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Collaborative Foresight: How to Game the Future

Approx. 15 hours to complete

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Course Summary

Collaborative Foresight is a course that teaches you how to anticipate and respond to future trends and challenges by combining the expertise of multiple stakeholders. You'll learn how to use tools and techniques to facilitate collaboration and co-creation, and develop a strategic foresight mindset.

Key Learning Points

Learn how to anticipate and respond to future trends and challenges
Develop a strategic foresight mindset
Use tools and techniques to facilitate collaboration and co-creation

Learning Outcomes

Apply foresight tools and techniques to real-world challenges
Facilitate collaboration and co-creation between multiple stakeholders
Develop a strategic foresight mindset

Prerequisites or good to have knowledge before taking this course

No prior knowledge or experience required
A willingness to learn and collaborate with others

Course Difficulty Level

Intermediate

Course Format

Online
Self-paced
Interactive

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Related Education Paths

Notable People in This Field

Peter Diamandis
Amy Webb

Related Books

Description

You’ll never have a complete picture of what's possible in the future if you look at it from just one point of view. The best way to expand your vision? Engage as many people as you can, and “game out” the possibilities together.

In this course, you’ll learn how to use collaborative gaming techniques to go beyond your own thinking and see many, many different sides of the same future. Over the past decade, the Institute for the Future has pioneered new methods in “massively-multiplayer foresight.” You’ll learn how to adapt these methods to get diverse, surprising views of what’s possible, build your empathy for other people’s futures, and reduce your risk of being “blindsided” by the future. This course features content from the Ethical Operating System, a tool created by the Institute in collaboration with Omidyar Networks’ Tech and Society Lab. It’s designed to help technology companies anticipate risks and prevent unwanted consequences of the things they build. Whether or not you work in tech, the Ethical Operating System will give you the chance to participate right now in an urgent future forecasting game. The stakes of the game are the future of truth, privacy, democracy, security, and our collective well-being. It’s a unique opportunity to join creative and strategic forces with people who are making the tech that’s inventing the future, and with fellow futures thinkers like you. Many thanks to the Enlight Foundation and the Enlight Collaborative, which provided a grant to support the creation of this course.

Knowledge

Design and run a multiplayer forecasting game
Game out hard-to-predict consequences in any future scenario
Anticipate long-term harms of new technologies and how to prevent them
Create diverse, inclusive futures thinking communities

Outline

Introduction to Collaborative Foresight
Welcome to this course - Meet your professor, Jane McGonigal
Why the Future is Like a Game
Expert Gaming Versus Everyone Gaming
Example of a Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game
Take a two-minute survey about the future!
Collaborative Foresight Skills Brief: Your "cheat sheet" for this course
Asteroid Scenario: Day 1 Press Release
Asteroid Scenario: Day 5 Press Release
Asteroid Scenario: Day 5 Briefing/Results
Forecasting Games (Excerpt from Reality is Broken)

How to Game Out Surprising Consequences
What's a Future Wheel?
Examples of Surprising Consequences
5 Scenarios to Game Out
TOOL: Future Wheel
Ethical Operating System
Future Wheel Basics

Positive and Shadow Imagination
Two Sides of Every Future
The Future of Empathy
SCENARIO: The FeelThat Network
Advanced Positive and Shadow Imagination
Why Thousands of People are Willing to Die on Mars
The Case Against Going to Mars
Would it Be Ethical to Colonize Mars?
Future of Reading and Writing the Brain
Future of Mind and Body Technology
OPTIONAL: Results from the Feel That Future Forecasting Game
the Future of Empathy Technologies

Tools for Seeing the Future from a Different Point of View
Mini-Masterclass: How to Find Leading Edge Behaviors
How to Explore Four Future Feelings (Part 1)
How to Explore Four Future Feelings (Part 2)
5 Questions to Start a Conversation About the Future
Leading Edge Behaviors in Social Virtual Reality
BONUS: Voices from the Leading Edge of Work
TOOL: Explore Four Future Feelings

Epic Wins
What's an Epic Win?
Epic Wins from the Future of Technology
Tips on Creating Epic Wins
How to Play the Equitable Futures Card Game (Part 1)
How to Play the Equitable Future Card Game (Part 2)
Congratulations on finishing the course!
Epic Wins from the Future of Tech
TOOL: Equitable Futures Card Game
An invitation to join our free Alumni Network

Summary of User Reviews

Collaborative Foresight is a highly rated course on Coursera that teaches how to predict future trends and create strategies through group collaboration. Users rave about the interactive exercises and engaging instructors.

Key Aspect Users Liked About This Course

Interactive exercises and engaging instructors

Pros from User Reviews

Instructors are knowledgeable and passionate about the subject matter
Interactive exercises help solidify concepts and make the learning experience enjoyable
Course provides practical tools and frameworks to apply in real-world scenarios

Cons from User Reviews

Some users found the content to be too basic or repetitive
Course may not be suitable for those looking for a more traditional lecture-style format
Some users experienced technical issues with the platform or course materials