Seminar on Serious Games
As educators, how can we prepare students to tackle the complexity of sustainability challenges while providing support to navigate the emotional toll that these problems and their impacts may elicit? The use of a serious game may be one such pedagogical approach to address both needs.
A serious game is any intervention or simulation that integrates educational content, skills development, and learning outcomes into a game-like environment that promotes student engagement, critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration. By combining game mechanics with pedagogical principles, serious games allow students to explore complex real-world issues, experience decision-making scenarios, and apply theoretical concepts in an interactive and inclusive learning environment.
During the seminar, we explored the following:
- Introduced serious games as a pedagogical approach
- Discussed the latest research and practice
- Shared known examples and experiences at Lund University
- Explored the possible use of a serious game in your own learning environments
The seminar was interactive, with participanted demoing the game Biodiversity Collage, as well as listen to presentations from practitioners and engage in discussion with colleagues.
Learn more about the Biodiversity Collage – fresquedelabiodiversite.org
Summary
Curious what happened during the seminar? Read a summary on our blog, written by one of the presenters, Mirjam Glessmer.
Speakers
Mirjam Glessmer
Mirjam is a senior lecturer at the Center for Engineering Education at LTH. Her background is in physical oceanography, though, for the last decade, she has worked in academic development and science communication in Germany and Norway before arriving at Lund University in January 2022.
Léa Lévy
Léa Lévy is an associate senior lecturer at Lund University within the Division of Engineering Geology. Her research is in applied geophysics, in particular, for environmental and geothermal applications. She is an experienced facilitator of several serious games, including the Biodiversity Collage and Climate Fresk.
Jonas Kreutzer
As a doctoral student, Jonas researches environmental innovation, especially in the Swedish forest industry. He examines what role innovation can play in reducing emissions and conserving biodiversity. Related to his research interests, he has experience implementing serious games in his teaching assignments at Lund University.
Audience
This seminar was intended for programme directors, course coordinators, educators, and study administrators at Lund University. Priority will be given to those from Lund University with existing educational assignments, though, we gladly welcomed those from beyond Lund University. Spaces were limited; the seminar was conducted in English.
Venue
The seminar took place at the MNO Building in Room O104.
Organisers
The initiative Teaching for Sustainability is a cooperation between the Lund University Sustainability Forum, the Division of Higher Education Development (AHU), and the Centre for Engineering Education (CEE).
Division for Higher Education Development (AHU) - lu.se
Sustainability Forum - lu.se
LTH Centre for Engineering Education - lu.se
Suggested Resources
Hallinger, P., Wang, R., Chatpinyakoop, C., Nguyen, V.-T., & Nguyen, U.-P. (2020). A bibliometric review of research on simulations and serious games used in educating for sustainability, 1997–2019. Journal of Cleaner Production, 256, 120358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120358
Peña Miguel, N., Corral Lage, J., & Mata Galindez, A. (2020). Assessment of the Development of Professional Skills in University Students: Sustainability and Serious Games. Sustainability, 12(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031014
