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Facilitating sustainability transition through serious games: A systematic literature review
Abstract
Exploring aspects of how innovative methods can truly attain a sustainable society is necessary for the future of our planet. This study focuses on serious games, and how users can increase their understanding of sustainability issues and their familiarity with sustainable development strategies. “Users” of serious games consist of all possible target groups that are interested in attaining knowledge of sustainability through the use of games that are designed for a purpose beyond entertainment, in this case for sustainability education. This paper follows the systematic literature review method to deliver a study of serious games featuring sustainable development practices and policies. In order to provide a thorough analysis of their dynamic features, 77 games were explored in this study. The findings show the growing number of serious games that seek to educate in sustainability and the categorization of these games according to the triple-bottom line of sustainability, giving clarification hints to users wishing to select the relevant tool that offers an understanding of specific sustainability issues. The purpose of such research is to reveal the contribution of serious games as effective tools in facilitating sustainability education and to group them according to their nature and direction in relation to sustainability. Limitations in their effectiveness are also identified and a research agenda for new, relevant serious games is proposed that will enhance holistic knowledge and make it easier to clarify their pedagogical basis. The recipients of the findings will be all those future users and trainers who are interested in accessing sustainability education patterns through the use of serious games. This study will enable them to select the serious game that best serves their needs.
... Similarly, the popularity of serious games in environmental education has grown. The last systematic literature review conducted in 2019 revealed that the number of published serious games about sustainable development rose from 2 during the years 1990-1995 to 26 during the period 2014-2018 (Stanitsas et al., 2019). This paper, together with an earlier review, revealed that serious games in general enhanced learning experience and cognitive ability, as well as increased engagement in learning about sustainability (Madani et al., 2017;Stanitsas et al., 2019). ...
... The last systematic literature review conducted in 2019 revealed that the number of published serious games about sustainable development rose from 2 during the years 1990-1995 to 26 during the period 2014-2018 (Stanitsas et al., 2019). This paper, together with an earlier review, revealed that serious games in general enhanced learning experience and cognitive ability, as well as increased engagement in learning about sustainability (Madani et al., 2017;Stanitsas et al., 2019). Nevertheless, the literature on these serious games for environmental education highlights the limitations: lack of a systematic approach to examining the pedagogical efficacy of serious games and the presence of only a few studies investigating ...
... the long-term impacts of serious games (Hallinger et al., 2020;Madani et al., 2017;Stanitsas et al., 2019). Indeed, serious games have an immense potential of changing perceptions about environmental conservation and of increasing proenvironmental behaviours; these are the ultimate intended outcomes of environmental education (Morganti et al., 2017). ...
Serious games are increasingly popular in multiple fields, including education and environmental engagement. We conducted a systematic review to examine the reasons for this increasing popularity, the features of successful serious games and the current trend of serious games application in environmental education. Our systematic search revealed 56 records of papers (from years 2009 to 2023) on the use of serious games for environmental education. Thirty‐five were published in the recent 5 years reflecting a growing interest in this area. The games were aimed at imparting knowledge (N = 28), changing attitude (N = 28) and changing behaviour (N = 19). Reasons for the increased application of serious games include the raising awareness on serious games and growing investment in serious games development and research, as well as better technological access through mobile devices. Successful serious games exhibit the following features: an immersive experience, meaningful engagement, a learn‐by‐doing involvement, simulation of real‐world environmental problems, autonomy in game decisions and the presence of a guiding host. This review also revealed two categories of digital serious games: computer games (N = 14) and mobile apps (N = 11), and three categories of physical games: board games (N = 6), card game (N = 1) and role‐playing games (N = 2). The gaps include (1) the lack of in‐game experience data that limits our understanding of the impacts of commercial games, (2) variation in game experience and conservation experience among participants and how this translates to the impacts of serious games, and (3) lack of understanding of how the effects of serious games with high complexities on adults learning. Serious games are increasingly being digitised and moving towards location‐based games, alternate reality, augmented reality and virtual reality. These games can facilitate interaction between learners and the natural environment, and in turn strengthen environmental awareness and appreciation.
... Serious Games for sustainability. In the last decades, SSGs have been increasingly developed with the specific purpose of promoting the integrated development of capacities and sensibilities relevant to engage players in sustainability problem scenarios (Janakiraman et al., 2018;Diniz dos Santos et al., 2019;Stanitsas et al., 2019). There is growing empirical evidence that SSGs can produce attitude change (Janakiraman et al., 2018), foster apprehension of sustainability knowledge (Wu and Lee, 2015;Stanitsas et al., 2019), promote awareness and understanding of sustainability issues (Katsaliaki and Mustafee, 2015;Madani et al., 2017), promote collective activities (Katsaliaki and Mustafee, 2015;Emblen-Perry, 2018), and stimulate critical skills such as problem-solving, communication, negotiation, and monitoring emotional intelligence (Katsaliaki and Mustafee, 2015). ...
... In the last decades, SSGs have been increasingly developed with the specific purpose of promoting the integrated development of capacities and sensibilities relevant to engage players in sustainability problem scenarios (Janakiraman et al., 2018;Diniz dos Santos et al., 2019;Stanitsas et al., 2019). There is growing empirical evidence that SSGs can produce attitude change (Janakiraman et al., 2018), foster apprehension of sustainability knowledge (Wu and Lee, 2015;Stanitsas et al., 2019), promote awareness and understanding of sustainability issues (Katsaliaki and Mustafee, 2015;Madani et al., 2017), promote collective activities (Katsaliaki and Mustafee, 2015;Emblen-Perry, 2018), and stimulate critical skills such as problem-solving, communication, negotiation, and monitoring emotional intelligence (Katsaliaki and Mustafee, 2015). ...
