YES Mooc UPB

Welcome to the YES MOOC!

YES - Youth Engagement in Society

In this MOOC we will provide you with information about the use of the Serious Game YES. This MOOC was created within the YES – project. YES is and acronym for Youth Engagement in Society. YES is an international project in the EU education program ERASMUS+.

Information about the YES MOOC

Main target group:

The main target groups of the Mooc are:

• youth workers
• youth educators
• youth organisations
• YES users
• people who are interested in Serious Games

Aim:

The aim of this Mooc is to

• provide youth workers, youth educators and youth organisations with insights in the tool.
• provide information how to use the Serious Game in educational contexts.
• describe the discussion models which are supported by the YES tool.
• show examples of the screens.
• provide pedagogical and didacticsl hints.
• share discussion ideas and topics.
• raise awareness for the use of Serious Games in Youth education.

Outcome:

The learners/target group of this Mooc will

• learn about the rules and discussion formats of YES.
• get in touch with the concept of Serious Games.
• solve tasks to get deeper knowledge about the YES card deck game.
• focus on European topics as an example of possible topics for YES discussions.
• rethink their way of training.
• learn about the ERASMUS+ project YES.

Aims and structure of the YES-MOOC:

This MOOC will make it easy for youth workers to find the YES tool and to learn about how to use it to teach their learners productive debate skills that are essential for participating in politics and active citizenship in Europe. You, the trainers and youth workers, should be able to get an idea why YES is good and useful for youth groups. That´s why we decided to provide information and learning activities about: > the idea of YES > the game formats and settings > the types of cards and an introduction to the demo card sets > the structure and the course of the game (Screenshots and descriptions) > the importance of preparation and follow-up sequences > the link to our Website and to the YES Tool

So, let´s start!

Introduction

When we are talking about modern and innovative ways of learning, game-based approaches and serious games are becoming more and more popular and every generation has its own needs. The young people are living in a quickly changing digital world. They are used to modern technology and old traditional forms of learning are not looked upon as attractive as they used to be. That´s why digital game based learning has become more and more popular over the years. Just a look at the use of smart phones, tablets and computers in the daily life of youth provides several good reasons for this. The YES approach, which we present in this MOOC, is such an innovative learning opportunity which takes the changes in possibilities and the environment into account: YES a serious game which supports discussions processes. Learning always happens with the resources. Moreover, learning processes usually happen under time restrictions. Overall, it can be stated that the basic conditions of learnings are very different. In addition to that, it is the duty of youth workers, teachers and trainers to prepare the young learners. The learners deal with new media in their daily life and the are involved in a European international environment. So, they have to deal with the opportunities and challenges they face in their real life environments. The young people are embedded in situations in society and the labour market and there mobile devices and new media have already a fixed place. They are standard and part of an increasing trend of digitisation. Learners should be prepared for standard situations and that´s why we decided to provide teachers and trainers with this book on new developments and dealing with mobil learning in teaching and learning scenarios. Teachers have to become aquainted to new media and innovative game-based learning approaches: So, welcome to the YES-MOOC.

About the ERASMUS+ YES project

The main objective of YES?

Is to create, implement, test, and evaluate a game-based online tool and system (like a deck-building card game) for debating European topics in teams. In YES the system proposed will be a game-based tool in form of a beautifully animated online card-game that aims to encourage debates about politics and society amongst youths. Youths will form teams that could consist of school classes or mixed international teams.

The system essentially offers an online-environment for holding well-structured debates about societal or political issues that uses a gamification approach to encourage young people of different ages to get involved. Therefore, a card-game mechanism that foresees the learners to build teams to play against each other builds the very basis of the system.

Why creating a game/tool for youth with such a specific topic?

Due to the current political events such as terrorist attacks at various places, BREXIT, the euro crisis or the migration problem it is of particular importance that the youth realizes that they as citizens of Europe have an influence on the future and therefore Europe, too. That they as a unit can create the future of Europe or more likely that they are the future of Europe and that they should participate to lead the lives they want in the future. To ensure this one way could be to present and include them in current situations in Europe is to give them a playful opportunity to increase their knowledge and their opinion on certain European matters such as the YES tool does. The main idea of YES? The YES tool provides a learning method in the field of Game-Based Learning. The basic idea of the YES serious game in the project is to foster active citizenship and provide information about Europe and offer active work and discussion on a game-based approach. Is that the teams have to prepare their own deck of cards with different statements that are appropriate to strengthen or defend one's own position creating cards with special functions (such as argument and counter-argument). This makes the whole system highly flexible as there isn't any limit in the number of teams that are playing against each other nor is it in the number of young people gathering to build a team. “Games and serious games as well, are a massive part of youth work, they provide a chance to introduce people, have fun energize youngsters, but also has an important aspect of education, based on learning by doing principle.” (Beutner, Jakunaite, Rüscher 2018)

The aims of YES: Which skills and competences will be fostered with YES? First of all the young learner get topic related knowledge. They will discuss a specific topic when they use the YES tool. The topic can be selected by the youth workers / trainers and the learners. So the learners gather knowledge and competences and become skilled in the chosen topic. YES focused European Citizenship and politics by creating the demo Card Decks in this fields. For young European people it is useful and important to become active citizens, to know about European ideas, European culture and co-operation. But, the youth workers and learners can also integrate other topics in the game. Beside of the knowledge about the selected topic which will be discussed through YES, youngsters will also gain very important additional competencies:

• Cmmunication in the mother tongue
• Communication in foreign languages
• Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology
• Digital competence
• Learning to learn Competence
• Social and civic competences
• Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship
• Cultural awareness and expression