The Coorpacademy Content Team is producing ‘Suspects’, its first fictional series in 3 episodes involving the use of soft skills.
After launching the digital Escape Game in 2019 in order for the learner to discover the platform’s features playfully, after having released several immersive courses where the learner dive into – almost – real-life situations to apply his/her newly acquired knowledge, the Content Team decided in 2020 to go a step further in the interactive storytelling process.
First, the fiction, second, the learning!
Laurence Mijoin-Duroche, learning manager at Coorpacademy, came up with the idea to reverse the usual course construction methodology. How so? You start from a fiction, a compelling story, and then you add to it pedagogical elements. In this new format – we haven’t seen anything like it yet in the world of corporate digital learning – knowledge and learning elements will be presented furtively, almost subliminally, to the learner/player/viewer. By making decisions that will impact the course of the story, learners will be actors in their own learning processes, without sometimes even knowing they’re actually learning something.
This new format production was launched during lockdown, but with a team full of motivation and scenarios ideas. This new pedagogical series will be a real fiction, illustrated with interactive videos, and the story will be told in 3 episodes where players will make their own choices and will learn from their decisions.
If you liked the movie Searching, or the TV shows Calls or Criminal, you will like Suspects by Coorpacademy.
The fiction being the starting point, the Content Team chose to draw inspiration from some crime movies and TV shows… Using the idea of a detective case and questioning witnesses as the context of Suspects!
Less is more!
Calls on Canal+
The TV show Calls on Canal+ rely on a quite simple concept: on the screen, you will only see written dialogues and you will only hear those dialogues. No images. With some light effects and the actors’ voices and interpretations, the stories – and the suspense – build up.
A direction relying on a succession of screens.
Searching
The movie Searching shows a father looking for his missing daughter… uniquely through the actions he does on his computer or his smartphone: mails, webcam, searching in files or looking for clues on the web… Everything is done through screens.
A detective duo with two different profiles.
Criminal on Netflix
In the TV show Criminal on Netflix, a detective, quite good at psychology, observe interrogations behind a one-way glass and advises an other detective, with quite different and rough methods…
Paris, 3rd February 2031, 29°C in the shade. Global warming is more topical than ever…
Naturally, the announcement of GreenDynamix was a bombshell: the research centre would have developed a revolutionary fuel. Virtually zero greenhouse gas emissions. A patent that would have been worth millions… But as soon as it was finalised, the formula was stolen and all project files erased. Three people are to be heard in the ongoing investigation. The case has been assigned to Detective Carl Sanchez, assisted by Alice Postel, an expert in behavioural analysis… Carl Sanchez is a young off-the-academy detective who just arrived in criminal police… And who needs to demonstrate its effectiveness! He won’t be alone though: Alice, behind her computer screen, will observe the interrogation room and advise Carl on how to lead the questioning. Using soft skills, of course…
Ok, this sounds cool… But what about the actual learning and upskilling in all that?
In each episode, only one suspect will be interrogated. Carl will gather important information for the case only if he leads the questioning correctly. If Alice – the learner/player – doesn’t give the right advice, the suspect won’t give critical information. Then, everyone (Alice, Carl and the learner) can follow the other courses on the platform to see how they got it wrong. Soft skills involved will be:
Negotiation and persuasion power
Problem-solving
Active listening
Critical thinking
Emotional intelligence
Conflict resolution
Who said it was easy to lead an interrogation? Anyway, the case won’t be solved until the end of the third and last episode, when all three suspects would have been interrogated. And this calls for quite a few binge learning sessions!
We are proud to have been selected amongst the 8 scale-ups in the EdTech & New Work category of the Kickstart Innovation program!
Since it was founded five years ago, Kickstart has become one of the largest European innovation platforms and has initiated over 120 pilots and commercial projects between startups, established organizations and companies from various sectors.
