Category: gamification

STEP_UP partners wrapped up the project in Frankfurt

The final Transnational Project Meeting of STEP_UP | Stop Epidemic Growth Through Learning took place on the last week of February in Frankfurt, Germany.  We now say goodbye to the consortium that worked together since December 2020 aiming to introduce social care and community stakeholders to the impact of behaviours in the spread of a pandemic/emergency situation and also, on how to prevent and cope with these types of situations. However, the collaboration remains and will continue, to ensure that the project results will be used, exploited and leveraged on further! At the end of this project, we are proud to showcase: This last meeting allowed to go through the final details and think about the sustainability of the project for the future!  It was a huge pleasure for SHINE as project Coordinator to work together with AFEdemy, ISIS, CIPH and Wise Angle….Continue Reading STEP_UP partners wrapped up the project in Frankfurt

STEP_UP Multiplier Event in Spain organised by Wise Angle

On January 25, 2023 WISE ANGLE developed its own multiplier event as part of the STEP_UP dissemination activities envisioned in the Erasmus+ Framework. The STEP_UP toolkit (including the online game, manual of social and policy measures, alongside the trainer manual) constitutes the main otuput of this project in the frame of easily accessible, non-formal/informal adult education. The organisation exploited networking opportunities to get in touch with another EU-funded project (Science4Pandemics, under the EIT Health programme) also developing an online browser game on the theme of health emergency crises and pandemic management. However, their experience was rather focused at young people and the development of data collection processes for citizen science participation. Although the two projects had different scopes (low-skilled professionals in adult education vis-à-vis young people in schools), it was an excellent opportunity to explore common gamification strategies and co-design approaches for developing new interactive tools with society aimed at increasing preparation towards future health crises. The mutliplier was developed in the format of an Online Webinar and was attended by stakeholders coming from Southern and Eastern Europe (e.g. Portugal, Spain, Italy and Romania). The first part of the session was devoted to formal presentation of results, whilst the second part involved a practical demonstration of the STEP_UP game and a roundtable interview between the moderator (Francesco Camonita from WISE) and the two representatives for the project. These were Dr. Begonya Nafrià from the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute and Mrs. Carina Dantas as main coordinator of the STEP_UP project. Altogether, this provided a final chance to reflect together on commonalities and differences across the two games while discussing further use of these tools beyond the project-domains….Continue Reading STEP_UP Multiplier Event in Spain organised by Wise Angle

Multiplier Event of the STEP_UP project

The Multiplier Event of the European Project STEP_UP: Stop epidemic growth through learning will be held on 9 November 2022, from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, in a face-to-face and hybrid format, at the Nursing School of Coimbra. STEP_UP is an Erasmus+ project, coordinated by SHINE 2Europe, which during the last two years has developed a training tool based on an educational game, which aims to raise awareness of the impact of behaviours in the spread of a pandemic/emergency situation. This training material is aimed at adult education, with particular emphasis on community leaders, informal carers and volunteers, social and health professionals, who can learn about preventive measures and their different impacts at individual, work, family, governmental and other levels. The main objective of this event is to share knowledge and the results achieved during the project: The project will be presented during the morning session by the representative of the Portuguese partner SHINE 2Europe, Carina Dantas, with a presentation on the process, methods and results. In the afternoon session, led by Francesco Camonita from the Spanish partner Wise Angle and SHINE 2Europe, an active methodology will be used to allow participants to experience, through hands-on learning, how the online game works and to access the content first-hand, learn and try out the practical exercises. We intend that a wide community can benefit from this action. Therefore, the event will be inserted in a Conference with an extended programme, dedicated to social innovation, learning and implementation and will count with hundreds of national and international participants interested in these themes, so we invite you to participate in all the other sessions that you consider relevant. The event is subject to (free) registration HERE and you can check the agenda:…Continue Reading Multiplier Event of the STEP_UP project

