Digital education for adults and adult educators in e-government access through context-based gamified scenarios

DigEqual project stemmed from the necessity to tackle and contribute to overarching issues: - Limited usage of e-government by adults in Europe, especially as 88% of adults are online, and only ha...

Dig-Equal has: 1. Defined the main skills and expectations on the main adoption factors for e-government interaction by adults, defining different everyday scenarios together with low-skilled adults, and defining a pedagogical methodology for adult educators in e-government. 2. Improved and strengthened the competencies and skills of adult educators and low-skilled adults through a training course on the different aspects of e-government services based on a user-perspective. Based on the PR1 structure, we have defined tools for the adult educators and very pragmatic self-paced materials for adults. 3. Developed a quest-based interactive web-app for adults to choose and understand everyday situations and compare how “life with and without e-government is” through a gamified approach, useful both as an educational tool for adult educators and for self-learning in a visual and immediate way, very apt for dis-empowered groups and for culturally diverse groups. The different simple questions were all based on the different contexts experienced by the adults and collected throughout the project.

We have: 1. Ignited the debate on e-government in each country through local action group constituted by adults, adult educators and local stakeholders to ‘map’ the current gaps and barriers in e-government access and digital education (127 adults and 70 educators from 6 different countries) as part of the field research of R1 2. Developed a novel framework on e-government learning for adult educators (R1) 3. Developed a C1 training by engaging in total 15 adult educators (foreseen were 18 in total) 4. We developed a course constituted by 6 units on e-government with one quiz each, for adults, and a toolbox for adult educators together with a methodology for adult educators Each partner organised local activities by piloting R2 & R3 to test the materials and deploy digital education courses by engaging both adult educators and adults. We engaged 82 adults and 90 adult educators, and we collected the feedback to improve PR2 and PR3 design and materials. 5. We organised 3 transnational partner meetings (Cori, Aveiro and Nicosia) 6. We organised 6 multiplier events with 194 engaged people of several organisations from the different participating countries 7. 4 newsletters were released and distributed

Main project outputs: R1: a methodology with a framework for adult educators to engage low-skilled/low-qualified adults based in e-government learning. The document has three different elements: an overall document, a nutshell document (to be easily communicated and shared) and an interactive database. The overall methodology has been released as a mix of desk and field research that has involved over 127 adults and 70 educators from 6 different countries and encompasses: a. An analysis of digital divide b. E-government areas for adult education based on needs, fears, opinions, state of the art c. An overall analysis of the detected gaps and existing strategies per country and from a European perspective c. a Framework crafted through a EQF approach (skills, knowledge and attitudes) d. A Methodological analysis e. Resources and law analysis per country on e-government. R2: A training course for adult educators and adults as a sum of two main blocks: - Nonformal education tools for adults to stimulate the reasoning of adults along different e-government areas. In each area, we have reasoned on the different digital divides (first, second & third) and how to support adult educators in deploying innovative materials.We have developed 3 main activities using a non-formal education and andragogy approach, by utilising a context-based perspective, by checking the expected learning outcomes as depicted in R1. - A course for adults focused on the different e-government scenarios and tools to support them in practically responding, and focus on the possible strategies which go beyond the barriers they face. We have developed 6 different modules on: 1. Introduction to e-government and principles of cybersecurity; 2. e-bills and e-payments; 3. E-leisure (how to interact with the main online platforms of booking) 4.e-health and digital devices; 5. E-education (how to learn online). 6. E-participation (online voting, participatory platforms etc) 3) A quest-based gamified web-app to facilitate how adults understand their everyday situations focusing on “life with and without e-government”. Per each detected area, together with adults and educators we have co-defined questions and situations to reflect upon, playing around different scenarios and capacity-build adults. Overall, we have engaged 209 adults and 160 adult educators, who improved their sense of critical thinking as well as better view on e-government provided by the EU governments. Multiplier events engaged 194 further people.