... The literature shows that collaborative SSGs can successfully promote three key types of sustainability-related learning: (i) cognitive learning, stimulating knowledge acquisition or restructuring (e.g., understanding the mechanisms of climate change); (ii) normative learning, promoting learners' ability to change their assumptions and worldviews (e.g., developing a sense of commitment to sustainability issues); and (iii) relational, fostering learners' ability to understand others' mind-sets, build trust, and be willing to collaborate with others (den Haan and van der Voort, 2018). Nonetheless, further research is needed to address open problems in these areas, and to improve methodological approaches to the design and evaluation of SSGs (den Haan and van der Voort, 2018;Diniz dos Santos et al., 2019;Stanitsas et al., 2019;Hallinger et al., 2020). ...
... Fourth, scholars discussed whether SSG on ESD should equally or fully contribute to triple-bottom line of sustainability [4,10,11]. ...
... A wide variety of variables has been targeted in research to address the assumptions of simulation-based learning effectiveness. This should not be perceived necessarily as a disadvantage but rather as promising opportunity for future research on sustainability-featured simulations and serious games [11]. ...
... Consistently using simulation-based learning can increase subjects' knowledge of sustainable development and develop their sustainability attitudes and behaviors [39]. Although there was a lack of compatibility between the essential features of studies, earlier researchers encouraged a clarification of the effectiveness of simulations and serious games [8,11]. Based on the experimental analysis, it can be concluded that the current results suggest a positive effect from the impact of SSG on the sustainability knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of users while a few outliers reported non-significant effects. ...
A review of experimental studies accounts for the effectiveness of simulation-based learning in generating behavior and other variables towards sustainability. A set of 35 studies from 1997–2019 was derived from the bibliometric database on simulations and serious games (SSG) featuring education for sustainable development (ESD). Key findings highlighted the effects of SSG on sustainable variables. The SSG featured in experiments focused on either multiple or single dimensions of sustainability and appeared in academic, household and workplace settings. The experiments are overweighed with quasi-experimental designs, indicating the challenges to achieve random assignments. The majority of the simulation gaming interventions showed significant effects on knowledge, attitude and behavior towards sustainability. Interpreting the effects requires clear evidence, particularly when effect size indicators were likely to be ignored or skipped. Future researchers must use appropriate analytical tools and justify key results to achieve statistically significant effects of SSG on outcome variables.
... Numerous studies have confirmed that game-based learning can enhance public knowledge on social issues, change attitudes toward sustainable development and related subjects [18][19][20][21], increase motivation and facilitate different kinds of learning [16], and equip learners with the complex, cross-disciplinary concepts and knowledge necessary for the practice of sustainable development [22][23][24][25][26]. Based on its various advantages, game-based learning should be integrated into education [15] to deliver knowledge on comprehensive sustainable development to the public. However, themes in game-based learning relating to sustainable development education primarily focus on the environ-ment [27] or emphasize one particular goal, precluding the full understanding of all aspects of sustainable development [28]. ...
... To conduct an in-depth evaluation on games used in sustainable development education, sustainable development-themed games reviewed by Liarakou et al. [29], dos Santos et al. [30], and Stanitsas et al. [28] were sorted. After duplicates were removed, 156 games remained, of which only 35 covered all three aspects of sustainability. ...
... Moreover, most of the learners considered the game enjoyable. According to Stanitsas et al. [28], however, Stop Disasters! covers only two aspects of the SDGs: society and the environment. ...
To promote the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), public awareness of the importance and urgency of sustainable development should be raised by providing relevant education programs. Although game-based learning has been confirmed to be one of the most effective routes to deepen public understanding of the SDGs and sustainable development in general, games for comprehensive sustainable development-based courses have yet to be popularized. Thus, we developed a game-based learning approach that delivers comprehensive conceptual information on SDGs. Based on Kolb’s theory of experiential learning, students understood the relevance of the SDGs by playing a board game designed to simulate the real world, including national and international policies. Furthermore, considering the suspension of in-person learning and shifts to digital instruction caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a digital version of the board game was created to compare the effects of digital and non-digital game-based learning. A comprehensive sustainable development evaluation questionnaire was developed and optimized using the fuzzy Delphi method to assess the participants’ knowledge of and attitudes toward the SDGs. Our results reveal that the digital and non-digital board game both improve students’ knowledge and attitude toward sustainable development. However, the digital board game was more effective than the non-digital board game.
... Now viewed as an integral part of Simulation based Education (SE), they have taken advantage in substantial advances in the field of computing to allow innovative methodologies to be applied for educational purposes, decisions support, and public policy making (Campos et al., 2020). Many Serious Games have been developed on the topic of sustainability (Katsaliaki and Mustafee, 2012;Stanitsas et al., 2019) as a broad concept related to people, the planet, and the economy. Regarding the related and more specific concept of Circular Economy, there is evidence of a smaller body of work (De la Torre et al., 2021) with an emphasis on resource management, individual economic benefits through input reduction, efficiency gains, waste avoidance and reduction of environmental impacts. ...
... There are examples of serious board games focusing on material criticality ("In the loop" - Whalen et al., 2018) and mostly energy transition toward sustainable generation (with the examples of Energy Safari (Gugerell and Zuidema, 2017) and Energyville, and (Energy Transition Game,), with an emphasis on role playing. Digital Serious gaming is being applied to topics such as the impact of renewable energy policies on carbon emissions (Campos et al., 2020), the economic, environmental and security trade-offs and opportunities associated with different energy sources (Evans et al., 2022), energy conservation for householders (Encon City - Stanitsas et al., 2019), and industrial training to support sustainable practice (Rai and Beck, 2017). Although Serious Games on Circular Economy do often mention and include water as an important of part of the problem, they do not, to our knowledge show in a cohesive way how combinations of components inside the urban water cycle such as households' water reuse technologies can have for example a major impact on water stress, energy use, and water quality; how wastewater treatment technologies like biogas generation and sewer mining can lower carbon emissions; and how nature-based solutions such as sustainable drainage systems can deliver cost-effective ways to limit discharges of untreated water into rivers. ...
