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{{Paper
|id=Vol-2685/short8
|storemode=property
|title=Designing and Implementing a Gamified Educational Location-based Application for Raising Awareness on Sustainability Issues Among Students
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2685/short8.pdf
|volume=Vol-2685
|authors=Ioana Andreea Stefan,Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge,Ancuta Florentina Gheorge,Antoniu Stefan
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ectel/StefanHGS20
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==Designing and Implementing a Gamified Educational Location-based Application for Raising Awareness on Sustainability Issues Among Students==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2685/short8.pdf
H. Söbke, J. Baalsrud Hauge, M. Wolf, & F. Wehking (eds.):
Proceedings of DELbA 2020
Workshop on Designing and Facilitating Educational Location-based Applications
co-located with the
Fifteenth European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2020)
Heidelberg, Germany, Online, September 15, 2020
Designing and Implementing a Gamified Educational
Location-based Application for Raising Awareness on
Sustainability Issues Among Students
Ioana Andreea Stefan 1, Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge 2,3, Ancuta Florentina Gheorge1,
Antoniu Stefan1
1 Advanced Technology Systems
Str. Tineretului, nr. 1, Targoviste, Romania
2 Bremen Institut fur Produktion und Logistik an der Universität Bremen, Hochschulring 20,
28359 Bremen, Germany
3 KTH- Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
ioana.stefan@ats.com.ro
Abstract. Sustainability aspects become more and more relevant and an inte-
grated part of formal education. A challenge remains how to connect the rather
theoretical definition of the 17 different goals for sustainable development de-
fined by the UN in such a way that the students see a direct implication into their
lives and reflect upon their own decisions. Using location-based apps that provide
the users with context relevant information may support to establish this connec-
tion between theoretical goals and practical influence on daily decisions. This
article presents the piloting testing of an educational scenario and discusses how
the same app can be transferred to a different environment, by simply changing
the location-based content.
Keywords: educational location-based applications (ELA), experimental edu-
cation on sustainability, sustainable transport.
1 Introduction
In the last decades, organizations have put effort into aligning their core values or
business principles with key sustainability goals. Such actions have resulted into a high
demand for a workforce that has a sustainability mindset, requiring a major shift in
educational goals and practices.
The United Nations have defined 17 global sustainable development goals (SDGs)
with 169 targets and 330 indicators. However, these definitions and targets represent
only the first step in consolidating sustainable approaches. The key sustainability prin-
ciples build upon the capacity to innovate, to reduce waste, and to function efficiently
Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Ioana Andreea Stefan, Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, Ancuta Florentina Gheorge, & Antoniu Stefan
regardless of the domain of activity [1-5]. The competence to transfer these high level,
abstract goals into practical guidelines for daily behavior and decision-making criteria
is essential for the future [6, 7]. Consequently, sustainability considerations are nowa-
days a part of both formal and non-formal education and learning initiatives using tech-
nology-driven experiential learning models [8-11].
Fig. 1. Global goals for sustainable development (Source UN [12]).
In order to be able to transform the United Nation (UN) SDG into practice (Fig. 1),
according to [13], it is necessary for students to understand the following influencing
factors:
Understand the concept of sustainability, of government and social policies and leg-
islations,
Ensure students/ employees have the potential to implement sustainability in terms
of cost, quality and culture,
Develop financial capabilities, since social/green production methods are expensive
at adoption,
Build appropriate organizational cultures and consolidate avoidance of resistance to
change,
Find key sustainable suppliers who support the principle of environmentally and so-
cially friendly systems.
Feedback from the students participating in lectures on the topic given by the authors
indicates that the lack of practical considerations leads to increased theoretical
knowledge, but not to real changes in a student’s decision-making capabilities. As an
effort to continuously improve the teaching methods, this paper presents the initial re-
sults for implementing an Educational Location-based Application (ELA) within a
course in an effort to improve the students’ ability to transfer theoretical sustainable
Gamified Educational Location-based Application for Raising Awareness on Sustainability
development knowledge into behavioral changes. The goal was to support the under-
standing of the concept of sustainability, while enabling students to apply sustainability
principles. In the future, it is also intended to look at how the same app can be reused
with different conetexts.
Chapter 2 describes the qualification needs in the existing course. Chapter 3 presents
the ELA before we discuss the key findings in chapter 4. Chapter 5 outlines next steps
and possible future works.
2 Qualification needs
The target groups were engineering students at master level 2. Year. This application is
a part of a course on decision-making and comprises those parts of the curricula that
deal with urban production and sustainability. The whole course is constructed using
different games and apps. The work load of this part should correspond to 1/3 ECTS,
i.e. 10h. work for each student, 1 for prep, 3 for playing and 6 for analyzing and report-
ing. Looking at the 17 different categories shown in Fig. 1, it can be argued that the
matter is complex and that the decision-making process, both at an individual level and
on organizational level, will influence several categories.
As seen in the introduction, the SDG comprises 17 different goals that cover a wide
range of aspects, and all these goals should be addressed during the course of education.
