02/10/2018

The experts' seminar ‘'Evidence-based development of serious games for the educational sector'' took place in Brussels on 12 September, and it was jointly organised by European Schoolnet, the eConfidence and the Scientix projects.

Game developers, Ministries of Education representatives, researchers and teachers gathered to discuss their outlooks on the state of educational games' progress and what can be done to further advance their positive impact. Ways to overcome challenges such as the fragmentation of the European educational games market, increasing the collaboration in the creation process, and introducing serious games in schools in a meaningful way were also covered.

Participants debated on a range of games-based learning related topics based on research findings and latest trends, including development methodologies, funding and legal challenges and also had the opportunity to hear insightful examples from teachers with experience of using serious games in classrooms. Findings from the Triseum pilots in schools were also presented, such as the positive outcomes in terms of student motivation and classroom engagement. "As a result, my students actually ended up discussing Maths problems and homework outside of school, in a friendly environment, without any special encouragement from me" said Anna Sulek, Mathematics Teacher and Scientix Ambassador.

While teachers present at the event acknowledged the impact game-based learning had in the development of positive attitudes, critical thinking and digital skills in their students, participants agreed that there is still a lot of work to be done in the field and the best way to improve the feasibility of serious games is the continuous collaboration between all the actors involved.

To access resources from the eConfidence project click here, and for more information on the Triseum pilots, download the Triseum evaluation report here.