Understanding the Circular Economy for water is challenging. It requires being acquainted with the individual components involved in the urban water cycle such as stormwater, water conveyance, groundwater, water drainage, wastewater treatment and discharge. In addition, to appreciate benefits and tradeoffs in the context of Circular Economy, one also needs to factor the interrelations between water and other factors such as material recovery, energy use, expenses, and environmental impacts. On top of it, the fact that each catchment has a different geography, hydrology and urban setup can lead to difficulties in transferring gathered knowledge to other situations. In response to this challenge of developing a holistic understanding of applying Circular Economy to the urban water cycle, the NextGen Serious Game has been created. It is a simulation based online educational tool with a digital user interface that allows participants to explore the implications of applying circular economy strategies such as “Reduce” (for waste), Reuse (for materials), and Recovery (of energy though biogas generation) to the water urban cycle in different virtual catchments representing different settings. Several physical and online game-playing events took place where participants were able to take the appropriate measures to maximise Circular Economy for water when a virtual catchment was exposed to challenging scenarios, e.g., lower rainfalls and population growth. The players included students, environmental scientists, engineers, policy makers, and members of the public. The serious game was successfully used as a teaching tool in student classrooms (leading to an average improvement of about 26% in the number of correct answers). Furthermore, it made an effective debate facilitation tool contributing to the discussion of a multi-disciplinary expert panel by bringing new insights to the discussion. Finally, the Serious Game was used to organize the first e-sport competitive tournament between water professionals at an industry conference, paving the way for a novel form of engagement. This is a considerable contribution to public understanding at a time where the water industry struggles to sensitize a wider audience to the problems and reality of water in the context of climate change, growing resources scarcity, and environmental decline.
... It has also been determined that the gamification also helps PM students to identify their failings, which assists them in improving for future and performing better than their previous experience. It helps them identify their mistakes and provides guidelines about what not to repeat [95], [96]. [68] provided an experimentally proven comparison between gamification and traditional educational approaches depicting the pros of gamification in PME. ...
... Simulation exercises are preferred by those who appreciate clarity and accessibility [95], [108], [114]. According to the findings, the growing number of serious games with sustainable development suggests a preference among academics for their use as instructional tools to incorporate sustainable development concepts [96], [114]. The obtained results provide evidence of information gain as well as student satisfaction with the experience. ...
Project management learning involves realization of the project management’s knowledge areas, familiarity with advanced tools as well as developing abilities like critical thinking and decision-making. The majority of inexperienced project managers struggle to achieve these essential skills. Teaching project management is sometimes difficult due to the involvement of practical implementation along with delivering the theoretical concepts. The subject has been explored in a variety of ways by the research community highlighting the enhancements in teaching methodologies and curricula as well as the applications of alternative approaches such as blended learning and gamification. This study systematically identifies and examines the state-of-the-art in project management education by evaluating the improvements attempted through blended learning models, curricula, and gamification. The primary goal of this work is to summarize the impact of the aforementioned facets in project management education by evaluating the empirically verified research. The key findings represent that most of the studies used the mixed blended learning model, which combines advanced online and the traditional face-to-face educational practices. Moreover, the research emphasizes the modifications and improvements in existing curricula in order to achieve what the industry requires from the project managers. In addition, an imbalance has been observed in the use of gamification for the specific knowledge areas where most of the gamification is focused on communication management while the procurement and stakeholder management appeared to be neglected areas. Furthermore, this study proposes a taxonomy, which is designed to summarize the fundamental components of blended learning along with their advantages. The challenges and gaps as open issues are also presented in the area of project management education. Additionally, this research suggests a project centric model to enhance the learning outcomes of project management courses and provides guidelines for instructors to improve the blended learning and gamification experience for students of project management courses. Finally, the prospects of future research have been offered to the fellow researchers and practitioners engaged in project management education.
... In the literature review by Stanitsas et al. the authors analyse 77 serious games that aim to facilitate the transition to sustainability. The games differ greatly in their sustainability subthemes, target groups and goals, as well as in their type and the technology used [20]. The majority of serious games in the field of the energy transition are in the domain of domestic energy consumption and the pro-environmental behaviour for energy efficiency [7,16]. ...
... Few publications deal simultaneously with the planning and decision-making on renewable energy sources (e.g. adoption of solar energy [19]) and even less can be played online and with virtual reality hardware [20]. ...
The energy transition in Germany is planned to take place by 2045. It includes the complete abandonment of fossil and nuclear energy sources, a nationwide expansion of renewable energy sources such as solar energy, wind and hydropower as well as the reduction of energy consumption. Those measurements will contribute significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Our work aims to give citizens an intuitive insight into the energy transition and provide a better understanding through visualization and playful, realistic interaction.
In this paper, the concept of an educational game for citizens is explained, in which the topic of renewable energies is to be conveyed to them playfully. Particular attention is paid to the calculations necessary for the game logic and the three-dimensional interactive visualization. The 3D environment and the application logic is developed with the virtual reality engine PolyVR and ported for its experience within a web browser. The implementation of this work focuses on wind power and the German province Baden-Württemberg but can be extended analogously for other forms of renewable energies to fully depict the energy transition in Germany.
KeywordsVitual realitySerious game3D web game3D simulationGreen gamesEnvironmental gamesPublic engagementEnergy transitionClimate changeClimate goalsRenewable energy sources
... It also consists of ease of use, ease of learning, willingness to use in the future, and willingness to recommend to others [25]. This should also address the concern of the user, goal, and context to meet user needs according to the target application and context delivery [26]. However, evaluation of serious games about environmental awareness still lacking in the literature. ...