"From September to November, the startups will have the opportunity to co-create in the form of Proof-of-Concepts, pilots and commercial projects with Kickstart partners, leading organizations and companies such as AXA, Coop, Migros, Swisscom, Mobiliar, ETH Zürich, City of Zürich, PostFinance, Credit Suisse and others", says Katka Letzing, Co-Lead of Kickstart.
Discover the press release about the Kickstart program, how this innovation hub in Switzerland works and how Coorpacademy has been selected.
KICKSTART MEDIA RELEASE
INNOVATION HUB SWITZERLAND: 51 STARTUPS BRINGING SOLUTIONS FOR THE FUTURE
From digital personalized learning and gamified digital therapeutics to authentication enabled by facial recognition as well as reduction of cement usage through CO2 capturing as a Circular Economy solution, Antimicrobial LED light technology and real time reporting in FinTech and Insurtech, Kickstart is engaging on different levels to drive innovation activities in Switzerland. Over 50 high growth startups from 11 countries are participating this year.
Zurich, July 22, 2020 – Since it was founded five years ago, Kickstart has become one of the largest European innovation platforms and has initiated over 120 pilots and commercial projects between startups, established organizations and companies from various sectors. “Despite COVID-19, Kickstart has received high-quality applications from over 55 countries and overall there has been a significant increase of deeptech ventures with the appetite to scale in Switzerland,” explains Katka Letzing, Co-Lead of Kickstart. “From September to November, the startups will have the opportunity to co-create in the form of Proof-of-Concepts, pilots and commercial projects with Kickstart partners, leading organizations and companies such as AXA, Coop, Migros, Swisscom, Mobiliar, ETH Zürich, City of Zurich, PostFinance, Credit Suisse and others. This year Kickstart is excited to bring on new partners, including Mövenpick, New Work SE , Energie 360 °, Roche, Holcim Switzerland, Nespresso , Canton de Vaud and more. Startups will also have the opportunity to engage newly in the Romandy region next to Greater Zurich Area. Startups participating in the 2020 program combine a high level of technological innovation with solutions that are intended to foster sustainable development. HealthTech startup Kaia Health , for example, offers digital therapeutics that create accessible, evidence-based treatments for a range of disorders. Food and Retail Tech startup, Vital Vio designs, engineers and manufactures antibacterial LED technology for a growing range of commercial and residential applications. FinTech startup Keyless develops solutions for biometric, simultaneously secure authentication. Insurtech startup MotionsCloud ensures the processing of insurance claims in real time. Smart City startup Neustark is working on the reduction of cement by turning CO2 into carbonated elements in the building industry, and EdTech and New Work startup, Coorpacademy , provides personalized digital learning content for professional upskilling. “Every year, Kickstart attracts startups that are leaders in their field. The program has given us the opportunity to work quickly and effectively with these emerging companies, to accelerate our own business ideas, to learn what this means for Migros and what benefits can be created for our consumers,“ says Eliana Zamprogna, CTO of Migros Industry. “The commitment of our organization has increased significantly over the years. Our employees have the opportunity to think about business, innovation and technology in different ways and at different speeds than they do in their day-to-day work. This has strengthened the leadership and collaborative skills of our organization.”
Scaleups engaged this year:
EdTech & New Work #KICKSTARTERS20:
BOOKR Kids (Hungary) is a unique reading-based edutainment tool, designed to engage and delight the youngest learners in reading.
Coorpacademy (Switzerland) disrupts Corporate Digital Learning with its premium hub content and Learning Experience Platform, used by global leading brands for all their employees.
Gravity Global (Switzerland) saves 90% of your Enterprise Learning cost.
HRForecast (Germany) provides BigData answers and AI-solutions for people and organisations to be prepared for the future of work.
Innential (Germany) is a data-driven corporate learning platform, creating personalised learning experiences for individuals.
Sharpist (Germany) is the outcome-driven platform for people development powered by digital coaching.
SkillGym (Switzerland) makes soft skills development scalable and engaging through AI-driven Digital Role Play to practice conversations that matter.
