Wordle for Safety Training?
Wordle, with more than 3 million players, is the latest game to take the world by storm. I have been trying to think of a way to adapt Wordle, something that is so attractive to so many people, in a way that it can be used with safety training. If you are not familiar with Wordle, it’s a once-a-day game where players try to guess a five-letter word. After guessing, the game tells you whether any of your letters are in the secret word and whether they are in the correct place. Players have six tries to get it right. If you haven’t tried Wordle yet, you can try it here.
Some people play Wordle by haphazardly entering guesses, others have a very specific strategy, and some take an approach that’s in between. If you play and find yourself carefully adding letters and trying hard to make an educated guess, you are likely running through hundreds of words in your head to see what might work. Could a game like this be of any use in safety training?
Yes, I think Wordle, customized for a specific safety training class or even as a mini-safety awareness reminder, can be something fun for safety trainers and trainees to try. How could this work?
Fortunately, there are some very smart people out there who have created (free-to-use) sites for making custom Wordles. When I was writing this newsletter, I tried one out and you can try it with this link.
If you create your own Wordle this way, pick a word that relates to the training content and share the link with your trainees. This can be done in a live class, preferably as a pre-class activity that trainees can work on as they enter a training class, or sent out ahead of time. Many people love puzzles so if they decide to play along, it’s a good way to not only get their attention but also get them thinking about the topic before the class even starts. Trainees could enter a classroom and start checking texts or scrolling through social media, or they could be thinking about something related to safety. I know which one I’d prefer.
Alternatively, if your company sends out daily safety messages by text, sending out a new customized Wordle link can be a fun alternative. As always, games and activities should not be added to a safety training program simply to give trainees something to do. If an activity, especially a popular one like Wordle, can be modified so that it provides a benefit to a training class, in this case, it’s getting trainees’ attention before class begins or even having people think about safety for a few minutes a day, it is worth checking out.
By the way, there are two custom Wordle creators I could find. The first one used in the example above was created by Julian Wachholz and is called Word Rodeo. Another, with less customization options, was created by Pallav Agarwal and is called MyWordle. Both let you make Wordles of any length and in languages other than English. Word Rodeo also lets you add hints which could be useful if you are using a longer word or even a short phrase.
Word Rodeo, in addition to MyWordle, lets you select how long the word is, but unlike MyWordle, Word Rodeo lets you select how many tries a user has to get the correct answer plus allows you to provide a hint.
What do you think? Will you be trying to incorporate a Wordle activity in your training program?
Don't forget - try out the customized Wordle here!
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