Professor Nicole Ondrusch from the Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences in Germany. She talks about her Virtual Exchange with a group of journalism students from Venezuela.
This collaboration – with her engineering software students at Heilbronn – resulted in the students adopting different roles to design and create games in an educational context.
Professor Nicole Ondrusch from the Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences in Germany. She talks about her Virtual Exchange with a group of journalism students from Venezuela. This collaboration – with her engineering software students at Heilbronn – resulted in the students adopting different roles to design and create games in an educational context.
“We began experimenting with Game-Development Based Learning (GDBL) as a potentially effective strategy for our STEM students to facilitate the development of specific knowledge and skills,’ she explains. ‘This is an innovative method that enables students to learn by designing and creating games. It also integrates critical thinking, creativity and technical skills into a coherent and engaging learning experience.”
Virtual exchange in an ever-changing educational environment
“Educational approaches are constantly evolving and having to respond to rapid advances in digital technology and artificial intelligence,’ she continues. ‘These, in turn, drive profound changes in labour markets, societal needs, and environmental concerns. Learners’ expectations change along with these monumental learning shifts. Therefore, we need innovative teaching methods if we want to foster students’ ‘learning to learn’ skills, develop their agility and stimulate their curiosity. These skills are essential if they are to adapt to the ever-changing global environment.”
Nicole believes that GDBL provides a dynamic and engaging way for students to deepen their understanding of a specific content area (e.g. technology). She says it forces them to consider how it can be communicated to others.
This is a real shift in perspective, as it’s so different from traditional lecture methods. She says it encourages students to do extensive research and reflect critically on the content.
“We find it increases their understanding and involvement in the educational process.”
A post-corona experiment in Virtual Exchange
Nicole has been in her post at Heilbronn for the past five years, which coincided with the pandemic years and a shift in learning techniques and pedagogies. Virtual exchange was really taking off as a way to continue international learning without the need for travel, and this is when she began experimenting with GDBL.
“Just after Covid’, explains Nicole, ‘we were collaborating with a group of journalism students in Venezuela. The inspiration for the discussion and subsequent content was the national unrest in that country during 2017 due to socioeconomic factors. There was a lot of unrest, and students were out on the streets demonstrating. These stories were being shared with my students in Germany, who had never experienced such things.
“They thought about digitizing aspects of our lives and thought about social media as a way of getting messages across. It was seen as a way of telling stories and showing the world what was happening.”
Nicole’s students began to really ‘feel’ what it was like to be in danger on the streets. They heard of serious injuries and of students disappearing never to be heard of again.
“These stories are not what you naturally associate with ‘digital transformation’, says Nicole. “Virtual exchange became a way of having personal contact with people of the same age (in this case early 20s), but who were living a completely different experience.”
Along with her colleague, Claudia Sperrfechter, she began using existing games so the students could begin to learn more about gaming.
“We found that our students were a bit disappointed with the learning associated with normal experiences. But it’s also very expensive to develop great games to enable innovative learning.
“We thought it would be better to ‘learn by doing’ and we developed a framework for that.”
Tasks and a deeper learning experience using virtual exchange
Nicole and Claudia came up with the game development learning aspect by getting the students to create the games themselves.
“We were very flexible, but we asked the students to develop a game where players of the game could learn something on digital transformation, and how digital transformation can help to solve certain issues. While doing so they began to think about what digital transformation is, what it means for them and for their personal life. Next, they began to think about a topic for the game – what do we want to teach players of the game? Then they began their discussions with the other students.
The Venezuelan students told their stories and Nicole’s students shared theirs. Then, they tried to find a topic where digital transformation can help overcome a certain situation.
“They began to go deeper’, says Nicole, ‘and reflect on the different perspectives. The ingredients were the idea of creating the game for digital transformation but they needed to do this together. Virtual exchange needs to be about collaboration and exchanging and it is a pedagogy that lends itself to this sort of learning, as both sides had their stories on digital transformation. And they were so different, and VE allows you to do this.
Roles in GDBL Virtual Exchange
Nicole explains that in GDBL projects, there are three main roles: the content coach, the game coach and the students.
“Everyone had a different role in our VE,’ explains Nicole. “Games need to be designed. You need a hero and a villain for example. The journalism students were good at helping with this. And, of course, you need a story. It was interesting to observe how the students managed this and we saw some unexpected role reversals here with my students getting interested in the design and story-telling too. They wanted to try out different roles.”
Nicole continues, “The content coach is primarily responsible for advising students on the content and ensuring that the learning objectives for the students are met. The game coach, on the other hand, focuses on the technical and design aspects of game development. The students are actively involved in the creation and development of the game. Their responsibility is to use the knowledge provided by their coaches and gained from their research to create a game that is not only functional and engaging but is also a means of conveying educational content.”
Results and evaluation of the GBLD VE experiment
Nicole says that during the virtual collaborations, students delivered some great games. And they weren’t just virtual. They designed some fantastic board and card games too.
But, she says that on the theme of Critical Thinking, upon evaluation, some students thought they were better at CT than they were. This was also a learning.
What was most gratifying for her and her colleague was that a number of the students fed back that this experience was the most meaningful they had had as a student.
“We hoped they would deepen their knowledge of digital transformation, technology and methodology, but this wasn’t so. If you have a complex learning experiment comprising many components such as in this one, their learning with regard to digital transformation could have been better!”
Concluding observations
In conclusion says Nicole, “Creating games requires a deep understanding of the subject matter and promotes a holistic learning experience as it includes design, problem solving and technical skills and is more closely aligned with educational objectives. Like other educational methods based on games, GDBL enhances the learning process with an element of fun. However, it also adds a unique aspect of direct experiential learning.
“The method aims to make learning more engaging by encouraging creativity, teamwork, problem solving and a better understanding of complex issues. Implementing GDBL across diverse academic landscapes and balancing the focus between game development and academic content is challenging and requires careful planning and a strategic approach.”