A Social Innovation Serious Game for Higher Education
Schorer A, Pouliopoulos T, Garefi I, Kalemaki I, Galvan C, Barajas M, Theodoridou K, Kouros T, Fuduric M, Papa V, Mavrogeni S, Wittine Z, Protopsaltis A (2022)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Conference contribution, Abstract of lecture
Publication year: 2022
Event location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Abstract
Engaging in social innovation education and practices often leads to a challenging experience of the social value behind the efforts for the addressed target groups. In particular, it is a question of what the individual's efforts could achieve not only at the micro level but also for the present and future common good. In this context, it is relevant for higher education to strengthen students' self-efficacy and to convince them that their skills and resources are capable of influencing social change in innovative ways. In order to support students in this area and to sensitise them to the concerns of the future of society, a serious game is being developed dealing with these aspects in an appropriate didactic and game-based approach.
As part of the H2020 project Nemesis, a serious game for the school sector has already been developed that addresses the topic of social innovation. For the BUFSIE project a new Serious Game is being developed to address the needs of social innovation education in higher education. The game is based on the NEMESIS Serious Game but it is now further developed and adapted to the needs of higher education within the Erasmus+ Project BUFSIE. Through a co-design session with university lecturers, the scenarios were analysed and designed in line to the target group needs.
The game consists of 7 missions related to different sustainable development goals, covering different areas of interest in relation to social innovation. The main purpose of the game is to actively engage with the topic of social innovation, to raise awareness of the concerns of the social future in the sense of empathy, to promote self-efficacy expectations and to foster a positive emotional learning experience. In order to achieve these goals, the game logic combines open world games and adventure games in order to guarantee the maximum freedom, and use the potential for knowledge transfer of adventure games (puzzles, dialogues with non-player characters NPCs, and a game story).
The game will be available in 5 European languages (DE, GR, HR, CY, ES) as web-based application and for smart devices. The technical implementation is carried out with the development environment Unity 3D. This enables to realize the game in a high quality and offer it to the target group in different formats (e.g. as a browser game or app) according to their needs. To create the game with the characteristic features of adventure games, the plug-in AdventureCreatore (Icebox Studios) is utilised. As part of the technical development, the scenes for the different game missions are graphically realised and the game mechanisms and functions implemented. In addition, menu elements are developed to offer the possibility to save and load the game state, to change the language, to switch music on and off and to receive further information about the game and the BUFSIE project.
The finished version of the game will be intensively tested by students, institute members and consortium partners for malfunctions on various devices with different requirements to ensure that the game can be used in the higher education institution in a stabile way and without interference. Finally, the game will be evaluated at 5 higher education institutions across Europe to determine the usability and playability of the game as well as the intended learning outcomes.
Authors with CRIS profile
Antonia Schorer
Institut für Lern-Innovation der Philosophischen Fakultät und Fachbereich Theologie
Aristidis Protopsaltis
Zentrum für Lehr-/Lernforschung, -innovation und Transfer, Abteilung ILI
Involved external institutions
Spain (ES)How to cite
APA:
Schorer, A., Pouliopoulos, T., Garefi, I., Kalemaki, I., Galvan, C., Barajas, M.,... Protopsaltis, A. (2022). A Social Innovation Serious Game for Higher Education. Paper presentation at International Social Innovation Research Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CA.
MLA:
Schorer, Antonia, et al. "A Social Innovation Serious Game for Higher Education." Presented at International Social Innovation Research Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia 2022.
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