Learning sustainability by making games. The experience of a challenge as a novel approach for Education for Sustainable Development

Abstract

Nowadays, the programs of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) are designed for changing attitudes on environmental, economic, and social dimensions. In this context, and considering the varied ages of the participating students, it is necessary to implement appropriate pedagogical methods that are generally different from the traditional ones. Among the available approaches, Sustainability serious games (SSGs) appear to be an ideal candidate to facilitate ESD providing students with opportunities to experience the complex issues of sustainability. Besides learning by playing SSG, another relevant opportunity, capable of engaging teachers and students into a relevant and meaningful learning context, is learning by making SSGs, capable of engaging teachers and students into a relevant and meaningful learning context. In light of these comments, this paper proposes a major contribution to the research on learning by making games through a detailed discussion of the results obtained during a University Challenge experience, where students were involved in the design and development of SSGs. The Challenge involved 59 higher education (HE) students who were asked to work in groups to create a (per-group) prototype of a SSG aimed at improving the sustainability of our campus. Results of the Challenge assessment show that this learning approach can indeed be considered a valuable alternative for ESD.