Card game to facilitate conversations important for well-being

The cards support the Nordic nine vision of students being critical when thinking and constructive when collaborating, because they help the students to open and share their real experiences and stories. Thereby they learn important things about themselves and others, which are relevant for collaborating.” – Pernille Steen Pedersen

About the cards

Research conducted through the “stress and well-being among students at CBS” project has allowed us to form an understanding about the main challenges students experience. We have used qualitative interviews, focus group interviews and surveys. We saw a need for more informed knowledge and new kinds of conversations about these topics among students and people working at educational institutions. On this basis the dialogue cards have been developed as a new way to work with student well-being. Students have been involved in the development process of both content and design, and afterwards different groups of students have been testing how they work.

The rationale behind the cards

We believe that the current well-being challenge that we see among students in Denmark, but also for the youth globally, imply that there is a need for working with some new topics and relational and human skills in today’s society. At CBS we talk about the need for students to acquire transformation capabilities during their study years, not merely the academic and professional knowledge. This could for example concern learning more about how to collaborate constructively and to build resilience in groups, for which psychological safety is important. We present the dialogue cards as one way to work with this relational capability training among students in higher education.

Design of the cards

The cards are designed to be used in small groups and with a moderator that reads aloud, reflection breaks, sharing of quotes and situations of other students, and where everyone take turns to answer. They are developed on knowledge on how to host constructive and good conversations.

The card can be used in relation to group work or in study groups, but teachers can also use them in their teaching. This can be a way to integrate the CBS Nordic Nine approach in teaching activities to help the students to take collective responsibility and learn and appreciate the competencies of co-students and engage in open and honest communication – with trust, respect, and support others.

See under user instructions how specifically to play the game and the structure of the three themes with three rounds.

Video with four students playing a full round of the cards