The relevant Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) we are considering for this part of
the course (due to the underlying curriculum) are:
• Know how to design urban areas implementing and using the characteristics of green
logistics and building concepts;
• Identify and observe the right factors required for calculating a set of indicators
(Noise, SOx, NOx, CO2, Fuel consumption, Waste etc.) related to sustainability in urban
areas based on the on-site observation;
• Know and be able to apply calculation methods for carbon foot print.
Due to the complexity, it is hardly possible to come up with a single “right and op-
timal” solution, so key ideas behind our considerations are based on giving the student
a problem that they can solve and enabling the groups to look at different perspectives
and then to discuss how the individual behavioral change can contribute to improving
the above-mentioned aspects and the corresponding UN SDGs.
The next section describes the learning scenario.
3 Design of the Educational Location-based Application
The aim of the study is to investigate if the students find it easier to understand and
transform the abstract SDGs if they use a location-based and context-aware app instead
of the normal case study. It is the first part of the study so the results are still under
evaluation and more test-runs will be made at due course.
The app was constructed as an explorative, treasure hunting geo-located game, using
the Authoring Tool for Context-aware Challenges (AT-CC) [14, 15], which was devel-
oped in the BEACONING project and which is employed for developing Gamified
Ioana Andreea Stefan, Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, Ancuta Florentina Gheorge, & Antoniu Stefan
Lesson Paths (GLP) that is used as pedagogical foundation of the ELA. Creating this
gamified learning experience required one hour for learning content development and
four hours for setting up and test the game.
The students are required to play the game using their own devices as part of their
course assignment and they should complete the game within three hours. The second
part of the assignment comprises the analysis of the observed indicators related to the
SDG given in the task for a specific Points of Interest (POI). I.e. the learning that takes
place within the game play is related to observation and to decide which information to
collect at each POI for being able to answer the questions, while the learning that takes
place in the second part of the assignment is related to analyzing the collected data and
creating new knowledge.
Fig. 2. The student groups are ready to play
The new constructed GLP and the corresponding ELA consist of six different POIs
located in the city center of Bremen. The POIs are selected so that different problems
related to urban mobility and logistics can be better explored, connecting to a set of
SDGs and with the limitation that the student only have limited time for exploring and
finding the different POIs. For each POI, the students have to solve some quests on site
and reflect on others for developing their solutions in their lab protocols and in the final
presentation. The questions at the different locations are designed to different SDGs -
for some POIs the students will decide which SDGs are targeted by the questions and
for other POIs, the students are given the relevant SDG and they need to develop solu-
tions on how these can be improved at the POI. All results need to be documented and
analyzed in the lab protocol. Below, we have an overview of the different POI and the
tasks that pop up when the students arrive the different POIs.
Gamified lessons path POI and tasks
The information given to the students was context-aware and the POIs were not known
beforehand. The next stop was given as a quiz or a clue. The GLP has the following
structure and content:
1. Kunsthalle Bremen- The collection offers an exceptional survey of European art
and international modern art, spanning painting, sculpture, drawings, prints and me-
dia art from the Renaissance to the present day.
Gamified Educational Location-based Application for Raising Awareness on Sustainability
Task on site: localize parking possibilities, trams stations, accessibility issue.
Task at home: develop a new parking and accessibility concept, developing criteria
for assessing different mobility scenarios. Reflect upon how this can improve SDG.
11
2. Schnoor- the oldest part of Bremen. In this location you will find some production
sites. Schnoor Bräu was founded in 1999 and produces dark beer for the local mar-
ket.
Task on site: Risk analysis of having a production site in a pedestrian area.
Task at home: Come up with the delivery concept for the deliveries using bikes/foot
or tram/bus as transport means. You find a list of who they deliver to at
http://www.schnoorbraeu.de/verkaufsstellen_overview.htm.
3. You are right above the Baumwollbörse. Here they used to trade Cotton, but is not
more in operation.
On site: Explore the building- what does this tell you about the relevance of trade
for Bremen?
Task to prepare: Please investigate the influence they have had from an economic,
political, societal and environmental perspective, each of you take one perspective
and choose the period 1914-1939 or from 1956 till 1971. Relate the analysis to
different SDGs and explain why you selected these.
4. You have now reached the Alexander von Humboldt. As you know, Bremen has its
wealth from a lot of the waterborne transport. How is this today? How can it be
improved? Which SDGs are influenced and how does a higher utilization of water
borne transport affect the SDGs.
5. On the other side of the river you see where they brew Beck’s beer. Carry out risk
analysis related to possible environmental impact on the river in case of an accident.
Rathaus/Stadtmusikanten: Final you have arrived the end. Check your route and
come up with solution that minimizes the distance, the time and the time used out-
side pedestrian area. Please analyze the contribution of the transport infrastructure
to SDG 3,6,8,11,12.
The students used with their own devices, and they played in a group of at least two
people. Among the reported problems we highlight high battery consumption, impre-
cise location of their own position, deviation of displayed position within the group,
etc. Imprecise location and interference have caused trouble since students needed to
be within 1-2m from a POI to be able to read the quest and to find the next POI. The
students therefore shared those working properly.