The indiscriminate use of natural resources leads to the deterioration of the environment and the depletion of basic human necessities. This alarming concern entails improving environmental behavior to attain sustainability. By taking advantage of the recent technological advancement, this paper proposes the integration of serious games in developing a system model that enables environmental awareness by leveraging artificial intelligence and analytics. Initially, the serious game is evaluated in terms of usability and playability aspects. Results show that ease of use, learning opportunity, and immersion are significant for the end-users of the serious game, while feedback is considered the least significant among all constructs in the survey. In terms of the playability evaluation, effectiveness and immersion obtained higher ratings from computing and environmental science professionals. On the other side, this paper describes the core components of the proposed system model that may pave the way to improve the use of serious games for environmental awareness, through intelligence, and analytics. Further, this paper also presents the implications of the proposed model for education and practice.
... The first approach relates to the domain of gamification, which has been proven to be an effective tool to educate for sustainable development (Gatti et al., 2019). As suggested by Stanitsas et al. (2019), while education is a key element to encourage sustainability, it does not necessarily ensure a sustainable change in young children. At the opposite, games, because they allow to appropriate a domain while playing, have the ability to transform children on the long term. ...
... Games are seen as a tool for social learning (Den Haan and Van der Voort, 2018; Mochizuki et al., 2021). There is a growing body of literature on games used for action in agriculture (Assefa et al., 2021;Aubert et al., 2018;Flood et al., 2018;Galeote et al., 2021;Lacombe et al., 2018;Madani et al., 2017;O'Garra et al., 2021;Ouariachi et al., 2020;Redpath et al., 2018;Stanitsas et al., 2019;Tribaldos and Schneider, 2021). These games come close to the notion of serious games, which were defined by Abt (1970) in the early seventies as "games that have an explicit and consciously considered purpose and are not intended to be played primarily for fun". ...
CONTEXT: Livestock farming systems have received particular attention in the news and scientific media. However, do these considerations ever come to a real debate? Nothing is less certain. There is much attention on the negative impacts of livestock farming on the environment, and it remains difficult to have a fruitful dialogue on the desirable developments of livestock farming areas. This is also true at a local scale, where antagonisms among stakeholders can be strong.
OBJECTIVE: We present La Grange®, a generic serious game that reveals trade-offs and synergies in livestock farming areas. Its aim is to promote horizontal knowledge and dialogue among stakeholders on locally-adapted transition for livestock farming.
METHODS: After presenting the conceptual model underlying the game with the different game components and phases, we report the outputs of four case studies with groups of farmers or students in agriculture.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: We show that La Grange® fills a gap in the toolbox for understanding livestock farming, making it possible to integrate generic and local knowledge and incorporating its biotechnical, environmental, economic, and sociocultural dimensions. In each case study, La Grange® not only revealed trade-offs and synergies between these dimensions, but also allowed new cooperation and strategic roadmaps to be set up for a livestock farming area. Both farmers and students perceived the game as a less top-down way of learning. When played with citizens, two of them joined the steering committee on an experimental farm after the game session.
SIGNIFICANCE: As a low-tech, easy-to-access game, La Grange® can be easily used by extension services and agricultural teachers. Outputs from the four case-studies makes it possible to classify La Grange® as a “Game for Change” due to its impact on supporting sustainability.
... On observe ainsi une accélération nette de la dynamique de création de jeux en AAET ces cinq dernières années (à noter que le recensement s"est arrêté en juillet 2021, ce qui explique la dernière colonne de l"histogramme plus basse que la précédente) au sein de la large communauté professionnelle, éducative et associative à laquelle à été adressée l"enquête. Cela confirme une tendance déjà observée [STA19]. La très grande majorité des jeux recensés sont analogiques (61%), ils ne mobilisent aucun dispositif numérique. ...
Les différentes transitions indispensables pour s’adapter aux bouleversements environnementaux nécessitent des outils innovants. A ce titre, les jeux sérieux apparaissent aujourd’hui comme utiles. Les jeux sont vecteurs d’approches, dites « persuasives » par la littérature scientifique, qui visent à transformer les comportements. Cet article présente les résultats d’une enquête nationale exploratoire qui a permis d’identifier et de qualifier les jeux existants sur les thèmes de l’agriculture, de l’environnement, de l’alimentation et du territoire (AAET). 105 jeux ont ainsi été recensés. Les résultats montrent que si une majorité de ces jeux sont conçus et utilisés pour l’enseignement/formation, de nombreux jeux visent à outiller la concertation et la mise en action des acteurs. Ces derniers sont fondés sur des approches collaboratives visant davantage la co-construction entre joueurs de nouveaux futurs que la persuasion. Majoritairement analogiques, ils constituent une nouvelle offre de jeux, qui peut être qualifiée d’innovation sociale et frugale. Si les résultats sont à confirmer à une plus large échelle, cette étude met en évidence le développement ces dernières années du jeu comme outil innovant pour accompagner des transitions durables.
... Renewable energy is gradually being raised from operational and technical activity to a strategic and commercial focus in an organization's energy strategy. Corporates may implement a renewable energy plan in a variety of ways, including renewable power, heat, and transportation, all of which have connected benefits [1,2]. ...
During the last years, renewable energy strategies for sustainable development perform as best practices and strategic insights necessary to support large scale organizations’ approach to sustainability. Power purchase agreements (PPAs) enhance the value of such initiatives. A renewable PPA contract delivers green energy efficiently to organizations that seek sustainability benefits. Consequently, various approaches that define PPAs are utilized to motivate both interested parties to participate in such deals. Highlighting sustainability tactics during negotiations and identifying relative impacts during the projects’ implementation are both necessary. Following the methodological approach of this study, open-ended criteria are used to identify vital negotiation pricing patterns that permit practitioners to deliver win–win outcomes. The aim of this research is to introduce a multicriteria decision analysis-based method, namely PROMETHEE, to evaluate the implementation of sustainability-related strategies using PPAs. This paper proposes a method for ranking alternative sustainable energy strategies in order for decision-makers to be able to select the most appropriate PPA structure for an organization.
