Gaming in action – Engaging Adult Learners with Games and Gamification Erasmus Project

Project Title

Gaming in action – Engaging Adult Learners with Games and Gamification

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

The project builded on the aim to highlighting the need for quality pedagogical training on a new technologically digital Era where education had less to do with reproducing information passively and had more to do with the development of creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making. Regarding adult education these considerations were even more evident. Many times, adult education was seen as a less important training for unmotivated learners and with high dropout rates. Most of the times trainees of disadvantaged cultural, economic, and family backgrounds tended to reveal more academic difficulties, and those were accentuated over the years.
The main goal of this project was to improve adult training with new pedagogical scenarios combined with technology, to enrich the training process and simultaneously to ensure greater learning commitment and high retention rates.
In order to meet this need, the project aimd to designing and developing a blended (face-to-face and online) training model based on Games and Gamification for trainers working with adult learners. The training model we proposed was, in itself, a gamified game. It would have a sequence of sessions where one created a global context and a narrative to generate an immersive learning experience. In the training sessions while working on the contents through games users would have (Seaborn and Fels, 2014): (i) Points (numerical units indicating progress), (ii) Badges (visual icons signifying achievements), (iii) Leaderboard (display of ranks for comparison), (iv) Progression (milestones indicating progress), (v) Status (textual monikers indicating progress), (vi) Levels (increasing difficulty tasks), (vii) Rewards (tangible, desirable items), and Roles (role-playing elements of character). All these game elements throughout individual challenges and group tasks (for peer collaboration, because collaboration was one of the basics of gamification).
We wanted develop an innovative pedagogical scenario allowing our trainers to experience new training strategies while building their knowledge, producing a self-reflection that was fundamental for the process of teaching.
We believed that the innovative pedagogical scenario that underlied the Game-based learning and Gamification was what it took to face the challenges of training in this new Era and also involved adult learners in order to answer their needs.
We also wanted to familiarize other trainers (not directly involved in the project from the beginning) with the new pedagogical skills, being the first to test the training materials, participated and used the virtual platform. These trainers were invited to contribute to the course improvement and also to reflect on how this course could be integrated into the general training offer of their organizations.

Project Website

http://www.gamificationproject.com

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 177222 Eur

Project Coordinator

Mesleki Girisimciler ve Toplum Gonulluleri Dernegi & Country: TR

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITY OF CUKUROVA
• Cukurova Ilce Milli Egitim Mudurlugu
• DALYA AJANS REKLAM TANITIM MEDIKAL BILGISAYAR BILISIM VE PROMOSYON DEKORASYON ITHALAT IHRACAT TICARET LIMITED SIRKETI
• MAKE IT PEDAGOGICAL
• UNIVERSITATEA POLITEHNICA DIN BUCURESTI
• K MILIOS AND SIA OE