Time is Ltd. (Czech Republic) is an advanced analytical SaaS platform for data-driven business leaders with a holistic approach to organizational productivity, communication culture, and digital collaboration setup.
FinTech & InsurTech #KICKSTARTERS20:
Build38 (Germany)secures business in the APP world against online fraud and data breaches.
decentriq (Switzerland) aims to change how the world accesses data: We enable the use of sensitive data from other organisations while provably guaranteeing the confidentiality and security of these data.
Keyless (United Kingdom) is a deeptech cybersecurity company building the world’s first privacy-preserving biometric authentication and personal identity management platform. The Keyless Cloud Platform empowers businesses to embrace passwordless, protect their remote workforce and enable strong customer authentication with just a look.
LAMIE direkt (Austria) is a full-stack InsurTECH empowering corporates to create digital insurance solutions within their existing ecosystem.
MotionsCloud (Germany) helps home & car insurance companies to streamline & automate claims processes powered by AI computer vision tech modules. We cut claims cycle time to 3 hrs, cut processing cost up to 75% and improve customer claim experience.
omocom (Sweden) offers innovative and fully digital insurance solutions for circular economy platforms including renting, sharing, leasing, resale (P2P, B2B, B2C); this can increase trust between transaction partners and thus help such platforms to grow and become more viable
Ratyng (Switzerland) takes credit ratings from wall street to main street, helping companies find better business partners.
tilbago (Switzerland) enables creditors to efficiently and effectively collect debt online.
TIMIFY (Germany) is an online solution for online booking, scheduling and resource management for small, medium and large companies
Yova (Switzerland) offers investments that combine sustainability impact with attractive returns — everything is digital, easy to understand, and transparent.
Food & Retail Tech #KICKSTARTERS20:
Ai Palette (Singapore) helps companies in product innovation by predicting food trends in realtime using AI & machine learning.
Alpengummi (Austria) is the first natural chewing gum of the Alps, only made of renewable resources and therefore free of plastics, artificial sweeteners and other possibly harmful ingredients.
Boost Biomes (United States) is developing microbial treatments for food & agriculture to extend shelf life and increase crop yields.
Greendeck (United Kingdom) uses AI to help retailers and brands with price optimisation and competitor monitoring.
iSense (Switzerland) complements flavour artistry with sensory data, analytics and the first cloud-based flavour collection management system, simplifying your flavour operation and accelerating flavour choice.
livealytics (Switzerland) provides IoT and analytics as a service for municipalities, real estate, live marketing, retail space, and trade shows. The solution is easy to deploy and manage, captures various footfall metrics, and provides relevant analytics, benchmarks, KPIs, and recommendations
Novolyze (France) improves safety, quality and sustainability of food production.
Prognolite (Switzerland) supports restaurants in reducing food waste and optimizing staff planning by predicting future demand thanks to machine learning algorithms.
Vital Vio (United States) is a health tech company and the creator of single-diode antimicrobial LED light technology (non-UV) that is safe for use in homes, public places and industry to create environments that are inhospitable to the growth of bacteria, fungi, yeast, mold and mildew.
HealthTech #KICKSTARTERS20:
Kaia Health (Germany) is a digital therapeutics company that creates accessible, evidence-based treatments for a range of disorders including back pain, knee- and hip pain, and COPD.
Klenico (Switzerland) supports healthcare professionals and patients in diagnosing mental disorders.
mementor (Switzerland) develops digital health applications in the field of sleep medicine and related medical areas.
Pryv (Switzerland)is a ready-to-use middleware for personal data and consent management. Pryv offers a solid foundation on which businesses build their own digital health solution, so they can collect, store, share and rightfully use personal data.
SidekickHealth (Iceland) is a Nordic digital therapeutics company, providing support to people with a wide range of chronic illnesses — including remote monitoring, treatment adherence and disease-specific education — driven by AI and gamification, resulting in leading retention rates and proven to sharply boost health outcomes.