... There are numerous opportunities to change consumption patterns based on sustainable models, mostly inspired by more socially-environmentally aware consumers. This change is important because consumer demand influences the way companies produce their products and services (Jaca et al., 2018;Kevin et al., 2021;Stanitsas et al., 2019). In this context, the approach Rs can represent a change in attitude toward consumption and waste generated in the production process. ...
Purpose: The alternative of sustainable consumption is proposed to change the excessive demand and production that aggravate environmental problems. However, translating ecosystems concerns into sustainable attitudes is a well-known challenge. This study analyzes the hypothesis of a positive correlation between how often people visit urban green areas and their perception of sustainable consumption Design/methodology/approach: Based on the nonparametric item response theory (NIRT) and logistic regression models. Findings: The hypothesis was partially confirmed. Implications: The importance of urban green areas and their potential to encourage sustainable consumption reinforces the need for governments to develop environmental education programs that include incentives to visit public parks and emphasize the reduction of environmental degradation. Originality/value: This research contributes (i) to present the importance of urban green areas to change the individuals’ behavior toward sustainable consumption and (ii) to test how urban green areas influence different dimensions of sustainable behavior.
... The new demand for a skilled population in all EU countries has contributed to a change that is about to happen in the area of serious cybersecurity games, as it has been found that cybersecurity education seems especially well-suited to educational delivery methods that use environments for teaching that are the same as where cyber-attacks happen-in networks and computer applications. Another useful property of these tools is the applicable interactivity in the training process that leads the learner to take decisions about his/her behavior when she/he uses digital services [33,34]. It is very indicative that the survey among high-school students, parents and teachers showed that they have selected videos and serious games as the most desired vehicle for learning and training. ...
Cybersecurity has increasingly become a headline feature in news media in recent years, generally prompted by spectacular security breaches in various information systems. The importance of cybersecurity awareness for the sustainable development of society is now recognized widely, but the problem of how to build an educational ecosystem which will include the most relevant target audiences that need to develop cybersecurity skills, is not yet solved. This paper elaborates the state of cybersecurity skills and knowledge in European high-school students by collecting data from the students, their teachers and parents by means of surveys and interviews in nine European countries. The analysis of the information collected has revealed the required topics from the area of cybersecurity that need to be introduced in high school educational programs and the most suitable delivery methods for educational content, such as videos and serious games. A selection of thirteen serious games related to cybersecurity was evaluated and then presented to a class of high-school students. The study of the collected data has shown that cybersecurity education at high school level requires innovative and interactive approaches that build the required skills for a more effective sustainable education and social development.
... Katsaliaki and Mustafee discuss the use of serious games for sustainable development as an educational tool to improve learning outcomes for users of different ages (adults, teenagers, and children) [118]. A review of serious games targeting different aspects of sustainability (environmental, economic, and social), game type (e.g., board game, video game, online game), and different users (general public, professionals, stakeholders) is presented by Stanitsas et al. [197]. Serious games support both declarative knowledge (related to notions and information) procedural knowledge development (related to applying the information to solve tasks) [57]. ...
Sustainable development is nowadays a major concern, requiring to reach a series of urgent environmental, social, and economic targets. To achieve them, technical and legislative interventions are not sufficient: there is a need for individual,
collective, and systemic change rooted in human behavior. As consumers, communities, in our institutional and professional roles, we all contribute to sustainability-related issues, and we should participate in their resolution.
In this situation, the role of design and engineering disciplines and practitioners is
becoming increasingly important. By developing artefacts, interfaces, and environments, designers and engineers shape the contexts where people take actions and make decisions and inevitably affect users’ behavior. Ultimately, this can have a great impact on resources’ consumption, conservation, and distribution. Hence, it implies great responsibility and power, as acknowledged by the field of Design for Sustainable Behavior (DfSB).However, the study of human behavior is not a typical subject in technical fields and education. DfSB researchers have accomplished a great effort to take this knowledge from psychology to design and engineering, leading to the creation of a variety of design tools.
Nevertheless, the integration of DfSB approaches in the industries is not immediate
and trivial. Designing for behavior change merges two extremely complex subjects: human behavior and product development. The former is hard to define, including deliberate choices and habits that we mindlessly replicate, both affected by several variables and difficult to predict. The latter includes a set of tasks, stages, specific technical and legislative standards, it is influenced by the market, and conducted under time pressure. Involving sustainability objectives in the equation makes it even more challenging, implying multiple interrelated social, environmental, and economic problems.
Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR and VR) can support designers, researchers, and
organizations facing this complexity. AR adds information and stimuli into existing contexts, including environments and artifacts. It is a tool to directly affect users’ interaction with their surroundings, their actions, and choices, with an impact on the environment and society. VR allows creating new hypothetical scenarios, replicating and manipulating present and future ones. It is a tool to create awareness and make people experience possible, desired, or undesirable situations, related to sustainability issues. Both these technologies have a great potential to affect human behavior. Moreover, they both can support a variety of product development activities, from concept design to testing and validation of new solutions, improving decision-making processes and collaboration.
This thesis regards the development of methodologies for designers to support sustainable behavior through AR and VR, contributing to enabling change in design and companies’ practices, as well as in users and society.
... In the last several years, serious games and gamification strategies have been used in the field of education, with its competitiveness being seen as highly motivating for educating, training and motivating younger people [1,2]. In what concerns games, and specifically in the field of environmental and biodiversity preservation education, games emerge as an innovative approach to raise environmental awareness among youths [3], namely by engaging students in the development of their own games for environmental awareness learning [4,5]. ...
In recent years, serious games and gamification strategies have been used in the education field and seen as highly motivating for educating and motivating younger people. As regard to games, and in the field of environmental education, they emerge as an innovative approach to raise environmental awareness among youths, namely by challenging students to develop their own games for learning. When research also mentions obstacles in involving students to explore educational contents through game design, this paper presents the Gamers4Nature Toolkit, an artifact developed to support the creation of digital environmental-related games by younger students with no experience in game design. The toolkit was used by 53 upper-secondary and 114 undergraduate students along several game creation sessions, leading to the development of 66 digital games. Findings indicate that the Toolkit was considered an engaging approach to game creation, making it a valuable resource to support educators in game design activities.
