CSU Global's challenge
Colorado State University Global (CSU Global) is a nonprofit, 100% online state university, fully accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Since 2008 it has taught bachelor's and master's students from many countries and backgrounds, and it keeps growing fast.
Dina Samora, Program Director for Organizational Leadership, had a core problem: soft skills are essential for leaders, but nearly impossible to assess outside the real world. Many students only discovered their strengths and weaknesses after graduating, by making mistakes with real teams. Her team wanted to innovate, lift engagement and let students practice self-assessment, emotional intelligence and teamwork inside the course itself.
- Teach soft skills that are nearly impossible to assess outside the real world.
- Help students know themselves as leaders before graduating, not after.
- Engage online students of very different ages and countries.
- Practice leadership in a safe space, with no real-world fallout.
The solution
CSU Global integrated the Game Strategies platform into the Organizational Leadership course, starting with Pacific, which fit this leadership training like a glove. Students played one segment a week for about seven weeks.
The team wasn't sure how such a wide age range would react, so Dina won over the faculty first, and their enthusiasm spread to the students. From the first session, students were hooked: they stepped into the leader's shoes and talked about the characters as if they were real colleagues. Compared with other simulation programs they had used, Game Strategies clearly came out on top.
Next up: shorter games built with Editor, Game Strategies' authoring tool that needs no coding, to drive home specific leadership concepts.
The games they played
In their own words
Students loved the soft skills, they walked away knowing more about themselves as leaders, knowing more about their abilities, their strengths and weaknesses, and that is priceless.
For a moment you can forget about what's going on in life and you get to be the leader, you get to practice what it's like to be the leader. That's why we chose Game Strategies.
We know the students like it and we know it works.
The results
“It really did what we were hoping it would do,” says Dina. Students rated the games' applicability to their course and professional lives at 97.5%, around 70% asked to play again, and Dina estimates an increase of over 80% in what students learned about leadership.
The course feels different, too. Faculty love teaching with the games because students are fully engaged, and Organizational Leadership now has an energy no other CSU course has. Students called the experience “life-changing”: they practiced without hurting anyone and spotted what they needed to work on before leading for real.
Every number
- 97.5%rate the games applicable to their course and career
- 86.1%would recommend the platform to colleagues
- 80%estimated boost in leadership knowledge
- 70%asked to play again
- 35.7NPS
More case studies
81.8%learn more than with traditional teachingRoyal St. George's College teaches negotiation with Merchants, and 81.8% of students learn more
98%find what they learned directly applicable day to dayDecathlon trains 250 store managers in France with video games, and 98% find it directly applicable
98.6%recommendation rateDKV Seguros makes compliance training engaging with serious games: 98.6% recommendation rate
Shall we play?
Tell us what your team needs to practice and, in a personalized demo, we'll show you the solution that will make the biggest impact on your organization.