Uplyfe (Switzerland) is an AI-powered health companion that reacts on your behaviour in nutrition and exercise, analyses your symptoms to help you influencing your health in a new way.
Smart City & Technology #KICKSTARTERS20:
Animatico (Switzerland) creates interactive avatars for a seamless interaction with digital devices.
FAAREN (Germany) enables all car dealers to become car subscription providers and offer their vehicles through the FAAREN marketplace to end customers.
Greyparrot (United Kingdom) provides AI-based waste recognition software to monitor and sort recyclables at scale.
HeatNeutral (Switzerland) is the future of zero emission and climate neutral heat energy. We produce the worlds most efficient, cost effective and scalable heating system for homes and industry powered by CO2 neutral fuels.
InstaDeep (United Kingdom) develops AI products and bespoke solutions for enterprise clients focusing on decision-making systems that solve existing problems across a range of industries using advanced ML, Reinforcement Learning and Deep Learning.
MOBBOT (Switzerland) is a 3D concrete printing for sustainable infrastructures.
Neustark (Switzerland) developes a containerized solution to store CO2 in construction materials.
Peter Park System (Germany) transforms parking lots into mobility hubs by providing parking lot operators with automatic license plate recognition, cloud-based software and the integration of parking apps.
Intrapreneurship Drives Established Companies to Generate New Business Growth and Creates Sustainable Cultural Change
In addition to partnerships between startups and established organizations, Kickstart supports the advancement of innovation in companies themselves. Nine intrapreneurship teams, independent within the companies, will also be part of the 2020 cohort. Alongside Swisscom, Mobiliar, Migros, this year, new partners have been engaged with their internal teams, including PostFinance, Holcim Switzerland and Energie360°. “Without innovation there cannot be sustainable growth,” explains Alice Dal Fuoco, Innovation Manager at PostFinance. “To support the growth of our innovation activities we are delighted to collaborate with external innovation leaders such as Kickstart.”
Intrapreneurship #KICKSTARTERS20:
#digitalreal (Mobiliar, FinTech & InsurTech) is a measure by Mobiliar that is intended to raise public awareness around the topic of cyber risk.
Atendo (Holcim Switzerland, Smart City & Technology) aims to eliminate tedious work and create a digital link, where we are able to digitally extract material from tendering documents and/or blueprint plans within seconds and thereby enable a starting point into automating the offering process.
Check&Connect (Mobiliar, FinTech & InsurTech) offers on the one hand the possibility for SMEs to easily and cost-effectively assess the security of their own IT infrastructure and on the other hand, direct contact with experts and additional services enable SMEs to remedy identified weaknesses and implement preventive measures.
CliMate (Swisscom, Smart City & Technology) motivates people to live more sustainable, by providing a community-driven platform dedicated to environment-friendly challenges.
lab360 (Energie 360°, Smart City & Technology) creates the hydrogen energy future.
Ormera (PostFinance, Smart City & Technology) is a blockchain based meter-to-cash solution that automates the entire billing process of self-produced energy.
Roady (Swisscom, Smart City & Technology) helps to navigate your travel to the places that are to your taste and liking.
The Ginius Way (Swisscom, Food & Retail Tech) gives you time for the important things in life by taking care of your daily tasks and chores.
WoWMi (Migros, Food & Retail Tech) – The Beauty Timeout — is a platform which combines one-stop personalized beauty and wellness treatments with add-ons and complementary services within a holistic ecosystem.
Kickstart is a spin-off of Impact Hub Zurich, a globally connected community of entrepreneurs, techies, and creatives. The ecosystem innovation platform runs programs for startups, intrapreneurs, CEOs and established organizations, including a kickoff week in September and a six-week collaboration Sprint from September 30th to November 8th, during which the international teams will engage in Switzerland. Kickstart’s locations this year are the innovation space Kraftwerk in Zurich and Impact Hub Lausanne.