Facial expressions really matter

In May 2022, AFEdemy performed interviews with 2 female and 2 male policy makers from municipalities and ministries about the STEP_UP character Britta Johnson. The interviews took place online; the scenes of the game were presented to the interviewees. In general, the interviewees were very interested in the game and found the scenes very attractive. The policy makers suggested to change the facial expression of Britta Johnson. They value her facial expression as a little shy or sad and not quite convincingly to fiercely lead the island out of the crisis. This was a very eye opening comment: facial expressions really matter to convince the player of the right direction of the game. Also it was advised to change the position of the hands before the belly into hands next to the body. The designer is asked to propose new facial expressions. Other comments regarded the complexity of the presented minigame, the explanation of the scores and the colours to indicate the evolution of the virus. With the further building of the game, these issues will be solved….Continue Reading Facial expressions really matter

In Portugal, nurses and carers saw for the first time the results of the STEP_UP game

Following the work done over the past year, SHINE 2Europe has once again relied on the support of nurses and formal carers of older adults to see for the first time the outcome of the STEP_UP game, an educational game that promises to teach how to minimize the damage and risks of a pandemic. In the last year, these same participants were involved in the first workshops and through their contributions helped to delineate in a real way the characters and scenes of what will be the game “STEP_UP | Stop Epidemic Growth Through Learning. This game is one of the results of the STEP_UP project, of which SHINE is a partner with 4 other international partners, and which aims to develop a training tool for the social sector and community stakeholders, teaching the best ways to prevent and deal with pandemic situations, through an educational game. This time, the first scene of the game with the character Rosa Santos, a caregiver of a residential structure for older people, was presented to the nurses and formal caregivers. In this phase of the workshops, the main goal was to validate the understanding of the game scenes, how it’s played, how it goes to the following phases, or the effectiveness of the mini games presented. Since the participants had been a key support in structuring the game, they were pleasantly surprised to see their ideas materialized. Players will learn the right measures to proceed during a pandemic through multiple choices of right or wrong actions, mini games to distinguish fake news from true information or realize the importance of government measures. In recent years it has been proven that “gamification” improves learning skills, particularly for young people and people with low qualifications. The game will be aimed at professionals in the social sector but can also be used by any citizen and will be an important tool in adult training….Continue Reading In Portugal, nurses and carers saw for the first time the results of the STEP_UP game

STEP_UP project partners in Croatia

Representatives from the partners of Step-Up consortium attended the third transnational meeting of the project, which took place on 5 and 6 April in Zagreb, Croatia. This project, whose main result will be an educational game to raise awareness of how to deal with a pandemic, aims to develop adult education tools with particular emphasis on the social sector and community agents. Portugal coordinates this European ERASMUS+ project, through SHINE 2Europe, with the remaining partners being AFEdemy from the Netherlands, ISIS from Germany, Wise Angle from Spain and CIPH from Croatia. It was the latter, the Institute of Public Health of Croatia, the host of the meeting, in which was presented the current state of the development of the game and where it was possible to see the first images of the characters that compose it, scenarios and interface. The final results of a wide-up survey on the measures used in the various countries to deal with the pandemic and which will be soon published were also presented. This questionnaire was completed by physicians, caregivers, volunteers, nurses, political representatives, among others. There was also an opportunity to present the progress in the manual of social and political interventions and in the trainer’s toolkit that are being developed within the scope of the project. The partners of the STEP_UP project received a warm welcome from the Croatian partner, who prepared a pleasant surprise at the end of the working meeting: a historical tour guided by a witch, who was in fact a historian who captivated the attention of all participants with its historical and fantastic version of the city of Zagreb. The project partners will continue work to bring their educational game to the public STEP_UP | Stop Epidemic Growth Through Learning….Continue Reading STEP_UP project partners in Croatia

