NextEducation research group receives award for educational game
Berlin – June 23, 2022 – At the 27th Comenius-EduMedia-Award-Competition of the Society for Pedagogy, Information and Media for digital educational media, the research group NextEducation of the DHBW Karlsruhe is awarded for the online learning game „OpenGame„.
The learning game is the result of a two-year international cooperation and supports teachers in the digital development of their courses. The freely available online game enables teachers to try out so-called ‚open teaching methods‘ on the basis of real use cases. They receive direct feedback on their decisions. The game can be played free of charge online on both PCs and smartphones. „The use of so-called ‚Open Educational Resources‘ (OER) is far from being as widespread as it often seems. Therefore, the game aims to provide information on OER, to give didactic tips and, in particular, to lower the threshold for finding good OERs,“ says Prof. Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, head of the NextEducation research group and representative for the digitalization of studies and teaching at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University. The international research group is conducting research on important future skills for studying and teaching and only recently opened the „Future Skills“ portal for students.
The Society for Education, Information and Media „Johann Amos Comenius“ e.V. as a scientific professional society for digital media, media didactics and educational technology awarded the Comenius EduMedia Awards for the 27th time on June 23, 2022. The award honors outstanding digital educational media in terms of pedagogy, content and design.
„Especially after the phase of online teaching at universities caused by the Corona crisis, the question is how teaching and teaching methods can now be further developed with the experience gained – so that the ’new normal‘ does not automatically mean a ‚back to the lecture hall‘. Open teaching methods can help to make learning active and effective,“ says Prof. Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers.
In the Open Game initiative, DHBW collaborated with six universities from Germany, France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain on the project. The initiative was co-funded by the EU with about half a million euros. Teachers learn through play how to effectively and easily introduce the open teaching approach in their courses. The game is available in five languages.
The quality of teaching is a hallmark of the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW). Accordingly, the university attaches great importance to the training and continuing education of its lecturers. Digital media and open teaching methods offer new possibilities to the curricula and have an enormous added value for the learners. The goal of the project was to integrate these possibilities into teaching practice in the best possible way.
„The training is also an appreciation to our lecturers,“ says Ehlers. „By sharing with each other, the lecturers can share their experiences of successes and failures in the game and find new ideas and inspiration. „
More information
- The Open Game Project: https://opengame-project.eu/results/
- The online game: https://opengame-project.eu/game/
- The NextEducation Research Group: https://next-education.org
- The DHBW Karlsruhe: https://www.karlsruhe.dhbw.de/startseite.html