Kickstart is one of Europe’s largest zero equity, multi-corporate ecosystem innovation platforms that runs a scale-up program for high-growth startups with the goal to accelerate deep tech innovation in Switzerland. Science and engineering-driven technologies have the potential to solve humanity’s biggest challenges. They require unprecedented collaboration between established organizations and the most audacious entrepreneurs out there. Kickstart is committed to build bridges and bring various organizations such as startups, corporates, cities, foundations and universities together.
Each year, Kickstart brings up to 100 entrepreneurs to Switzerland to collaborate with key players for proofs of concept, pilot projects and other innovation partnerships. Additionally, through the intrapreneurship program Kickstart helps established organisations accelerate internal innovation.
Kickstart is a spin-off of Impact Hub Zurich and was launched in 2015 by digitalswitzerland. In 2020, Kickstart runs five verticals: EdTech & New Work , FinTech & InsurTech , Food & Retail Tech , HealthTech , Smart City & Technology ; an Intrapreneurship program and the Circular Economy Initiative together with partner organizations across industries: AXA , Coop, Migros, Swisscom,Mobiliar , ETH Zürich , City of Zurich , Gebert Rüf Stiftung , Holcim Switzerland , MAVA Foundation , Mercator Foundation Switzerland , PostFinance , Mövenpick , New Work SE , Swiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE , Credit Suisse , CSEM , Energie 360° , Empa NEST , University Hospital Zurich , Panter , SATW , Swiss Healthcare Startups , Roche , Growpal , Ringier , Wenger & Vieli AG , Google for Startups ,Nespresso , Canton de Vaud , WECOCO and more.
The Massive Battle is a new feature we have developed with one of our clients, because we believe in open innovation and we put our clients’ and our learners’ needs at the center of what we are doing everyday.
Before jumping into the massive Battle, let’s refresh our memories: What’s a Battle?
The Battle is a gaming element on the Coorpacademy platforms. It consists in a challenge with questions to be answered – rightly and rapidly.
When sending a Battle invitation, you can challenge anyone you want on any course you want. The person answering the most questions correctly – or the fastest if there is a tie – will “win the Battle”, and 5 bonus stars, with, obviously, a better knowledge of the topic.
Generally, there are 6 to 8 questions to be answered, which represents 2 questions per chapters, from the chosen course.
From simple to massive Battles
As the name would suggest, there are more than 2 players in a Massive Battle. Actually, all learners – or a chosen group of learners – can compete in a Massive Battle. They are challenged by one single learner.
For what need? To engage all learners in a playful way on a particular course.
Massive Battle, a manual in 4 steps!
1- Choose the learner who will send the Battle invitation.
You need to choose the learner that will send the invitation and challenge others. It’s important to note that the learner who sends the Battle invitation will never earn any points, whatever the issue of Battle is. The “Battle launcher” you will select will “lend” his/her name the time of the challenge and will become a “Battle automaton”.
👉 Trick number 1: Choose preferably a learner known by all in your organization, a C-level executive for example!
👉 Trick number 2: This “Battle automaton” can also be a “fictive learner”, a profile specifically created for this use case. It could be a Battle Master or an Innovation Master if you launch a Battle on a course on innovation.
2- Choose the population (or group of learners) that will receive the invitation
You have a choice: either you send the Battle invitation to all learners registered on your platform, or only to one or several selected populations.
3- Choose the topic and the course
Choose the course but also the level (Basic, Advanced or Coach) on which you want to challenge learners.
👉 Trick: You can choose a course which is part of a dedicated learning path you’ve set up for your organization or part of a certified path.
4- Choose the level of difficulty
Before accepting a Battle invitation, the learner can revise the chosen course. But you can choose the Battle’s level of difficulty.
👉 Easy: Your Battle launcher answers correctly and “automatically” to 20% of all questions. Which means that all players that have accepted the Battle request will “win the Battle” if they answer correctly to more than 20% of the questions.