STEP_UP scenarios for politician well received by stakeholders

Almost one year ago, the STEP_UP game project started (Stop epidemic growth through learning, Erasmus+ KA2 Action, 2020-2023). Coordinator is SHINE 2Europe and as partner AFEdemy is responsible for the production of the Manual on social and policy interventions. The project team will develop an online serious game in which the learner can follow a chronological path from early detection to exit strategies from pandemics. The learner can also choose between playing different roles in the game: to step in the shoes of a prime minister, volunteer, nurse in a long term care institution, manager of a primary care organisation or being an epidemiological or public health expert. AFEdemy developed the scenario of Mrs. Britta Johnson. Vice prime minister and minister of Health on a fictive island who is confronted with the detection of a strange virus in Europe. Because the prime minister is absent for a longer period, she needs to take the decision to isolate the island and to take measures regarding the population and visitors of the island. AFEdemy discussed the scenarios with a (former) politician and several policy officers from municipalities and ministries. All experts found the scenarios really good and added some comments to improve the scenarios. The most important lesson AFEdemy learned is that it is very important to have a dedicated team of experts around you and to focus on the communication. Communication must be transparent and providing true realistic messages to the public and avoid fake news. The main target group of the game is social and health workers, volunteers and supporting workers at municipalities….Continue Reading STEP_UP scenarios for politician well received by stakeholders

Croatia workshops with Public Health and epidemiologists

For the purposes of the development of the STEP_UP game and characters, CIPH is creating a character and scenes in the field of public health. The goal was to identify stakeholders within this sector and bring their expertise and real life experience together through a constructive workshop. During the workshop the character was presented along with potential scenes and feedback was gained through exercises evaluating the character, scenes, impacts on the spread of the disease and the impacts on society. Gaining knowledge and feedback from relevant stakeholders was of great benefit to development of the game. CIPH character in the STEP_UP game is a public health professional/epidemiologist. Our online workshops were held at the end of July and we chose to hold a group workshop so as to create an atmosphere that would allow for different points of view and ideas to be shared and allow for critical feedback from a variety of experts who have been frontline workers during the pandemic. Aids such as Google Jamboard were used to make the workshop as interactive as possible online. All participants, four in total were employed as physicians at public health institutes both at the national and local level. All participants were very enthusiastic about participating and contributing to the development of the educational game being developed by the STEP_UP team. Participants were productive with feedback and engaged throughout the duration of the workshop. Many useful insights were gained as well as suggestions for what improvements and could be made to help improve the understanding and level of complexity of the game regarding the public health sector. Points which we were told to keep in mind while finalising our scenes and characters were to keep in mind the dynamics of the pandemic that will greatly influence what measures are in place and what impacts they will have on societies and individuals….Continue Reading Croatia workshops with Public Health and epidemiologists

Interviews to health care managers help design the characters

In the frame of the activities related to the educational game development, WISE ANGLE has been tasked with consulting key stakeholders so as to feed the participatory co-creation process aimed at designing the characters, the real-life situations they will face in the playing scenarios and the measures they will have to put in place to help stop the virus pandemic and contain its impacts. In particular, the character that WISE ANGLE designed and presented is a healthcare manager, namely the director of a primary care center. Due to the continued limitations to travels and the impossibility to identify a suitable date for all the participants, WISE ANGLE has elicited individual online interviews as consultation method. All the interviewees are healthcare professionals and health research experts from three countries (Italy, Spain and Portugal). The interviews were insightful and provided useful hints for the refinement of the character and the measures as well as the design of the game in general. All participants were acquainted with the potential benefits of gamification techniques in learning processes and confident that STEP_UP will deliver a highly useful tool for training professionals and volunteers in the health and social care sector as well as a playful way for citizens to learn. Some of the most relevant observations were related to the use of more personal narratives to describe the challenges the character is facing in her daily life and work duties and generate empathy in the player. The interviewees also made concrete examples of situations and events the character shall be confronted with and suggested several “mini-games” to be embedded in the game flow….Continue Reading Interviews to health care managers help design the characters

ISIS interviews volunteer groups to advise on the game design

The workshops that were held in the partner countries Portugal, the Netherlands, Croatia, Spain and Germany with various actors who were active in the COVID-19 pandemic serve as a basis for the elaboration of realistic challenges that players should overcome to contain a pandemic in the STEP_UP game. On the 29th of July ISIS Social Research concluded the talks with representatives of the German neighbourhood assistance groups from Frankfurt-Nordend, Hanau-Kesselstadt, Groß-Auheim and Hainstadt. We thank them for their insights into good and bad experiences during the pandemic, which will certainly enrich our game scenes. For more information about the project and the game, please visit our project website: https://stepupgame.eu…Continue Reading ISIS interviews volunteer groups to advise on the game design