Post-Grad Learning and Teaching Game

Mixed game (real and virtual) for learning and teaching experience for students taking post-graduation courses.

The RPG style game aims to solve the following problem: how to integrate the diversity of intents of formation of students with technical and humane aspirations of society? This problem comes from the perception that post-graduation students are diverse in what comes to their learning needs and intents. Moreover they seek a formation that in some extent reinforce their self-perception and world view. Though, how to create a course style or a learning methodology that can lead students to accomplish the formation they want, while they are also acquiring the competences that can make them occupy places in society that they have never thought they could occupy? The solution for this problem is a RPG style mixed game (real and virtual) in which the student creates an avatar, with the mentoring of a teacher. This avatar reflects an ideal version of the student him(her)self, and it plays in an artificial environment (both real and virtual) that is a version of the real environment of application of the professional technique of the course the graduate student is taking. Through the game stages, the student acquires the knowledge and skills that meet the competences that are aimed for the course, in a general sense. The solution we develop intends to change the way the student sees him/herself, in a way that can make him/her more confident about what he/she can do for society and more conscient about his/her potential to be a transformative leader. Through the avatar, 

the student creates expectations and draws up an horizon of formation that goes beyond his/her own reality. He/She is driven to go beyond his/her immediate fulfillment possibilities and to engage with a formation proposition more oriented to fulfilling the needs of society with this specific formation. Meanwhile, the avatar and the course it takes in the game also express what the student originally needs, so his/her possibilities in the game also reflects his personal fulfilling needs. The idea, matter in fact, is to make personal fullfilling needs match social needs in the formation of the student.

It creates new applications for existing technologies and social practices. 

As the game is both real and virtual, we need the technological support of a game platform and chatrobots. The technology is integrated to the learning/teaching system in a very organic way: we want the game to erode the distance between real and virtual world, and technology is not only a media to access reality or to access the virtual environment, but another layer on the complexity of reality.

The engagement of stakeholders (university managers, game developers ans students) and the lauch of the trial version of the game.

The original game can develop into new games that can be used in pos-graduation courses, but also in undergraduate and basic education courses.