Play to Green: Serious Gaming for Universal Access to Green Education

The Play2Green project is carried out by a consortium with a strong background in addressing global societal challenges, building on previous initiatives focused on diversity and inclusion, such as the Erasmus+ INNOSID project (2019-1-HR01-KA203-060959). It draws inspiration from environmental efforts like the "European Green Deal", aiming to raise awareness of pressing environmental issues. The project addresses a key gap in the fight against climate change, the lack of innovative, digital educational materials that promote green education. The goal of the project is to support the EU strategy by encouraging people, communities, and organizations to engage in climate action and help build a greener Europe. The objectives are achieved through innovative learning and teaching activities in green education, with educational materials developed as green-themed serious games based on emerging technologies such as AI, AR, and holography. To further engage students, the main target group, these games are integrated into general HEI courses and designed for universal access through Universal Design for Learning principles, ensuring inclusivity for diverse learners.

The Play2Green project was implemented by a consortium consisting of 5 higher education institutions (HEI) and 1 non-governmental organization (NGO) from the domain of people with hearing impairments, from 4 EU countries (Croatia, Spain, France and Hungary). The general objective of the Play2Green project was to raise awareness of the environmental issues described in the “green agenda” and fight against climate change among all diverse learners. To meet the general objective, the project has developed solutions for the following specific objectives: (i) increasing the number of higher education students and lecturers who covered green topics within their studies through a study reporting the potential and good practices that can be implemented; and (ii) providing innovative, green-themed educational resources to everyone. This was managed through developing three green serious games designed following Universal Design for Learning guidelines and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, augmented reality and holography technology.

To meet the objectives, the project implemented fifteen activities from three work packages (excluding the work package regarding project management). The project implemented a report analyzing and identifying modalities for inclusion of green-themed serious games in non-green-themed Higher Education (HE) courses. Three green-themed serious games based on emerging technologies, including AI, AR and holograms were developed. To ensure the effective dissemination of project results, 4 multiplier events in Debrecen (Hungary), Valencia (Spain), Zagreb (Croatia), and Dubrovnik (Croatia) were organized for more than 400 participants. This was accompanied by extensive web and social media activities geared toward the dissemination of project results to the target groups. Dissemination was also administered through publishing several conference papers. Lastly, a learning/training/teaching (LTT) activity was organized in the form of a blended mobility hackathon with a physical workshop in Dubrovnik. More than 30 participants, including lecturers and students, took part in the hackathon and worked in multicultural teams, during which they prepared visual prototypes of innovative IT solutions based on previously prepared game scenarios.

The key project results and outputs can be summarized as follows: A study of modalities for inclusion of green-themed serious games (SGs) in non-green-themed HE courses was prepared. Three multilingual green-themed SGs based on emerging technologies, including AI, AR and holograms, were developed, (supporting Croatian, English, Spanish, Hungarian and French, including multilingual user guides and explainer/promo videos). Green Siesta, Green Siesta Quiz and HoloZoo are publicly available SGs based on AI, AR and holograms respectively, developed for raising awareness on proper waste management and animal species endangerment. In addition, a total of 9 green-themed SGs based on emerging technology project assignments were prepared alongside 5 green-themed SG scenarios. Afterwards, a successful blended hackathon on green topics, SGs and UDL was held in Dubrovnik. Finally, for a wide outreach of the project’s goals and achievements, a website and two social media channels were made, with several mass media appearances, on TV programs, radio shows and news portals. Four multiplier events were organized in Debrecen, Valencia, Zagreb and Dubrovnik where developed SGs were disseminated, alongside university courses and other events.