Motivation has been the core of attention among teachers throughout the years as it constitutes the backbone of the learning process. Learning is a complicated, dynamic process that gets completed through learner’s motivation and engagement. The sudden digital transformation that we have witnessed in the last year has made this process even harder and precisely this makes so necessary to find new ways to teach and engage. Increasing motivation is not as easy as following a formula. The project proposal “Maximising learner´s motivation, engagement and learning through gamified environments” (MAXIMUS) aims at designing, developing and testing a digital, customizable and interactive motivation system to engage students in learning and at the same time facilitate learner’s participation, their self-development while mastering transversal skills, deep thinking and creative expression. The system will include game-like elements to inspire game-like reactions and engagement among students. MAXIMUS gathers seven full partners and one associated partner (Microregion 11+) from four different EU countries: Slovakia, Spain, Greece and Portugal. The project consortium comprises a carefully selected mix between non-profit organisations (KRR, IED) two private schools (Colegio Los Peñascales and BESST) one public school (5TH Senior High School of Agrinio), initial VET provider (CESUR) and a HEI (ISMAI). The specific aims of this project are: • To increase the level of stimulus in classes through technologies in a meaningful and effective way • To increase learner’s motivation and active engagement and at the same time increase learner´s transversal skills, critical thinking and creative expression; • To enable learners to monitor their own progress and reward their progress/success; • To create an open and accessible environment for the school community • To help teachers/learners set/meet SMART (achievable) goals in the course • To provide useful tools for teachers to motivate and engage learners • To enable teachers to monitor learners progress in a variety of areas. In order to achieve the abovementioned project aims, out partnership foresees the design, development and testing of the project outputs: 1. Maximus System design & setup 2. Maximum Platform Testing & Upgrade to Mobile application 3. Maximus audio-visual instructions. Experts, teachers and trainers will be involved in designing, developing and testing the project outputs in all project phases. The project foresees to involve at least 30 teachers and 90 students in testing activities. Orchestra will celebrate seven multiplier events to maximise the exploitation potential of the initiative, involving 225 participants in total.
The main objective of MAXIMUS was to create a digital motivational system that would increase students' engagement in learning while supporting the development of their transversal skills, critical thinking, and creative expression. The system should also provide teachers with effective tools to motivate learners and help them set achievable goals, while allowing learners to track their progress and be rewarded for their achievements. The system would be customisable and interactive, with game-like elements to increase student engagement. MAXIMUS also intended to introduce various elements such as critical thinking, time management and teamwork for recognition and reward. The platform would facilitate communication and collaboration between students and teachers, using a reward system based on pre-defined values/points and performance levels. Overall, the aim was to create an accessible and open environment for the school community, encouraging active engagement and deeper learning.
Our aim was to work together to explore methods of increasing motivation in the school environment, taking advantage of the disruption caused by the digital tools that has changed our lifestyles and the way we learn. Rather than struggling to adapt to sudden digital change, we wanted to seize the opportunity and explore ways to reinvigorate teachers' and learners' enthusiasm for education, helping them to reach their full potential. Our findings revealed the complexity of the issue and underlined that fostering motivation in the school environment is a challenging endeavour. It is worth noting that this issue transcends borders and affects all the countries involved in this project. Therefore, we saw this project as an opportunity to develop a system that would take advantage of the available digital tools to increase engagement. All partners identified key challenges that we wanted to address in this project. These challenges included: outdated teaching methods that did not engage the "digital generation of learners"; the lack of effective incentives; the sudden transition to digital teaching that left teachers unprepared; and the challenge of integrating gamification into different teaching contexts.