👉 Medium: You Battle launcher has answered correctly to half of the questions. The player must answer to more than 50% of the questions in order to win the challenge.
👉 Hard: 80% of questions are automatically correct! A player must answer almost all answers correctly in order to win!
Are you convinced, are you ready? Contact your favorite Customer Success Manager who will set up everything and push the button for you!
I was deep diving into Coorpacademy’s learning statistics used by our R&D Team, looking for figures that would best illustrate how essential it is to offer different formats of courses. When suddenly, an epiphany!
Everyone can remember a sudden flash, this brief moment when you finally understand something, thanks to some trigger coming from various places.
It can be a simple rewording, an observation in real life, a concrete manipulation (yes to Kapla in order to understand subtractions), a re-reading with a clear hear or looking at a diagram or a drawing. It can also come when feeling cornered with relevant questions (How did you make it? Do you remember…?)
The mind paths are still a mystery
Impossible to know the detailed brain maps of each of us in order to offer the shortest way towards understanding and memorizing a notion! The best solution is then to offer, as a digital learning platform, as many vehicles as possible to reach the learner’s understanding. Here’s a challenge! Which vehicle to offer?
Online courses can be based on images, videos (embodied or in motion design), text, click and rewards! So, is it about putting everything in a shaker and happily agitating it? Actually, no: online courses result from a subtle and high-precision mixture, as in pastry recipes or cocktail recipes (to keep on the extended metaphor). They should absolutely not be indigestible (I’d rather stop the metaphor right here).
However and before anything else, it is really important to understand the basic principles. Courses’ videos have to be short, 3-minute videos to make sure they are watched and impactful. The idea is to portion and smartly sequence what is to be learnt using all ingredients available.
I would like to share with you the learning recipes and their test results!
1- 5’learning
1 video + 4 to 6 questions
What makes it unique? 😋
* A very specific notion is handled in a 5-minute learning nugget, or microlearning.
* Questions can be answered before or after the course, according to your need or level.
* Perfect before a meeting, a flight or during commute!
2- CLASSIC format
9 vidéos (+ PDF) et questions associées.
This is the most common format we use. It is built in 3 levels (Basic, Advanced, Coach) with a coherent succession of dozens of 5’Learnings.
What makes it unique? 😋
* Progression: if you answer all questions very fast, it probably means you already reached this level of expertise. You then spend less time in what you already know (you don’t have to follow a course beforehand, or to watch a video), and you can spend time on what you don’t already know and what your really want to learn.
* Curiosity: you can learn with the course video, but with the questions too! Each answered question will provide a Key Learning Factor and a “Did you know that?” in order to spark your curiosity and make you learn other things on the topic!
3- THe assessment
From 5 to 40 questions, without video
Series of questions, without videos, to assess your level. The platform will them take you to different learning paths according to what you master and what needs to be improved!
What makes it unique? 😋
* Qualitative and personalized feedback at the end of the assessment are so much more valuable than a simple grade.
* The assessment improves the knowledge stickiness.
4- The Immersive format
Number of videos and questions can vary (but is not arbitrary!)
The principle is to simulate a real situation so the learner can play “as if”. Learners can train and apply their newly-learnt knowledge. They can draw their own learning pathways and be oriented by the platform according to their knowledge.
What makes it unique? 😋
* Nothing’s more valuable than learning by doing – even virtually – and learning from your mistakes.
* You can start and restart as much as you want, and take advantage of the recommendations at the end of the course to keep improving.
4-1- Mini-series
12 to 15 videos and 1 question after each video
Last-born in the immersive format family 👶: the mini-series co-edited with our partner Video Arts.
This course will teach you how to be assertive in the workplace. Through series of funny, played by actors short scenes, you will see what needs to be done to be assertive, but also what needs to be avoided. Like in the video example below…
After this, it’ll be difficult to mix up aggressiveness and assertiveness…
To memorize even better, a question will be asked at the end of each videos. An efficient – and addictive – format!
