Future Headlines

Purposes: To prompt students to consider consequences of planning; to encourage thinking from the perspective of another person

Procedure: In this role play game, players participate in a time-travel scenario to explore an issue relevant to their context. They are given either a great success (utopian) or a miserable failure (dystopian) scenario as proclaimed by a future newspaper headline.

Players are randomly assigned one of these two scenarios and given a stakeholder role. Each player is then asked to submit a 150-word story outlining how their stakeholder contributed to either this utopian or dystopian future.

These scenarios are submitted anonymously to the facilitator who collates and posts them in a designated discussion forum or on a web page. After reviewing all the scenarios for both positions, players submit their five top ideas for ensuring a utopian future for WBU students in this class. From the list of ideas submitted, players then vote on the five top issues that need to be addressed to ensure a utopian future for WBU students in this class.
Examples:
Headlines--WBU graduates lead world in Health Care Management; WBU graduates fail miserably in Health Care Management

Roles--health care facility director, nurse, business administrator, marketing director, HLAD instructor
Headlines--WBU's new biblical studies institute smashing success; WBU's new biblical studies institute closes after six months

Roles--research assistant, denominational liaison, local pastor, instructional designer, biblical scholar, instructor