4 Results
For the evaluation of the app, we assessed the students reports and presentations, used
their feedback, as well as the observations carried out by the supervisor during the play.
In addition, we used a questionnaire for collecting information related to the game as
such. This reflects the feedback of 10 student groups that played the game. Each group
was formed by at least two students. The qualitative results are based on analysis of the
students presentation and the relevant parts of their lab reports, while the quantitative
Ioana Andreea Stefan, Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, Ancuta Florentina Gheorge, & Antoniu Stefan
results more related to the ELA itself shows the results of a questionnaire the students
are asked to complete directly after playing.
Qualitative results based on the students’ reports and presentations related to
the ELA: The delivered reports showed that the students had developed good concepts
both on alternative solutions for parking spaces, delivery routes as well as on investi-
gating the role of the waterborne transport. The students also reported that analyzing
the situation on site in a familiar environment (the city where they are studying) helped
them reflect on how their own behavior (taking the bike instead of the car, or paying
more attention to the need of the goods transport-i.e. respecting loading zones and park-
ing lots). However, at the moment it is questionable if their findings documented in a
report really do lead to behavioral changes. The students also reported a very high num-
ber of hours that they had used for post-analysis for coming up with good concepts,
which may indicate that they found this part of the course engaging, but on the other
hand, it is a negative result since the workload does not correspond to the credits. It is
necessary to investigate if the high workload is due too complex and extensive tasks
(given at each POI) or if it is because the students do not have the expected pre-
knowledge. By this we mean that the main idea is to apply previously acquired skills
and knowledge on sustainability (according to the bachelor curriculum) and thereby
construct new knowledge. We did not test their actually pre-knowledge. Furthermore,
even though the students reported a too high workload, most students found the expe-
rience so good that they would recommend to reuse the same. We have no long-term
results on how this exercise influence the behavior of the students. Since this is only a
three hour exercise with some more hours on analysis and construction of findings, it
is unlikely that this single exercise will induce a change in personal decisions on a long
term, but it might lead to higher awareness of the impact of their own decisions on their
environment.
Quantitate results based on questionnaire. Directly after playing the ELA, the
students got a questionnaire on their first impressions. The questionnaire was distrib-
uted through the app, and it was voluntary to answer. The results are anonymous. Since
quite a few students did have problems with the battery of their personal devices, we
do not know if the reason for having less answers than players are caused by the fact
that they could not use their device or because they did not like the learning experience
for various reasons. Since we re-used an app developed in a research project, we also
used the same questionnaire for the app as we did during the project (for different
GLPs), so that we can follow how the perception of the app change over time.
.
Gamified Educational Location-based Application for Raising Awareness on Sustainability
Table 1. Results of questionnaire
Strongly
Strongly
Question disagree 2 3 4
agree - 5
-1
The BEACONING APP in-
creased my knowledge on Sus- 4 8 7
tainability and Urban living.
The BEACONING helped me to
understand how my decision-
10 9
making process impacts on dif-
ferent SDGs.
Playing BEACONING was mo-
9 10
tivating.
The in game narrative and the
ILOs were well aligned to the 1 12 6
course objectives.
Results indicate that a game-based approach has the potential to provide engaging
and motivating means to construct a mindset that focuses on sustainability. The blend-
ing of virtual and physical spaces leads to a more responsible behavior, and contribute
to the students’ ability to make better decisions. However, if we look at question 2, the
result is very positive, but unexpected. Because this is the immediate answer collected
directly after playing the game, we had expected that the students first would get an
increased understanding after carrying out the corresponding analysis (which is in the
lab reports, delivered later) and not based on immediate observation where the learning
should take place while analyzing the tasks.
5 Conclusion and future work
The initial pilot study and the subjective reports of the students indicate that the usage
of such an ELA will improve the students’ abilities to transform theoretical knowledge
into practical strategies and perhaps induce behavioral changes. In the next step, we
also want to investigate if the positive feedback is solely related to the target group
(students at master level) or if it also holds for other user groups. Consequently, we
have recently developed a new scenario for the city of Targoviste (Romania) using the
same ELA. The target group is high school students. The intended learning outcome is
set according to the curriculum in civic culture and history with a focus on sustainability
Ioana Andreea Stefan, Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, Ancuta Florentina Gheorge, & Antoniu Stefan
aspects related to those subjects. In this new scenario, since we have a different target
group, we uses the following narrative plot: The students will play the role of a detective
and the game mission is to discover who stole an important research paper. They have
to find the intruder and the documents stolen by visiting different locations in the city
of Targoviste in Romania. This ELA will be used for testing the knowledge on heritage
architecture, but also to draw attention to the importance that must be given to such
buildings in terms of different sustainability considerations. An example of such con-
siderations is the question of energy savings related to constructing new buildings, im-
prove old buildings and historical values (i.e. changing windows in an old castle saves
energy in daily operations, but what about the material usage, the impact on the building
climate, or the visual effect this have?). These questions are actually related to the same
SDGs, but requires different knowledge. The approach explores the need for learning
contexts customization to address specific sustainability challenges and learning goals.
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