Education for Societal Changes based on Active Pedagogies and Empowerment

<< Background >>HE institutions (HEI) have the mission to equip young people with the right skills. But studies of graduates’ employability reveal the gap in highly demanded transferable skills such as creativity, problem solving, resilience, and flexibility. This gap is defined as skills mismatch between skills and jobs which shows that HEI isn’t providing the skills demanded in the “labor market”. Equally interested is the fact that those soft skills that are more highly on demand nowadays are “learnable. Those finding raised questions about the role HEI should play in preparing students for the graduate employment market and how they can strengthen their collaboration with career guidance experts (CGE) in equipping students with not only the technical skills but soft skills as well. One possible approach will be the collaboration of HEI with CGE aiming at selecting “teachable” soft skills and incorporate them in the teaching methods via ICT tools. One promising type of serious game is the scenario-based game in where learners progress through a scenario, making decisions and taking actions as they go aiming at succeeding. An effective game-based learning tool to apply the scenario-based game in a form of escape rooms is the 3D VWLP (OpenSim).<< Objectives >>The E-SCAPE project’s main objective was to design and apply a pedagogical approach which focus on the identification of selected “teachable” soft desirable skills, their enrichment with academic sources as well as real-world cases and their incorporation into the teaching process of HE via the assistance of Game learning the specific objectives of the project were:• To reinforce the employability skills of HE students and graduates• To upgrade the training methods of HE offered modules• To upgrade the demands of the labor market• To reinforce the link of HE institutions and labor market actors• To foster digital skills of the target groups through the provision of an innovative 3D virtual world learning environment in where they can perform gamified activitiesThe project addressed two main target groups: - HE students from all levels (junior, senior, master, Ph.D.), and graduates - HE educator, Career guidance experts (such as tutors, mentors, internship / business liaison coordinators).<< Implementation >>The E-SCAPE project management and implementation methodology was developed in two dimensions – one horizontal and one vertical. Management and sharing/promotion activities were considered horizontal support activities that continued throughout the duration of the project.The 4 Project Results are vertical support activities followed a waterfall-like life cycle consisting of the following stages: Stage 1: Define and explain the key skills needed in the labor market and making them learnable for the higher education sector. Stage 2: Creating play activities. Stage 3: Development of a game-based learning environment: Stage 4: Testing and evaluation of the produced pedagogical Approaching.<< Results >>E-SCAPE’s main objective as well as its specific objectives were the basis upon which the following Project Results (PR) have been planned, designed and fulfilled:PR1: E-SCAPE Teaching Framework which defined and explained the key skills needed in the volatile contemporary labor market and equiped HE teachers with a skills framework, guiding principles and innovative learner-centered resources to teach them in an attractive way. PR2: E-SCAPE Game-based educational scenarios for digital escape rooms that support higher education students from different fields of study in developing essential transferable skills applicable in different life and career situations. PR3: E-SCAPE 3D Virtual World Education Platform - the game-based learning tool in which the E-SCAPE game scenarios were implemented in the form of escape rooms. PR4: E-SCAPE impact assessment and multiplication guide that ensured the E-SCAPE pedagogic approach are quality, coherent products which adequately meet their objectives and are relevant to the needs of the target groups The main project results from E-SCAPE project are:• HE students from all levels (junior, senior, master, Ph.D.) and graduates with improved employability skills and better understanding about the role of skills for personal productivity, competitiveness and fulfillment, and for long-term and sustainable growth (from PR1, PR2, PR4) • HE educators and career guidance experts with reinforced mutual understanding of offered academic skills and needed market skills (from PR1,PR2, PR4) • HE students from all levels (junior, senior, master, Ph.D.) & graduates and HE educators and Career Guidance experts with reinforced digital skills due to their familiarization with 3D VW learning environment as well as due to their exposure to the game-learning process (from PR3, PR4).