Multimodality as a concept can be described as an interdisciplinary approach enabling capitalising on a multiplicity of media and modes that will greatly benefit to educational institutions in the evolution of their learning methodologies. Indeed, with the development of new technologies, digital tools are more and more used in the educational sector. For instance, serious games are an innovative solution to train with an entertaining methodology, ensuring learners to acquire skills with more interactivity.Hence, digital tools are really efficient for both trainers and learners if they are well used. However, there is nowadays a lack in trainers’ apprenticeship, especially in adult education and VET, regarding the use of these new tools in the teaching process. Therefore, improving trainers’ knowledge about multimodality and their digital skills and capacity will improve the quality of the training methods in Europe. Based on this context, the aim of the STEAM project (Serious game to Train Experts in Advanced Multimodality) is to develop an immersive serious game for developing a ToT programme, i.e. training of trainers solution, in order to improve their competencies regarding multimodality in their educative methodology. This project will be transversal as it will target Adult Education, as well as VET, with also great opportunities for future transfer in other educational segments. Thanks to this solution, the trainers will learn how to use efficiently the opportunities provided by multimodality through integration of digital tools in their courses, and how to adapt them to their learners. The game will immerse trainers in a virtual universe and will provide accurate contents about multimodality. Using a serious game to learn about serious games and digital tools is also an innovative “learning by example” method.The project will be coordinated by Manzalab, a French SME specialised in the development of serious games. This company works with researchers in the fields of computing science and neurosciences in order to develop very innovative and relevant games, adapted to specific audiences. Manzalab initiated the STEAM project in order to improve knowledge of trainers in this field.To ensure proper development of the project, four other organisations joined the consortium: the Serious Game Institute (SGI – UK), the Academy for Vocational Education and Training (AFBB – Dresden), Sedu Vocational and Adult Education Centre (SEDU - Finland), and VUC Storstrøm Adult Education Centre (VUCSTOR – Denmark). SGI has a great experience in researches on serious games and will be in charge of all end-users analysis to ensure relevance of the solution and enhance its opportunities of replication. The three other partners, AFBB, SEDU and VUCSTOR, are adult and/or VET centres and will help defining the trainers’ needs, regarding the specificity of each country in the digitalisation of teaching. They will also test the serious game on their trainers and provide recommendations to improve it. Each partner has a key role to play in this project and will provide its expertise to develop a really relevant and innovative serious game.To create a serious game that will be strongly targeting a complete European need, SGI will bring its expertise to capitalise on past projects working in the same subjects and will conduct surveys, helped by AFBB, SEDU and VUCSTOR. Thanks to this analysis, pedagogical and technical specifications will be released enabling co-creation of the contents, of the serious game and release of a complete accurate solution. This serious game will be tested on around at least 20 trainers from AFBB, SEDU and VUCSTOR. To ensure replication, a final analysis, based on the feedbacks and complementary study, will provide strategies for future adaptation of the serious game depending on the trainers profile. Thanks to these activities, the STEAM project will have strong impacts on the skills of adult trainers, especially:- The trainers will improve their knowledge and skills regarding multimodality in their educative methodologies. Therefore they will improve their courses, using digital tools in an efficient way for their learners.- The quality of adult and VET education will be globally improved. Their courses will be more interactive and adapted to their learners. The learners will also improve easily their skills. - The serious game released will be a tool to intensify the use of digital tools in education. It will show to a large audience how useful these tools can be, and therefore it will encourage all trainers and teachers to use it.- On the long term, great opportunities will be given to the whole educational system and segments to improve their use of multimodality.
Context/background of the project: Although the concept has been described for long, multimodality is not systematically used in Education and Training and some teachers still limit the number of pedagogic approaches they use in the classroom. Objectives: The objective is to provide a definition of what is multimodality and how to use it for education and training, create related pedagogic content and integrate it into a gamified digital tool for teachers. Number and profile of participating organisations: The consortium gathered 5 European organisations with complementary expertise: - The coordinator of the project is Manzalab, a French SME specialised in the development of digital experience and games for training purpose. - The Serious Game Institute of the University of Coventry participated to design evaluation tools and conduct the evaluation activities, with the end users and with an external validation board. - In addition, the consortium involved 3 European VET and adult education organisation: AFBB in Germany, VUC Storstrom in Denmark and SEDU in Finland. These organisations provided end users to contribute to the definition of the needs and for testing the developed game. Description of undertaken main activities: The approach used in the project was user centred and evidence based, to ensure consistency of the development with the end users needs. We have started with a literature analysis and end users survey to define the needs and the specifications of the game. We have then developed and tested the pedagogical content and the game with end user through an iterative process. An external Validation Board was also involved in the evaluation of the project progression. In parallel, dissemination and communication activities were conducted to promote the project and its results outside the consortium, mainly through the organisation of 2 multiplier events in Dresden (Game Based Learning Conference) and in Paris (in collaboration with Paris School of Business) and the participation to several conferences in Europe. Results and impact attained: The literature analysis revealed that there is an increasing body of evidence, which suggests that multimodality in learning is an active, student-centred approach in which students select the resources mostly relevant to them. This means that students are responsible for organising learning content such as words and images into coherent verbal and visual models, which comprise their mental schemata and conceptual structures. The essence of multimodality therefore is to provide different types of resources to the student for stimulating learning in meaningful ways within and across disciplines. To this end, multimodality is described as an inter-disciplinary approach drawn from social semiotics with an emphasis on communication and representation as means to meaning making. This is directly relevant to teachers in terms of doing more than simply using current theories of learning to engage students with novel forms of modes and resources of learning. To achieve this, teacher’s need to understand how multimodality engender new teaching and learning processes, strategies and methods as well as new roles for the student and the teacher. Multimodality in today’s classrooms refers to ‘multiple’ modes of representation, with combined elements of print, visual images and design. This transitional shift from print-based education to multimodal education indicates the need to rethink how teaching and learning is conceived, approached and practiced. This is conducive to the way pedagogies, content and technology is designed and utilised for allowing multimodality to take place within contexts and social relations. The pedagogical content and the game were designed from these observations and aimed at increasing the awareness of teachers to this new approach. Through an iterative process with the end users, the game was improved and the contribution to increasing multimodality awareness was measured. If relevant, longer-term benefits: Increasing the use of multimodality in the classroom will support the development of active and student-centred approach, expected to increase the learning efficiency. This is particularly relevant in the current context of Education and Learning and the challenges the sector has to face: needs for personalisation of the learning paths and reduction of the resources.