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

In this section you find information about the main target group, the aims of the MOOC, the outcomes and the idea and structure of 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

Aims of the YES MOOC

The aims of this MOOC are 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

What kind of debating models does YES offer?

An aim of YES is to foster certain competences and skills of youth through team interactions throughout the game. To debate/discuss various topics, in this case on the EU, enables the youth to develop or train specific skills and competences.

Debating models of YES

Discussion model, representative model as well as the election model.

1. In the discussion model one team will play against another team to win the game. A discussion with pros and contras of a certain topic will take place. One team taking the pro-side as the other team takes the contra-side.
2. In the representative model a debate with up to five different teams will take place. Each team will be represented by a single person which will argue on a certain position regarding a pre-determined topic. Such a setting is comparable to a talk-show or TV debate.
3. In the election model a debate with up to five different teams will take place to simulate an election, this has to be handled in some kind of split-session by the tool.

Multiple-Choice concerning dicussion models

How many discussion models do we have in the Serious Game YES? (!1) (!2) (3) (!4)

Text task concerning Card Deck Games

"In the YES Serious Game we are learning to prepare discussions and discuss topics within a Card Deck Game. A Card Deck Game is very common between young learners. The know it from breaks at school and from the playground. Examples for other popular Card Deck Games are the game Magic from the US, or the Pokemon from Japan."

Using the YES Serious Game

YES is unique because it is the first time active citizenship is fostered by a game-based approach based on a deck-building card game.

There are some measures and projects which focus on active citizenship like (CIAC- CIAC – Creativity and Innovation for active citizenship,, CIVIC MIMDS, GOAL – Granting Opportunities for Active Learning, PPP - People Power Participation,VOICE – Developing citizens etc.) but the always stick to traditional courses or concept design. Only a few focus on online learning but this is typically not done in a synchronous way in these approaches. Moreover, none of these approaches include real game-based approaches and innovative online debating systems (we did a research on 30 project about active citizenship - you can find them under http://de.youropa-project.eu/projektauswahl/30-ausgewahlte-projekte/).

But YES uses game aspects which are focusing on elements of deck-building card games with which the learners are typically familiar with and combines this with learning about Europe and active citizenship. The young people are used to playing deck-building card games or collectable card games with real cards such as POKEMON, Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon, Magic theGathering, StarWars, Game of Thrones, etc. or on online platforms or apps (ASCENSION, DECK Heros etc.). We use the motivational aspect of such a game structure which is played by millions of young kids and youths over Europe and put it in a completely new context.

Multiple-Choice concerning the use of YES

What is special about YES? (!YES is a traditional eLearning approach) (YES is a serious game which fosters the motivation.) (!YES is a video approach.) (!YES is a game with real paper cards.)

How the debate works

The objective of the YES is to encourage productive debates that authentically reflect the way how societal or political debates take place in real life, always having the claim to foster learning about the discussed topics in mind. Hence, the first step to do would be to prepare the debate.

Research on the topic = Preparation phase Therefore, the learners conduct research to the debate's topic, they search for background information and facts, and they have to prepare arguments and counter-arguments that will then be written down on the cards. Here, the learner gather knowledge and competences in the field they have to discuss. This requires the learners to anticipate the argument and counter-arguments of the other teams as well which pretty much implies the extent of research necessary to undertake by each of the teams, particularly when playing with more than only two teams. But this also shows that the research process itself and all of its outcomes are highly valuable for the learners, which is why resources of high quality, prepared materials, summaries that have been created, etc. should be stored and kept available. Prepared materials that weren't a part of the cards could also be made available to other learners or even teachers as some kind of Open Educational Resource.

The debate = discussion and game phase In the second phase the debate itself starts after the preparation took place. When thinking of a debate in which a pro- and a contra-team compete against each other, the one side could start with an argument for their side. The other team could play a card with a counter-argument that specifically targets the argument that was drawn before. Deciding which card to play is a democratic process which has a time limit (as mentioned in the noted above). When it's the team's turn the members can choose which card to play and once they have a majority the card will be turned over and added to the official timeline of the debate. This will encourage discussions among the team members. At the end of each game can be public voting (election model). Instead of just asking to vote for a winner the trainer also should focus the votes on the quality of the elements produced and how well they compare against the other one. This way we can come up with a point system that will tell us who won the debate at the end of all the rounds.

The debriefing = reflection phase

The reflection is an important part for youth groups as well. The trainers discuss with their youth groups the discussion and the argumentation path. They reflect on the topic and share experiences. If the learners were for example discussion a European topic this is the point were additional material can be provided becaus enow the group is open for news and is able to improve theri arguments, ideas and can enhance their competences and knowledge. Moreover, different views and positions can be taken into account and a reflection about argumentation strategies can be provided.

General hints and technical aspects The fact that teams will have to anticipate the arguments of the other side means that they will have to look at the debated topics from more than one side in order to be successful. Not only will they learn structured, respectful and productive debating skills, they will also develop a deep understanding of the topics that they debate. From a technical point of view the system is hosted on a server. There is no need to download software or plug-ins because the system will run in every modern browser and is therefore, easily accessible.

Multiple-Choice concerning the YES debates

What is special about YES? (!YES is a traditional eLearning approach) (YES is a serious game which fosters the motivation.) (!YES is a video approach.) (!YES is a game with real paper cards.)

Screenshots from the YES Serious Game

Registration

Adding Team 1

Adding Team 2

Edit Team

Gamemaster Add a YES Game

Gamemaster Topics

Gamemaster Adds Topic

Player Prepare and Play Game

Player Teams and Invitations

Player Prepares Cards

Player Adds Card

First Card played

Three Cards played

Special Cards

Use Steal Card