Project “NEXT STEP teaching and learning: Preparing immigrants and refugees for higher education through gamification” has been developed as an answer to the growing needs and challenges concerning the integration of immigrants, refugees and other socially excluded groups such as Roma into the education and employment of the countries they live in. In this regard, and based on previous valuable experiences of the consortium, we aim to conduct primary research, design and develop an educational two-dimensional (2-D) serious video game in the spirit of gamification, and pilot it on the field with the target groups in order to disseminate it widely before publishing it online, freely available for anybody interested to access it. The game will be an innovative educational tool that will stimulate learning through a fun and relaxed way, while also enhancing the literacy and ICT skills of the participants. This way, it will prepare them for the transition into higher education and their overall integration by teaching academic vocabulary, related terminologies and other country-specific information.

Gamification is the application of game elements and principles (e.g. collecting points for answering questions correctly) in non-game contexts, in order to stimulate learning and user engagement through a digitally based approach. Through the NEXT STEP game, students especially from vulnerable groups will have the chance to learn about various academic aspects related to each partner country (Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey), with many types of exercises that will also contribute to word and phrases’ comprehension, while stimulating strategic thinking. The game will be of scalable difficulty and those who engage will be rewarded with “unlocking” more words, phrases and terminologies as they progress, adjusted to each country’s context. It will therefore be complementary to modern language developing and communicative skills in education as well.

Around 250 participants from the target groups are expected to be directly involved through the project’s different implementation phases, while the release of the game in 7 different languages (partner languages and English), along with the creation of a technical handbook in Arabic and Romani, and the dissemination of various promotional material will help maximize its impact, not only within the boundaries of this partnership and project, but also beyond. Moreover, its open and free licensing through the Open Educational Resources (OER) will allow the game to be transferred into other contexts and environments with ease, further enhancing its sustainability potential.