4-2- Courses where you are the hero
Like in a video game, you decide what to do next! By following your path, you’ll end up on your own personalized result. This format is adding learning in a Bandersnatch-like course!
What makes it unique 😋
* Scenarios! Different learning pathways, multiple endings… This playful format makes sure the learner is engaged and is enjoying learning (the content is validated by our team of instructional designers).
* Several variations exist on the Coorpacademy platforms, and they depend on the pedagogical goal we want to reach.
Drama will unleash your inner creativity!
One of our latest role play course focuses on creativity, a skill very adapted to the multiplicity of scenarii. Guillaume Lafon, instructional designer at Coorpacademy worked with the authors Luc de Brabandere and Anne Mikolajczak, both specialists of corporate creativity. Luc is an engineer and a Fellow at the Boston Consulting Group, Anne is a philologist.
But he also worked with Mathilde Gentil, professional script-writer and founder of the Gosh Theater Company, who produces “role play theater”, where the audience is active and makes decision about what will happen on stage! In this course, you’ll discover that anyone can learn to solve problems creatively: you just need to apply the right method! And if you also thought that there are not that many solutions to the same problem, you will be surprised to discover that in this course… there are 32! It is up to you to play and replay this course to learn how to organize and facilitate a creativity session, share the pleasure of ideas and, who knows, reveal the creative soul lying dormant in you!
We promise you plenty more innovations to come, that will be as exciting as our latest online Escape Game. By the way, the record time to solve the Black Hole Escape Game is 15 minutes… If you think you can do better or if you simply want to try it out, click here.
To sum up, all our existing courses’ formats use available online resources (video, image, text, sound, animation …). Each course type takes advantage of a unique combination of online resources, that will activate the triggers enabling us to understand a new skill or notion.
By referring to the initial and empirical list of these triggers, I finally and fortunately find them all, at different levels, depending on the format. The triggers attached to role-playing situations or manipulations are very strong in immersive formats; those linked to reading or visualization are almost everywhere, in videos, subtitles, lessons’ PDF; those about rewording or questioning are also very present thanks to the special design of questions and answers strengthening their impact and allowing a great freedom in learning where you can answer question first before viewing the course (i.e. flipped pedagogy).
Each mind can use the format that best fits it, everyone can use the vehicle that best suits them!
Do you know who this is and how this person succeeded?
This is Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook. The David Fincher movie The Social Network depicts his rise to fame, from being a Harvard student to becoming the CEO of the most-used social network in the world. Zuckerberg is described as someone showing a lack of empathy for people and girls particularly. Before Facebook, one of his first ideas was to code Facemash, a ranking system of Harvard girls, of whom he managed to get all pictures.
In the movie, he asked about the algorithm in order to create the “ranking”. His business partner Eduardo Saverin writes a formula, on a window, in order to successfully “rank” Harvard girls. This is the formula that will be used behind Facemash.
Do you know what it means? This is the Elo rating system, a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. We will see in this article how this system is used, how the formula works and how it could be used in what we’re doing here at Coorpacademy.
TL;DR
ELO is a classification system which tends to order a group over time. The more time passes, the more the group is correctly ordered. The principle is to predict the result of an encounter between two players and to carry out this encounter. If the prediction does not correspond to reality, we adjust the ranks of the two parties. And we repeat the operation.
How does it work?
Let’s take the existing ranking of a chess game. All players already have a score which represents an estimate of their ability, of their level. This is the rating floor. In chess, it’s 1200.
On the following image, we display two people, who have never played against each other. One has a score of 1,200, the other of 1,600. By using the formula we can see in The Social Network movie, we can calculate the probability of someone winning against someone else.
By applying the above formula, we calculated a probability of winning.
In this example, we calculated that the person with 1,200 points has a 10% chance of winning, while the other person (with 1,600 points) has a 90% chance of winning.
Next, we compare what was predicted and what really happened during the clash between the two players. For example, in the first scheme, the purple player won when there was actually 10% chance of winning. He then gains 27 points, while the other loses 27. The score of the two players adjusts.
