Have you heard of Monax Island? It’s our first online cooperation game that promotes collaboration, communication and personal development in teams in a fun way. However, this innovative type of team building is not just a game changer for companies. Especially when it comes to making lessons exciting and interactive, a playful approach using digital social learning approaches can be the solution. We will show you how to use Monax Island as an effective teaching tool to convey topics such as group dynamics, team building, personality types and self development to students in a playful way.
Unfortunately, e-learning and playful teaching approaches are still not an integral part of everyday school and university life. However, team games such as Monax Island prove that fun and learning are closer together than some might think. This is also backed up by various studies. Among many others, a meta-analysis by the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology (German study) clearly shows that gamification in the classroom can sustainably promote learning performance.
It’s no longer a secret that team building also works in the classroom. Various studies have already shown that regular team building can make a positive contribution to a stronger classroom community. Why is this so important? Pupils are confronted with completely new challenges, especially when they move to a higher school level or university. Lessons become more challenging, the environment changes and you are confronted with completely new people. What students need now: Good communication, community & a joy for social learning. Monax Island can offer all of this.
What is Monax Island?
In a nutshell: Monax Island is a co-op browser game that has been specially developed to bring team members closer together. The exciting storyline shows that fun is at the forefront of the game: After a fatal shipwreck, your team ends up on a deserted island, from which it must now escape again. In addition to classic survival challenges (satisfying hunger or finding shelter), fun mini-games and tricky puzzles, players also have to watch out for the indigenous species that inhabits Monax Island.
The crux of Monax Island is that you can only master the tasks as a team. The big plus: the simple use makes it thus easy for non-gamers to find their way around the game. The mechanics are intuitive and simple. The visuals are colorful, playful and inviting, making it an eye-catcher, especially for young people.
Hard facts:
WHY: It can be difficult to teach abstract topics such as group dynamics, social learning and self development in the classroom. The reason for this is that really exciting learning methods are rare. Monax Island offers a simple approach to making these aspects understandable. And it does so in a medium that interests young people.
HOW: Try Monax Island during school & university subjects such as “Social Learning” or “Group Dynamics”. The first week of school is a great time to start with the first level. This is also a great opportunity for students to get to know their (new) classmates better. Over the course of the semester, you can play the different levels and analyze whether and how the students are developing. We recommend preparing a few reflection questions for each game session and going through them after the game.
Plan your lesson with Monax Island:
- Optional: Start with an “onboarding session” in which you familiarize the students with the mechanics, content and goal of the game. Test the game in this session to rule out any technical problems.
- Before the lesson, think about which group dynamic aspects you want to analyze with your class, e.g. joint problem-solving, communication or personality analysis. If you play Monax Island regularly, each level can analyze a different problem.
- Form random teams and start the first level.
- Let the students reflect on the game unit in a subsequent discussion. Think about reflection questions in advance that fit the topic of the unit. What role did the students play in the group? How did they interact? Did they notice any new qualities or “talents” in themselves or their classmates?
- If you want to see more learning development, you can start the next level in the following lesson & have them play with different classmates than the first time. Observe and discuss with your students what they did differently in the new group constellation and how they reacted to the new structures.
Having a better understanding of social learning dynamics with Monax Island
- Group dynamics: Monax Isand aims to improve group dynamics within teams. At university and in professional life, students will increasingly have to work together. This is why the topic of group dynamics should not be neglected in the classroom. It is also easier to resolve and understand conflicts in the classroom if the dynamics between the students are clear. Observe how the different characters in the class behave in the game: Who is shy & reserved? Who takes the lead & why?
- Teambuilding: At school & university, you are usually a lone fighter (except for group work). In later professional life, however, team success is just as important as individual performance. Monax Island can only be completed as a team, and thus illustrates how important teamwork can be.
- Social learning: Soft skills not only look good on a CV, but will also make things easier for students in their later working life. Monax Island is an excellent soft skill training for communication and teamwork. Use the game to find out which soft skills you could improve together with your students.
- Personality test: Getting to know your own strengths, weaknesses and behavioral patterns is not that easy. Team games such as Monax Island often reveal these particularly well. We recommend preparing the personality types of pupils together using the DISG test, for example. The game can then be used to analyze how and in what form the individual personalities have come through. Discuss the results with the pupils afterwards.
The future of Monax Island is bright
Our development team is working tirelessly to continuously improve Monax Island. In the future, a wide variety of analyses for individuals and group dynamics will be available based on game behavior. The basis for these analyses is the Ocean model, which we can use to make meaningful evaluations. Looking for more, low-prep and free games like Monax Island? Take a look at our list of team building games without materials.
