture Buff Games is a company that develops country specific interactive cartoon games to help adults and teenagers learn about cultural values in a way that is fun and engaging, leveraging the power of cartoons and gamification to boost cultural awareness. Culture Buff Games has a suite of games on American values and British values. Each game has 13 cartoons depicting historical events or contemporary real-world examples to highlight important American or British cultural values.  Culture Buff India and China will be released next year.

During the interview Mo outlines the emerging trends for online learning tools in the intercultural training field

• Changes in the way we impart and consume cultural knowledge
• Increase in shorter assignments and need for innovative tools to quickly thrive in new culture
• Millennial preference for bite size, actionable and relevant knowledge, accessible anytime, anywhere
• Millennial preference for gamification of content

Lucy talks about the universal appeal of cartoons for both adults and teenagers. She highlights some of the benefits of cartoons as educational tools and their effectiveness over traditional learning.

• Visual illustrations of cartoons boost retention and recall of knowledge.
• Cartoons increase engagement by arousing curiosity and facilitate accelerated learning.
• Cartoons are an effective trigger for opening up discussion and enabling the voicing of opinions.

Mo highlights some of the benefits of gamification

• Gamification appeals to millennials who enjoy learning via game like experiences
• Gamification induces a spirit of competition and boosts participation in learning
• Gamification boosts application of knowledge via problem solving and promotes accelerated learning.
• Gamification reinforces learning through spaced repetition.

Lucy talks about drivers behind future growth trends in the cultural training sector

• Growth in the cross-cultural training sector globally over the coming years will be driven by rise in expatriate assignments and demand by corporations for online learning
• Growth in online learning driven by cost saving, flexibility and scalability
• Latest trend gaining momentum is gamification of content.
• Need to find the right balance between face to face training and online learning solutions.

Visit  CULTURE BUFF GAMES to see the preview video and sign up for a free trial.