GAME+ - Growth and Access for Millennials of Erasmus+

Background We have applied for this project in response to identified needs of the youth sector in Europe: - Unexplored and not sufficiently used potential of online gaming as a tool of youth work, - Low skills of youth workers to use and develop digital tools and online gaming in youth work, - The need to continuously update youth work, raise its quality and reachout to young people, especially with fewer opportunities - with and without disabilities, - The need to develop digital skills in youth work professionals and abilities to turn online engagement of young people into youth participation. Our response was the strategic partnership project in which we explored the potential of online youth work, gamification and game-based learning, developed skills of youth workers to develop their own games and developed a tool to contain those games - online platform Learnus+. We wanted to develop tools for youth workers to ease their digital youth work and gamify online learning that they provide for young people. We were thinking about a cohesive online tool that could offer a simple engine for games that can envelop different mechanics. For effective games, but with super-simple ways to make them. Youth workers could make online games on any topic, or actually use the process of making games WITH young people to develop key competences. We wanted to provide one tool for this, so that youth workers won’t have to combine numerous free tools, or buy access to premium ones. Objectives Our specific objectives were: -To offer new, innovative digital tool - a set of educational games on the Platform that youth workers can use to develop games and offer them to young people, -Improve the digital participation and digital inclusion of young people through online games provided by youth workers, -To encourage and motivate young people to use the educational games as a tool for online learning; -To strengthen the capacities of the youth workers and youth organisations in the digital youth work field. Implementation The project has included several processes that led to development of intellectual outputs and learning processes of youth workers, youth organisations and young people: 1. Management: -Transnational meetings in Portugal and Italy; -Online collaboration between partners; -Numerous consultations and communication between and beyond the project consortium, -Information, promotion and reaching out to potential partners, -Information and consultations with the NA, -Financial management and documentation. 2. Research on usage of gamification and game-based learning in our countries (IO1): - Collecting data, good practices and needs of the youth sector in each country, -Developing Guidelines for using gamification tools in youth work; 3.Creating digital tool - Learnus+ (IO2): -developing the premisses of the platform to support youth workers in developing own games, -running consultations, co-management processes with young people, -developing online games about various topics for and with young people, -developing online guidelines for youth workers on how to develop, prepare, save and upload their own online games, -collecting more materials for the Learnus+ for the benefit of the users, 4. Training Course for youth workers on how to use Learnus+, develop own digital games and expand their digital skills, -testing online games, reinventing them, developing new ones, -game-based learning training, -how to develop own games training, 5. Local activities to test the games and the digital tool in each country, 6. Dissemination activities in each country: -Workshops, conferences, events aimed at explaining to youth workers and youth organisations how to use Learnus+ and assure its exploitation. Achievements We have developed 2 main Intellectual Outcomes, alongside with other results that were corresponding and strengthening the two: 1. Guidelines for using gamification tools in youth work (available on Learnusplus.org: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZpbQbVZAbSvVwh81RzSYmfLlgneJksV3HYV); Corresponding: -a chapter on how to understand gamification and game-based learning introducing more insight into the topic, -a training program that prepares youth workers to develop their own games, methodology of game-based learning, 2. Learnus+ platform - digital tool to envelop various online games directed to young people (https://learnusplus.org/): -on youth participation, -on inclusion and developing sensitivity, -on empathy and solidarity, -on cultural awareness, -on integration and accommodation, -on sustainable development, -on mental disorders and conditions, -on sexual education. Corresponding: -a guide to use Learnus+ and develop own games - User Guide -a sample game to download, edit, fill in with own content, and upload to Learnus+.