Press Release #3 18.03.2022
An innovative Conceptual Framework to gamify eLearning: online the new publication of the European project “SPARKS”
Providing vocational teachers and trainers with a reference structure to design gamified eLearning experiences: this is the purpose of the innovative “Conceptual Framework for Gamified E-Learning Programs” developed by the consortium of the “SPARKS” project, Strategic Partnership for Digital Education Readiness co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The Framework is the result of a four-month research work carried out by the SMEs Lascò (Italy), Femxa (Spain), and Bexley C-Level IT (Romania) and the nonprofit organisations KEAN (Greece), ECOS (Portugal) and Center for Innovative Education (Poland).
Divided into eight conceptual blocks, the Framework proposes an iterative and incremental process to design gamified e-Learning programs, guiding teachers and trainers through thirty-three actions and multiple combinations of over fifty game elements identified in best practices of gamification and game-based learning analysed by the project consortium in Italy, Romania, Greece, Poland, Portugal and Spain in 2021 in the scope of transnational research on “Gamification and Game-Based Learning: best practices and requirements for digital environments”.
Over 200 Vocational Education and Training providers and learners from the involved countries contributed to shaping the final product:
- 80 students engaged in semi-structured interviews, supported the analysis of the characteristics, needs and challenges that learners of different vocational education and training establishments face during their online learning journeys;
- 138 VET experts participated in the validation of the product, aimed at evaluating its clarity, logic, effectiveness, suitability for the target groups and comprehensiveness.
The Framework will guide the consortium in the upcoming months to co-create with more than one hundred VET experts a set of templates of gamified programs, that will be provided on the project e-learning platform.
The publication detailing the Framework’s development process, structure and description is available at https://www.projectsparks.eu/project-results.htm.
