FLIP2G Project
By Roberto Lopez, Artelnics.
Neural Designer participates in the R&D project "Enhancing education and training through data-driven adaptable games in flipped classrooms (FLIP2G)".
This project is framed in the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union to support education, training, youth, and sport in Europe.
Project description
Today's learners from youth until adulthood expect more personalization, collaboration, and better links between formal and informal learning to improve their employability and increase their skill-set.
This can be underpinned by engaging pedagogical models and novel technologies that foster motivation, generate adaptive learning pathways, and allow self-directed learning in education and training.
A learner-centred pedagogy using ICT and interdisciplinary research makes personalized and adaptive learning possible.
However, between 50% and 80% of students in the European Union never use digital textbooks, exercise software, simulations, or educational games.
To this end, it is essential to introduce and integrate pedagogical models and technologies in education and training. Learners will be required to actively engage with the material taught and interact with technologies to increase their motivation and willingness to learn.
Such pedagogical strategies include:
- A well-established Problem-Based Learning (PBL) model, which allows students to learn by doing and supports the development of transversal and lifelong learning skills.
- Flipped classroom model, where the learning content is delivered online outside of the classroom, while the activities and practice exercises are carried out within the classroom with the guidance of a facilitator.
Additionally, examples of novel and engaging technologies include educational games and data analytics, which foster motivation and engagement and allow in-depth practice through simulated activities.
The Flip2G project aims to establish a Knowledge Alliance between higher education institutions, schools, and private companies to boost skills development and introduce a novel, data-driven approaches to education and training.
The consolidation of all efforts will provide a transnational set of results, as follows:
- A new pedagogical method that combines problem-based learning and flipped classroom with game-based learning
- A simulation-based serious game that supports problem-based learning and enhanced flipped classroom processes, adaptive pathways, and educational data recording.
- Learning designs for higher education, schools, and business that support the Flip2G paradigm.
- Learning analytics features that produce informative insights into the learning process.
The above results aim to produce engaging pedagogical models and novel technologies that can foster motivation, generate adaptive learning pathways, and allow self-directed learning in education and training.
Work plan
WP1. Serious games for education and training
The aims of this work package are to:
- (a) Identify existing games that are used in education and document their features.
- (b) Identify knowledge domains where usually serious games for education are usually applied.
- (c) Derive functionalities for gaming environments in education.
Preliminary research on the field has identified examples of serious games that will be further studied and analyzed within the work package.
Such games are Dragon Box Elements for maths, Pulse for health, Pacific for skills acquisition, Robocode for computer programming, Merchants for conflict negotiation skills, etc.
WP2. FLIP2G Flipped classroom design
The aims of this work package are to:
- (a) Carry out a study on the flipped classroom learning strategy to record the features that support transversal and entrepreneurship skills development and active engagement in the learning process.
- (b) Carry out a study on the problem-based learning model to identify the elements that can enrich the traditional flipped classroom model towards in-depth knowledge acquisition and transversal skills development.
- (c) Construct a learning model that will visualize how flipped classrooms should be applied in multiple sectors like higher education institutions, secondary schools, and companies.
WP3. Course environment design and learning analytics
The aims of this work package are to:
- (a) Design courses that can be employed in higher education institutions, secondary schools, and training of private or public employees.
- (b) Design a learning environment that will incorporate gaming features and will allow the active engagement of learners.
- (c) Employ learning analytics tools to record, process, and analyze data generated during learning and produce meaningful visualizations for educators.
WP4. Trials
This work package aims to organize trial pilots with the participation of the project partners for maximum knowledge exchange, co-creation, and evaluation of the pilots' implementation.
More specifically, UOM, AAU, and Northumbria will organize trials in undergraduate and postgraduate courses of different curricula, such as project management, open data, media technologies, and e-government.
Through the expertise postgraduate courses UOM hosts on e-government and innovation, private and public employees will also participate in the trials.
Peacehaven community school's students and Mandoulides School's students will participate in the trials by using the project's results and participating in the International Hackathon organized by Mandoulides Schools, which will be integrated within the FLIP2G gaming environment.
WP5. Evaluation
This work package aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the project's results in improving education and training through a PBL-enhanced flipped classroom model and an engaging environment with gaming and artificial intelligence elements.
This work package will also assess the usage of LA tools in monitoring and guiding learners' progress throughout their learning experience.
WP6. Dissemination & Exploitation
The aim of this work package is twofold:
- (a) To create awareness of the project and disseminate its progress and results to the appropriate stakeholders, including policymakers, market players, and researchers/academics from the targeted sectors.
- (b) To prepare the ground for the result's exploitation after the project end, i.e., open and free distribution of project results to the market, including the ICT industry, the public sector, and the academic community.
WP7. Quality Assurance
This work package aims to provide quality monitoring mechanisms that will guarantee the results' superiority and the timely progress of the project.
A quality assurance strategy and a corresponding plan will specify the procedures and criteria for the overall quality assurance of the project results. It will also coordinate the testing and quality checks that will be undertaken in the course of the work of the other work packages.
WP8. Project Management
This work package ensures that the consortium will collaborate effectively, reach the project's objectives, or even go beyond expectations in the given timeframe.
Furthermore, the work package is concerned with the actual coordination of the project, interfacing with the European Commission, managing budget flows, etc.
Project consortium:
- Aalborg University (Denmark).
- Nurogames (Germany).
- University of Macedonia (Greece).
- Artelnics (Spain).
- Northumbria University (United Kingdom).
- Mandoulides Schools (Greece).
- Revheim School (Norway).
