CONTEXT/BACKGROUND OF PROJECT: In recent years, European policy makers have increasingly called for action to renew the prevailing education models by opening up education in the European Union member states [1]. Two competences have been identified as vital for opening up in education: digital competences and entrepreneurship competences. Both are among the eight key competences mentioned by the EC [2]. Several frameworks [3,4,5] describe the necessity to develop digital competences and write up possible methods. Entrepreneurship competences are also seen as especially important competencies [6,7] and essential goals in the process of renewing higher education [8]. The ISGEE project is unique because it links the goals of digital competences development with entrepreneurship competencies development. Although this is a novel method in its kind, these two approaches had been correlated in [4, p.2.]: “DigComp 2.0 and the first report on a European entrepreneurship competence framework (EntreComp) are being published at the same time. Both tools will enable public authorities and private actors to improve their guidance, training and mentoring services for citizens, young people and job seekers. We believe they can help address some of the key skills challenges that Europe is currently facing.” OBJECTIVES OF YOUR PROJECT The goal of the ISGEE project is to develop both the entrepreneurship and the digital competences of HEI students. The project fulfils its goal when HEI lecturers are provided support and tools to use gamification solutions and serious games that foster entrepreneurship competences. The project’s central component is a new digital serious game (Entrepoly), and linked to that, implementation and adaptation handbooks, toolkits and good practice guides. PARTICIPANTS • University of Szeged, Hungary – lead partner, experienced in entrepreneurship education • West University of Timisoara, Romania – experienced in serious game development • VSB Economics University of Ostrava, Czech Republic – experienced in novel teaching methods • Univations, Germany – experienced in entrepreneurship education • Stucom, Spain – experienced in implementing digital gamification in the field of education • SC Expertissa, Romania – IT company with experience in serious game development DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY The ISGEE project fulfils its goals through the implementation of four intellectual outputs (IO). These are delivered to the stakeholders in three national and one international event, and via online and offline information dissemination activities. IO1: Creating a serious game (Entrepoly) for entrepreneurship education: • A freeware role-play type digital serious game that can be used to develop the entrepreneurship competences of higher education students. The direct target group for the game is HEI lecturers who can rely on this new technique to expand the education methodology in their courses, consequently, the game reaches the students via their lecturers. IO2: Adaptation handbook for the implementation of Entrepoly • The handbook gives guidance on implementing the Entrepoly game, and, in addition to the default settings, the document offers specific modules and content (questions, exercises, background material) which make it possible to customize Entrepoly according to the lecturers’ needs. IO3: Toolkit for implementing gamification in higher education • The toolkit is a general guideline for the educational use of gamification specifically for the use of these solutions in the development in entrepreneurship competences. IO4: Good practice suite for the implementation of serious games and gamification techniques in entrepreneurship education • The suit is a summary that contains clearly practical and ready-to-use solutions on available serious games that may be adapted to the development of entrepreneurship competences at HEIs. RESULTS, IMPACT AND BENEFITS During the project’s implementation we intent to directly involve 120+ HEI lecturers and 300+ HEI students; with our information dissemination activity, we aim to reach 1500+ HEI stakeholders. The grounds for our dissemination activity are customization and extensive adaptation. We do not offer a one-size-fits all programme, we rather propose a resource system that is modularly built, flexibly convertible, and supported by complex background material. Our mindset is not centered around a tender but rather around a mission. Thus our primary objectives are sensitization, raising awareness and bringing together similarly devoted partners. The long-term benefit of our project is guaranteed by the fact that devoted lecturers can combine the tools that we supply in an unlimited number of variations. [1] COM(2013) 654 [2] COM(2018) 24 [3] DigiComp Framework 2013; [4] DigiComp 2.0 Framework 2016 [5] DigiComp Edu Framework 2017 [6] EntreComp Framework 2016 [7] COM(2012) 795 [8] COM(2017) 247
BACKGROUND In recent years, European policymakers have increasingly called for action to renew the prevailing education models by opening up education in the European Union member states. Two competencies have been identified as vital for opening up in education: digital competencies and entrepreneurship competencies. Both are among the eight key competencies mentioned by the EC. OBJECTIVE OF ISGEE PROJECT The goal of the ISGEE project was to develop both the entrepreneurship and the digital competencies of HEI students. The project’s central component is a new online digital serious game (Entrepoly) that aims to foster entrepreneurship competencies. Entrepoly is unique compared to other similar games on the market, as it was created specifically with the aim of making it easier to adapt it to higher education. ACTIVITIES During the course of the ISGEE project, we assumed that in order to make a meaningful impact on HEI students, HEI instructors should be reached, since Entrepoly can only be introduced in the classes with their cooperation. Therefore, we placed special emphasis on the continuous involvement of HEI teachers and HEI students. As a first step, we have explored the needs of teachers and students for educational games. Based on these, we started to develop Entrepoly, which instead of the traditional tabular-looking solution for educational games has become a much more spectacular role-playing game, where the listener roams the field with one character. Within Entrepoly, we have created 4 different types of games (the "house" in the game) that develop different entrepreneurial competencies – we used the EU EntreComp Framework as the basis for the entrepreneurial competencies to be developed. During the development, we continuously carried out tests, both among students and instructors. We created Entrepoly so that its specific content can be customized through a teacher's platform, as intended by the instructor, and student performance can be monitored – all completely for free of charge. An Adaptation Handbook is available for the game's classroom adaptation. During the project, we also tried to reach out to the instructors for whom gamification is still a novelty, so we have put together a Teaching Toolkit to demonstrate the applicability of gamification for educational purposes. In addition, we have created a platform for collecting other games developing entrepreneurial skills, so that the more dedicated instructors can choose from other opportunities – already on the market – besides Entrepoly. RESULTS ENTREPOLY GAME: A freeware role-play type online digital serious game that can be used to develop the entrepreneurship competencies of higher education students. The direct target group for the game is HEI lecturers who can rely on this new, easy-to-use, and customizable technique to expand the education methodology in their courses. ENTREPOLY ADAPTATION HANDBOOK: The handbook gives guidance on implementing the Entrepoly game and using the teacher’s platform to customize game content. TEACHING TOOLKIT FOR USING GAMIFICATION IN EDUCATION: The toolkit is a general guideline for the educational use of gamification specifically for the use of these solutions in the development in entrepreneurship competencies. This toolkit can be useful to reach, motivate and integrate those HEI educators who are just started to get in touch with gamification methods. COLLECTION AND EVALUATION OF EXISTING GAMES: A good practice suite for the implementation of serious games and gamification techniques in entrepreneurship education. This online platform is a summary that contains clearly practical and ready-to-use solutions and an evaluation methodology about available serious games that may be adapted to the development of entrepreneurship competencies at HEIs. IMPACT During the ISGEE project, we placed a strong emphasis on involving participants as widely as possible from outside the partnership. As a result of this, we managed to join a large European education project, EUGLOH, where students from four countries tested Entrepoly. The University of Porto joined our project as an associate partner, while Nottingham Trent University joined as a testing partner. Thanks to all these, 100+ instructors and 1000+ students from 10+ countries (From Brazil to Mongolia) were able to try Entrepoly, so we can say that the international impact of the project is quite determining. PARTICIPANTS • University of Szeged, Hungary – lead partner, experienced in entrepreneurship education • West University of Timisoara, Romania – experienced in serious game development • VSB Economics University of Ostrava, Czech Republic – experienced in novel teaching methods • Univations, Germany – experienced in entrepreneurship education • Stucom, Spain – experienced in implementing digital gamification in the field of education • SC Expertissa, Romania – IT company with experience in serious game development