Play & Learn Entrepreneurial Skills in the Agricultural Sector Erasmus Project

Project Title

Play & Learn Entrepreneurial Skills in the Agricultural Sector

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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries

Project Summary

The project aims at developing a digital tool to promote the improvement of entrepreneurial skills in students studying at agricultural VET schools.
Entrepreneurial skills are compulsory elements in the curricula of vocational training courses in several member states. One of the 8 key competences identified in the Lisbon Strategy is the improvement of entrepreneurial competence, which includes both striving for changes and the ability to accept and exploit new external solutions while developing a strategic approach.
Likewise the possession of these skills is important to keep and develop the competitiveness in the agricultural sector. Becoming an entrepreneur can create jobs for young people and contribute to continue carrying on with the family business.
From 2006 and particularly from 2010, the role of digital game-based learning, a novel approach in education, has been brought into the focus of attention. From 2013, varied methods, recommendations related to the application of gamification were published in the education sector.
The Agropoly platform, as the main outcome of the project is based on this new, game-based methodology using the revised modules of the „Learn to Become your Own Boss” (CZ/10/LLP-LdV/TOI/134003) project implemented by CULS.

The project carried out two intellectual outputs: IO1 – Agropoly online platform and IO2 – Teacher’s Handbook.
The development of the main outputs were preceded by a survey, which aimed at identifying the main competences to be improved by the game. Based on this survey, the following competence centres were identified:
• Responsibility & Risk taking
• Decision making, planning & Leadership
• Cooperation, networking & Communication
• Innovativeness & Creativity
• Time management & Planning
• Information analyzing, processing & Summarizing

The modules in the curricula of teaching entrepreneurship varied in each partner country, therefore we created a frame story (the general goal of the game is to revive a devasted agricultural land), where each competence center forms an independent module. A mentor belongs to each competence center, who is a guide for the players during the game.
After registration, students are landing on an abandoned agricultural land, where they can start playing with the minigames and collect agricultural assets. Players can move up a level by collecting the sufficient amount of these agricultural assets and they can compare their performance with others’.

Type of the games:
• Minigames
• Decision trees
• Board games

The knowledge garden:

• Knowledge bases
• Glossary
• Case studies

The theoretical knowledge background of the minigames can be found in the knowledge bases. At minigames, players can test their acquired knowledge and competences through agricultural examples.

The minigames have the following sub-types:

o Quiz
o Gallows tree
o Memory cards
o „Set theory” games
o Videos with quiz
o Drag’n’drop
o Gap filling
o True of false

The Agropoly platform is available in all partner languages and in English. The main advantage of the English version is, that it is suitable for extension of knowledge of the English terminologies in agriculture.
At game-based learning, the motivational power of the game helps students solving the learning tasks. We created a game structure, where students can restart one minigame as many times as they would like in order to learn the right answer and feel more and more successful each time.
We also developed an online board game that students can play together with their friends. The 600 board game questions refer to all of the topics in the agricultural education.
Each competence center contains a decision tree with real life situations, where the right and wrong answers are illustrated with a variety of graphical elements.
Case studies have added values, as they introduce good entrepreneurial examples for students.
A glossary was also added to the game, which helps students to understand certain terms.
The game was tested by 500 students, teachers and their feedbacks were built in the final version of the game.

IO2 – Teacher’s Handbook
This contains methodological recommendations for teachers. It is available in all partner languages, including 50 copies printed in Hungarian and in Romanian and 30 copies printed in Spanish and in Czech.
The partnership organized 5 transnational and 1 trilateral meetings, where partners could work on the development of the intellectual outputs together.
Moreover, one multiplier event was organized in each partner country, where 220 participants from the primary and secondary target groups took part altogether.
The evaluation was made by one of the partners, who helped the project management providing feedbacks from the results of the evaluation questionnaires.
The vocational schools participated in the project will apply the realized serious game in their teaching practices in the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 268259 Eur

Project Coordinator

TREBAG SZELLEMI TULAJDON- ES PROJEKTMENEDZSER KFT & Country: HU

Project Partners

• PROMPT-H Számítástechnikai Oktatási, Kereskedelmi és Szolgáltató Kft.
• XXI INVESLAN, S.L.
• FUNDACION HAZI FUNDAZIOA
• CESKA ZEMEDELSKA UNIVERZITA V PRAZE
• Fundatia Centrul Educational Spektrum
• FM Közép-magyarországi Agrár-szakképzö Központ, Bercsényi Miklós Élelmiszeripari Szakgimnázium, Szakközépiskola és Kollégium