Game-Design Challenge: Solving Regional Issues Through the Power of Playing
"Game-Design Challenge: Solving Regional Issues Through the Power of Playing" is an intensive, interactive workshop designed for higher education educators. The course explores how modern game-based learning, interactive narrative design, and generative AI can transform various regional and socio-economic challenges into engaging, high-impact classroom activities.
Participants will not only discover how to design educative games across disciplines, but also learn how to empower students as active co-creators of learning tools. Working in teams, participants will solve regional challenge and develop the tools covered in class to build, test, and pitch a ready-to-use educational game prototype.
Objectives of the programme
Promote Interactive and Challenge-Based Learning: Introduce university educators to Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) and game-based learning tools as viable, high-impact alternatives to traditional lecture formats.
Foster Student Empowerment and Co-Creation: Provide with practical toolkits to transition students from passive learners into active co-creators of educational content and game scenarios.
Integrate Storytelling and Local Context into Higher Education: Demonstrate how narrative design, branching scenarios, and authentic regional issues can be woven into curricula to foster critical reflection and ethical decision-making.
Demystify and Leverage Generative AI in Game Design: Build educators’ digital confidence in utilizing generative AI tools for creating games in study process.
Facilitate International and Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Create an open, cross-border networking platform where educators exchange pedagogical practices, benchmark institutional experiences, and co-develop ready-to-use educational prototypes.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
Apply challenge-based learning (CBL) to complex problems
Understand game-design value and potential in educational process
Design and prototype educational games
Facilitate student co-creation
Integrate generative AI in game design
Evaluate and iterate game-based learning formats
Planned duration of mobility
On-site: April 26 – 29, 2027
Deadline for registration: 26 February, 2027
Location: Jelgava, Latvia (Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Economics and Social Development)