Work in progress: News from Kaunas University of Technology

During the last year the INGAME team put a lot of efforts in ensuring that the project is known to those, interested in social inclusion as well as the application of gamification in the field of education.

Just before Christmas of 2020, during the Alta‘2020 conference, INGAME team presented an article An Innovative Application of Gaming for the Encouraging of Social Inclusion and Civic Participation, discussing ways of applying gamification as an effective and engaging tool in solving civic and social issues as well as promoting civic participation. Among the main goals was to present currently existing good practices and future opportunities of using gamification method to make certain topics or subjects significantly more appealing, especially younger audience.

This year, INGAME team continues its research and is prepared to introduce newly-acquired findings and knowledge by presenting article INGAME Design Framework at the international conference ICIST 2021 in Kaunas, Lithuania. This time, authors focus on pedagogical approaches as well as technological solutions, necessary for the successful application of game design. While the pedagogical and technological frameworks and the logic behind them are emphasized in the article, the focus remains placed on social and civic skills, that players acquire during the gameplay.

The project staff is glad that the research and discussed topics remain relevant and interest is growing not only among researchers and scholars but also among higher education students, proving the need for such gamification-based solutions.