... The researchers followed the Dybå and Dingsøyr [37] citation management process to sort out the relevant citations with the help of EndNote 20. The complete selection process is shown in Figure 3. Year and author Focus of review Ferreira et al. [20] SLR on research related to the learning process with (serious) business games using data collection techniques with electroencephalogram or eye tracking signals Stanitsas et al. [21] Simulation games facilitate sustainable education. The primary focus was on sustainability Subhash and Cudney [22] Categorisation of gamified and game-based learning Subhash and Cudney [22] Evaluation methods in computing education Boyle et al. [23] Reported empirical evidence of the positive impact of computer games on learning Fu, Hainey and Baxter [9] Reported empirical evidence of the effect of BSGs on learning outcomes Giessen [24] Serious games' role in improving learning outcomes Hamari, Koivisto and Sarsa [25] Reported empirical studies on the effect of gamification on learning Lopes et al. [26] Reported effect of business games on leadership development Wouters [27] Reported effect of business games on leadership development Connolly [28] Reported empirical evidence of the positive impact of computer games on learning Tobias [29] Reported empirical evidence of the use of serious games in learning Sitzmann [30] Industrial and organisational psychology and management Jahangirian et al. [31] Review simulation applications within manufacturing and business fields Coauthors of this SLR reviewed the selected papers to ensure they met the inclusion criteria. ...
Over the last few years, business simulation games (BSGs) in higher education have attracted attention. BSGs tend to actively engage students with course material, promoting higher engagement and motivation and enabling learning outcomes. Increasingly, researchers are trying to explore the full potential of these games with an upsurge of research in the BSG field in recent years. There is a need to understand the current state of research and future research opportunities; however, there is a lack of recent systematic literature reviews in BSG literature. This study addresses this gap by systematically compiling online empirical research from January 2015 to April 2022. We followed PRISMA guidelines to identify fifty-seven (57) papers reporting empirical evidence of the effectiveness of BSGs in teaching and learning. Findings showed that BSGs improve learning outcomes such as knowledge acquisition, cognitive and interactive skills, and behaviour. The review also summarises different issues concerning the integration of BSGs into the curriculum, learning theories used in the selected studies, and assessment methods used to evaluate student achievement in learning outcomes. The findings of this review summarise the current research activities and indicate existing deficiencies and potential research directions that can be used as the basis for future research into the use of BSGs in higher education.
... Serious games have a particularly large potential for communicating nature conservation and sustainability issues, especially to a younger target group (Sandbrook et al., 2015). The use of serious games in the field of sustainability education is increasing, but it is still very complex and expensive, since it demands highly interdisciplinary skills and knowledge of many different areas of expertise ranging from game engineering and game design to ecology and didactics (Stanitsas et al., 2019). ...
Macrophytes are key components of freshwater ecosystems because they provide habitat, food, and improve the water quality. Macrophyte are vulnerable to environmental change as their physiological processes depend on changing environmental factors, which themselves vary within a geographical region and along lake depth. Their spatial distribution is not well understood and their importance is publicly little-known. In this thesis, I have investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of freshwater macrophytes in Bavarian lakes to understand their diversity pattern along different scales and to predict and communicate potential consequences of global change on their richness. In the introduction (Chapter 1), I provide an overview of the current scientific knowledge of the species richness patterns of macrophytes in freshwater lakes, the influences of climate and land-use change on macrophyte growth, and different modelling approaches of macrophytes. The main part of the thesis starts with a study about submerged and emergent macrophyte species richness in natural and artificial lakes of Bavaria (Chapter 2). By analysing publicly available monitoring data, I have found a higher species richness of submerged macrophytes in natural lakes than in artificial lakes. Furthermore, I showed that the richness of submerged species is better explained by physio-chemical lake parameters than the richness of emergent species. In Chapter 3, I considered that submerged macrophytes grow along a depth gradient that provides a sharp environmental gradient on a short spatial scale. This study is the first comparative assessment of the depth diversity gradient (DDG) of macrophytes. I have found a hump-shaped pattern of different diversity components. Generalised additive mixed-effect models indicate that the shape of the DDG is influenced mainly by light quality, light quantity, layering depth, and lake area. I could not identify a general trend of the DDG within recent years, but single lakes show trends leading into different directions. In Chapter 4, I used a mechanistic eco-physiological model to explore changes in the distribution of macrophyte species richness under different scenarios of environmental conditions across lakes and with depths. I could replicate the hump-shaped pattern of potential species richness along depth. Rising temperature leads to increased species richness in all lake types, and depths. The effect of turbidity and nutrient change depends on depth and lake type. Traits that characterise “loser species” under increased turbidity and nutrients are a high light consumption and a high sensibility to disturbances. “Winner species” can be identified by a high biomass production. In Chapter 5, I discuss the image problem of macrophytes. Unawareness, ignorance, and the poor accessibility of macrophytes can lead to conflicts of use. I assumed that an increased engagement and education could counteract this. Because computer games can transfer knowledge interactively while creating an immersive experience, I present in the chapter an interactive single-player game for children. Finally, I discuss the findings of this thesis in the light of their implications for ecological theory, their implications for conservation, and future research ideas (Chapter 6). The findings help to understand the regional distribution and the drivers of macrophyte species richness. By applying eco-physiological models, multiple environmental shaping factors for species richness were tested and scenarios of climate and land-use change were explored.