In the end, when two people compete several times, if each person wins half of the games, they will have exactly the same score, it will even out. If one player is way stronger, the score will grow but will stagnate after a while (we will see why later in the article).
In this case, the one who had little chance of winning wins, so wins a lot of points (27).
In this second case, if that purple person loses, it complies with something that was planned (with 90% chances). The purple person will then only lose 3 points. The chances of winning influence the final outcome and the number of points won.
In the case of Facemash, Zuckerberg’s idea, in the movie, was to rank Harvard girls in terms of “hotness”. If a girl considered as “hot” battles against someone considered way less “hot”, and wins, it was already “predicted” by the formula and her score won’t change much. She won’t evolve much in the ranking. On the other hand, if a girl considered as “very pretty” competes and loses against a girl considered as “way less pretty”, the rankings will evolve a lot. This would have been considered, by the ranking technique, as an anomaly – the algorithm will then try to rebalance forces and try to “fix the anomaly.”
The formula written on the window in the movie tells us how to calculate the Expected, the chances of winning or losing.
In a chess game, this is used as such. R being the actual score, and E the Expected.
This method shows that by competing with people on the same level as yours, or a bit better – so there’s less “probability” for you to win – you will evolve way more in the ranking than if you only compete against weaker opponents. This is showed by the number of points you earn – or lose – after each games.
There is also the K in the scheme, which is the maximum you can earn or lose in terms of points, or score. In the example above and the competition between the purple and green people, K is 30. 27 points earned or lost after a game is almost the maximum, and this reflects the chance of winning pre-calculated (10 % for the purple person, who eventually wins). In chess, and in a lot of other various systems, K varies. A player first games will use a high K of 40 to rapidly position the person in the ranking. Then, K goes down to 20 to limit fluctuations.
This is the theory. When you apply this Elo rating technique on a large population, and you make them compete for a long time (they all start at the same level, with the same number of points), you will end up with a natural repartition of the population in a bell-shaped curve (or the curve of a normal function). People that have the same level will naturally regroup. People that have a very strong level can’t evolve infinitely, will have less potential opponents, and it becomes hard to go away from the bell in the middle.
Everyone will be drawn by the middle bell. Even the people extremely strong or weak won’t go too far from it. It allows us to divide the population by level, like in the schema below:
In chess for example, only 13 players have been above 2800. Today, the highest Elo rating of chess History belongs to the World Champion from Norway Magnus Carlsen with 2889 points, only 2 points above the legendary Garry Kasparov.
It’s not possible to win an infinite number of points, also because, when you’re the best chess player in the world, the chance of winning are very close to 100%. Players are drawn by the middle of the curve, which creates clusters of level in the population.
By cutting the curve, you can regroup people with approximately the same level and make them compete.
A lot of games are using this technique, because it is simple and automatically creates leagues of players with similar levels. We find the Elo rating technique in a lot of video games, such as Counter Strike, Age of Empires or League of Legends, such as in the example below:
Possible use cases at Coorpacademy?
We could possibly use this rating technique in our “Battle” system, when two players compete on a particular course and must answer correctly and rapidly a series of questions in order to win. We had a few learners feedback saying that they’re afraid the other players are way too strong. It’s a common reaction in multiplayers games, where the question “Will I be crushed?” can induce frustration.
At Coorpacademy, a Elo-type system could reduce this frustration and reassure learners.
Putting a matchmaking system with this method would allow learners with skills in management, or digital, to compete with similar-level learners in the same skill area. This being said, we just launched a Massive Battle feature, which allows learners to challenge a large population of learners simultaneously… We will tell you more about it very soon!
Arthur has been Software Architect at Coorpacademy for 5 years. Every month, he presents on Monday mornings the Tekacademy, gathering Coorpacademy’s tech team around digital and technical innovations. This article had been presented to the team in February 2020.
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