Gamefication offers countless opportunities to teach academic material in exciting and engaging ways

The Nature Meets Play conference takes place today, March 17th, 13:00-17:00. The conference is based on the BuildAsNature project, which aims to create a serious game for university students to explore and apply nature-based solutions in a simulated environment.

The project is a collaboration between RU, Fachhochschule Dortmund, Panepistimio Thessalias University in Greece, Tallinn University, and Virtual Campus LDA.

It has been very enjoyable and rewarding to work with these four universities. Previously, we have held meetings in Dortmund, Germany and Volos, Greece. This is now the third meeting, held here alongside the conference. Erasmus+ projects like this are extremely important for building connections with other universities and for gaining a better understanding of cultural differences in academic work between different countries.

Says Steingerður Lóa Gunnarsdóttir, a specialist at the Department of Computer Science at Reykjavík University, who is organising the conference.

At the conference, international specialists in serious games, education and environmental sustainability will present talks and sessions on nature-based solutions and on designing and implementing game-based approaches to environmental education.  

We will also present the project and the game we have been developing through this collaboration. It is exciting to share that it is an educational game designed for university-level students, intended for use in both upper secondary school and university courses in sustainability, geography, and environmental conservation. Educational games are more commonly associated with primary schools, but they can be just as effective at the university level for teaching ideas in a clear and engaging way.

Says Steingerður Lóa, adding that the use of serious games in schools has become increasingly common in Iceland. Gamification in education is still evolving, but early projects suggest that it offers countless opportunities to teach academic material in exciting and engaging ways.