... Games are seen as a tool for social learning (Den Haan and Van der Voort, 2018; Mochizuki et al., 2021). There is a growing body of literature on games used for action in agriculture (Assefa et al., 2021;Aubert et al., 2018;Flood et al., 2018;Galeote et al., 2021;Lacombe et al., 2018;Madani et al., 2017;O'Garra et al., 2021;Ouariachi et al., 2020;Redpath et al., 2018;Stanitsas et al., 2019;Tribaldos and Schneider, 2021). These games come close to the notion of serious games, which were defined by Abt (1970) in the early seventies as "games that have an explicit and consciously considered purpose and are not intended to be played primarily for fun". ...
... Thus, "serious games" can be a vital tool in environmental education because they retain their playfulness, but they are not just for entertainment: they have well-defined goals and their elements interconnect to achieve those goals [20]. They pursue educational goals, such as promoting health and physical well-being, but they are also used to promote sustainability and encourage pro-environmental behavior [21]. ...
As the issues related to climate change intensify, new methods to raise awareness of environmental issues, foster pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, and offer a viable alternative to traditional environmental education are needed. In recent years, various computer games and mobile apps targeting sustainability-related information, attitude, and behaviors have been developed. In this systematic review, we aimed to verify which pro-environmental information, attitudes, and behaviors are targeted by serious games and gamified apps, how their efficiency is tested, and the main results. A total of 29 studies were included in the analysis. The results show that serious games and apps were used to decrease energy consumption, water spending, and food consumption, and increase sustainable mobility. Furthermore, technology was used to offer pro-environmental education regarding a myriad of issues. Most interventions were successful and some of them did have significant effects while others provided only short-term changes. The limitations of the current approaches are discussed together with some future expansions that can help develop more efficiency in this domain.
... It is not the intention of gamification to influence longterm behaviour directly. It has been noted by various authors that improvements to environmental outcomes will take long-term strategies and sustained engagement to change individual, community and governmental perceptions and behaviours (Aubert et al., 2018;Kelly et al., 2021;Stanitsas et al., 2019). Thus, it is pleasing to note amongst our included studies the focus towards the use of the more substantive approaches to developing gameful interventions (i.e. ...
Background
To overcome the high failure rate of gameful interventions, we need to better understand their design and evaluation strategies to build an evidence-base for best-practice approaches that bring about meaningful change. This systematic review asks: ‘What behavioural and technological design and evaluation theories and approaches are applied in games developed to bring about positive environmental outcomes?’.
Method
We reviewed 52 papers published between 2015 and 2020 that used gameful interventions to improve behaviour related to environmental outcomes. These papers were analysed to review the behavioural and technical design, and the assessment and evaluation approaches, employed by the intervention designers.
Results
We found that these publications report on simple aspects of the behavioural and technical design behind the intervention but fail to justify their design choices in terms of theory and evidence. Furthermore, variability across their evaluation approaches and outcomes exists.
Discussion
This review highlights several systemic flaws in the literature that limit our understanding of gameful interventions in the pro-environmental context. First, based on this review, we cannot be convinced that these interventions were designed according to best practice for intervention design or for technology development. Second, the justification for proposing a gameful intervention is not always clear. Finally, it is unclear whether these interventions are being evaluated based on best practice. Thus, it is not clear that we can draw confident conclusions about evidence-based outcomes of short-term engagement (in structural gamification interventions) or long-term behaviour change (in content gamification and serious game interventions).
... So-called "serious games" utilize the rules and structure of games and concept of play to allow "users" or "players" to test hypotheses, construct alternatives, and implement strategies, and they are increasingly used in sustainability science (Stanitsas et al., 2019). Like other futures methods, games face the challenge of tying individual-capacity building events to longer-term series of strategic action (Rumore et al., 2016). ...
The scale and urgency of sustainability problems the world over has led to calls for sustainability transformations in cities, regions, and countries. Such calls for transformation are underlain by a persistent knowledge-to-action gap between scientific knowledge production, policy, and practice. To rise to the challenges of sustainability and resilience, municipal administrators need to set evidence-based and ambitious sustainability targets and develop strategies to achieve them. Simultaneously, transdisciplinary sustainability science researchers need to generate scientific knowledge to further enable cities along pathways of transformation. This paper details a collaborative backcasting game, AudaCITY, developed to build transformative capacity in city administrations while also generating deep contextual knowledge to inform a transformative sustainability science research agenda. We present AudaCITY's key features, potential applications and adaptations, and exemplary outputs and outcomes for cities and researchers. We conclude with recommendations for adopting and adapting AudaCITY for use in action-oriented and transformational sustainability science and capacity building.
... To promote interaction with field actors, static models, and parsimonious meta-models may be preferred to dynamic, complex, and time-consuming models. Different types of information can be obtained through serious games, which constitute a medium for knowledge sharing and learning (Stanitsas et al. 2019). The actor network constitutes an important element of the agroecological transition since it allows for the incorporation of collaborative dimensions, exchange of products (e.g., fodder, manure), and sharing of resources (e.g., machines, labor). ...
A profound transformation of agricultural production methods has become unavoidable due to the increase in the world’s population, and environmental and climatic challenges. Agroecology is now recognized as a challenging model for agricultural systems, promoting their diversification and adaptation to environmental and socio-economic contexts, with consequences for the entire agri-food system and the development of rural and urban areas. Through a prospective exercise performed at a large interdisciplinary institute, INRAE, a research agenda for agroecology was built that filled a gap through its ambition and interdisciplinarity. It concerned six topics. For genetics, there is a need to study genetic aspects of complex systems (e.g., mixtures of genotypes) and to develop breeding methods for them. For landscapes, challenges lie in effects of heterogeneity at multiple scales, in multifunctionality and in the design of agroecological landscapes. Agricultural equipment and digital technologies show high potential for monitoring dynamics of agroecosystems. For modeling, challenges include approaches to complexity, consideration of spatial and temporal dimensions and representation of the cascade from cropping practices to ecosystem services. The agroecological transition of farms calls for modeling and observational approaches as well as for creating new design methods. Integration of agroecology into food systems raises the issues of product specificity, consumer behavior and organization of markets, standards and public policies. In addition, transversal priorities were identified: (i) generating sets of biological data, through research and participatory mechanisms, that are appropriate for designing agroecological systems and (ii) collecting and using coherent sets of data to enable assessment of vulnerability, resilience and risk in order to evaluate the performance of agroecological systems and to contribute to scaling up. The main lessons learned from this collective exercise can be useful for the entire scientific community engaged in research into agroecology.
