NEXT STEP teaching and learning: Preparing immigrants and refugees for higher education through gamification

Project “NEXT STEP teaching and learning: Preparing immigrants and refugees for higher education through gamification” was developed as an answer to the growing needs and challenges concerning the integration of immigrants, refugees and other socially excluded groups like the Roma into the education and employment of the countries they live in. In this regard, and based on previous valuable experiences of the consortium, we worked to design and develop an educational two-dimensional (2-D) serious video Game in the spirit of gamification, receiving continuous feedback from our target groups both before and after its development. Gamification is the application of game elements and principles (e.g. collecting points for answering questions correctly, healthy competition) in non-game contexts, in order to stimulate learning and user engagement through a digitally based approach. The Game, which was the main output of the project (IO2 - design and development), was published online, freely available and accessible to anybody interested to use it and/or disseminate it. It is an innovative educational tool that stimulates learning through a fun and relaxed way, while also enhancing the literacy and ICT skills of the participants. This way, it prepares them for the transition into higher education and their overall integration in the community they reside, by introducing academic vocabulary, related terminology and other practical information about how register and participate in HEIs, etc. Through the NEXT STEP Game, persons especially from vulnerable groups have the chance to learn about various academic aspects related to each partner country (there are 6 different Game versions tailor made and translated for Belgium/Flanders, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey), with many types of exercises that will also contribute to words’ and phrases’ comprehension, while stimulating strategic thinking. Also, the Game is of scalable difficulty and those who engage are rewarded with “unlocking” more information, words and terms as they progress, adjusted to each country’s context. It can be used complementarily to modern language developing and communicative skills in education, for example within a classroom, as well as individually though a person’s mobile phone, with its impact thus being multifaceted. NEXT STEP began with IO1 – research and preparation during which 101 members of our target groups and 62 educators were called to provide their insights through questionnaires and interviews on where to focus during the Game’s development, and ended with IO3 – piloting and testing during which 80 members of our target groups and 39 educators were called to play the Game and provide structured feedback for its improvement through questionnaires. Although the participation in IO3 was less than in IO1 due to the covid-19 outbreak and the consequent restrictions that reduced physical interaction, we surpassed our total indicator and more than 320 persons in total participated directly or indirectly during the project’s implementation, not taking into account how many have entered to play the Game without our knowledge – and how many more will do so in the future. In this regard, as a supplement to the project’s dissemination materials and in order to maximize our target groups’ involvement, we have also developed and published a technical Game manual with instructions which was published and disseminated in Arabic and Romany languages as well. Last but not least, the fact that the NEXT STEP Game is open and free for everybody to join through the project’s official website, as well as to replicate it, allows it to be widely utilized and to be transferred into other contexts and environments with ease, further enhancing its sustainability potential.