Teaching by Gaming

New and innovative ways of conveying knowledge and reaching the target group of adult education need to be explored to catch the initial attention of learners to get them involved in lifelong learning activities. All of the involved organisations in this project believe that next to established didactic methods, games can be one important tool to reachthis goal and to improve the quality of adult education of the future. Games guarantee a low-threshold participatory introduction to the topics that can be adjusted to the needs of the participants and the learning effects can be significantly higher than with classical knowledge transfer through teachercentred teaching. Many educators still do not know about the opportunities they are given with games as pedagogical approaches and we wanted to make them aware of this and thus improving the quality of non-formal adult education. Moreover, many stakeholders in education, politics and society still do not know about the advantages of games as tools for transmitting knowledge, competences, skills and as tools for validation of those competences. We wanted to address this problem my concretely getting in touch with them and giving recommendations on how problems can be solved.

The main objectives of this project was improving the competences of educators and other adult education staff and to give concrete advise on how to use games in adult education. That includes methods of addressing the target group, shaping learning environments through games, exploring the strengths and limitations of the use of games in adult education, best-practice examples, information/instructions about special games, information about what games can be used for as well as concrete methods to implement games in educational activities and working environments. Furthermore, the aim was to present innovative and to get to know playful methods of knowledge transfer that can be implemented with existing resources in one's own educational work that initiate individual learning processes and make the learning outcomes more sustainable. We also wanted to promote the European ideas and improve intercultural understanding by sharing our experience from Erasmus+ in the different project steps and events. The participating organisations also aimed for improving their own educational activities, networks and intercultural/ international work.

Besides the project results we implemented general management activities like financial and time management as well as quality management activities like evaluations, feedback loops, qualitative and quantitative measures and controlling milestones. To achieve the project results there were various activities such as online project meetings, creating a website, video making, collecting games, commenting on them and writing about it. Moreover, national approaches, problems and solutions were gathered to be included in the project. Discussions with stakeholders were held and recommendations were given. There were a lot of different dissemination activities like publishing the outputs, creating a website, spreading information in newsletters of our partners and our networks etc. During the five transnational meetings, all the monitoring activities, communication processes and trust building were emphasized. There were activities to prepare the multiplier events which were conferences with stakeholders, educators etc. where the project results were presented and also the multiplier events themselves are an implemented activity.

To reach the goals set by this project we identified, exchanged and tested already existing good practices. Furthermore, four different project results (PRs) were createded during this partnership. The first project result were four studies (and one conclusion) about the current situation of using games in adult education in the four countries of the involved organisations.This provided a basis for the project and helped the partnership to collect a big amount of relevant knowledge to process in the project, to exchange and adapt in the work. The second project result is a very helpfull toolkit: How to make your own educational game. This not only helps others to create games for (adult) education but also helps the partners to do so. The toolkit combines many methods for tailoring individual games in an innovative way and is a great possibility to combine different topics and methods and to even create synergies with other education fields. The collection of 200 games as the third output gives a great overview about best practice games, differnt topics, the applied methods and the trained competencies. It make it easier for everyone to find the right game for a certain situation in adult education combined with all necessary information. There are also a lot videos in which some of the games are presented to include an even more low-threshold and attractive medium which will reach out many people. The fourth result are recommendations for stakeholders which help partners to communicate their findings and results more forcefully to stakeholders and provide a good and clear summary of what needs to be improved in the area games in adult education. They will eventually contribute to a more frequent application of this gorgeous method of non-formal education. All project results/products are available in five languages (in English and the national languages of the participating organisations). In this way, the project has also a longer-term impact and bring improvements for the target group. The project outcomes are structured in a logical way, guiding through the topic of games in adult education. In this project, one focus is also on how games can help communicating European values. The results of these project lead to an improved and more frequent use of games in the teaching activities of the involved organisations and beyond. Other relevant organisations from the network of the participating partners, interested providers of adult education outside these networks as well as individual adult educators will be animated to use games more often in their educational activities. For the participating organisations, the project created a strong European network where ideas and methodologies are confronted and shared. Through the exchange of good practices, organisations and educators have gather inspiration in an international context to apply methodologies in their own context and there is an increase of intercultural awareness. The exchange with colleagues from other European countries also created mutual understanding basis for future crossborder cooperation and layed the foundation for internationalisation efforts of the involved organisations as well as the involved staff which contributes to a European space for learning.