... Students from multiple backgrounds can obtain the necessary disciplinary expertise and termi-nology required for collaboration in a setting that allows users to explore the facts, legislative rules, and competing priorities of the problem independentlywithout the limitations of traditional lecture-based classroom instruction. The introduction of serious games in higher education has also shown positive effects on student retention of essential learning outcomes associated with sustainable development in structured and informal learning environments (Stanitsas et al., 2019;Rossano et al., 2018). ...
Climate BufferNet is an educational, visual
simulation designed to engage higher education students
in the Midwestern United States with ideas for improving
rural landscape planning outcomes. Past and present
social and economic forces shaping the midwestern agricultural landscape have fundamentally transformed its
natural systems, impacting food security, biodiversity, and
community and ecosystem resilience to climate change.
However, the lack of specific knowledge concerning these
socioecological and economic forces and their feedback
loops constitutes an information barrier to stakeholders
new to the decision-making frameworks that shape this
complex socioagricultural landscape. This article presents
a serious socioecological gaming simulation case study
as a framework for familiarizing landscape architecture
students with the complex interactive characteristics of
these systems. The Climate BufferNet study immersed
students in an interactive, co-learning visual media environment that confronted them with real-world challenges
of balancing economic priorities with the degraded ecological feedback loops now prevalent in this multifunctional
landscape. The results of student evaluations from initial
playtesting, presented here, revealed that the simulation
accurately demonstrates the difficulty in balancing environmental and economic goals. Further, qualitative coding
of student responses shows that players were using the
simulation to actively experiment with spatial configurations of conservation practices and decipher rules for
targeting their actions. The results of these initial pilot
tests, documented here, demonstrate both the potential
for engaging landscape architects in rural landscape planning and the need for greater attention to the complexities
of environmental and economic tensions between biodiversity, climate change, and ecosystem services.
... Games are increasingly used to learn about complex issues and ultimately transform behavior (Den Haan and van der Voort, 2018; Koivisto and Hamari, 2019). A rapidly increasing number of peer-reviewed academic papers have been published in the last several years on the use of games in sustainability learning, demonstrating their effectiveness (Stanitsas et al., 2019). One stream of such research defines its purpose as motivating participants to consider and possibly change their behaviors (Kumazawa, 2021). ...
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require transformations at all levels, from global to local, to be realized. Underlying all of these levels is the personal level, where any transformation begins. Before individual persons change their behavior for sustainability, they will need to not only understand the SDGs, but also regard them as a matter which directly concerns them. A process involving “personalizing the SDGs” needs to exist between initial awareness and subsequent action. However, identifying and instituting the means by which this can be realized is not easy. In this study, we designed a learning program that combined an existing SDGs game with an original self-reflective questionnaire, and implemented it in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. The program allowed participants ( n = 289) to first play the game, which takes the form of a simulation of the world in the run up to 2030, and then carry out individual and/or group work to consider their individual, specific relationships with the global agenda. The questionnaire also provided each participant with a means to reflect on their initial perceptions and how they changed following this learning. The answers on the questionnaire indicated that the program aided the participants in raising their perceived levels of relationships with, and the personal significance of, the SDGs, while having fun at the same time. Personal relationships with the SDGs were expressed more concretely when local contexts and topics covered in other learning programs were tied in with the SDGs.
... "Serious games" take up the characteristics of a video game in an entrepreneurial or school context [27]. In 2018, a study focusing on "serious games" applied to the field of sustainable development, showed that one in three games was part of this theme, with environmental (18%) and social (16%) dimensions mainly addressed [28]. This can indeed be verified by the increasing number of studies on the subject [29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. ...
Climate change appears to be the ecological issue which benefits from the most attention in the literature, compared to equally alarming situations such as plastic pollution. In fact, waste management issues took a new step with the recent discovery of microplastics in human blood for the first time, as it used to be a hypothesis. Instead of separating those questions, some researchers tend to consider that a link exists between the effects of global warming and plastic degradation in the ocean. Research focusing on the construal-level theory and the psychological distance explain the lack of public interest in the environmental crisis. However, recent studies highlight the empirical support of the psychological distance instead of the CLT, especially regarding climate change, but a few studies explore the psychological distance related to plastic pollution. With that in mind, any means to reduce the perceived psychological distance regarding environmental issues such as plastic pollution might increase their sensitivity and motivation to act. Moreover, the change of habit could be induced by a new event that would disrupt someone’s daily life according to the habit discontinuity hypothesis, and the use of immersive media such as video games might be the solution. Given numerous possibilities of creation with the scenarios, gameplay, public of interest and gaming contexts, video games also influence motivation, engagement and learning ability. We can also find specific components and mechanisms from game design in media that do not focus on entertainment first but on pedagogical purpose: serious games. Thus, this study investigates how immersive media might reduce specific psychological distance dimensions and trigger emotions using an educational video game on plastic pollution, which might play a major role in changing ones’ daily habits. The research uses a qualitative method centered on semi-structured individual interviews and the experimentation of a video game named Plasticity. Results support all the propositions and show that different types of immersion might reduce each dimension of the psychological distance, which is a first, reinforcing environmental awareness and new intentions of pro-environmental behavior. Other areas of discussion are furthered explored.
... Given the importance of diverse game features for engagement and motivation, and of knowing existing games to devise interventions and develop new games, past content reviews have broadly analyzed games on climate change [114,129] or sustainability [87,97,141]. More recent analyses have classifed digital and analog climate change games [69] and compared the engagement potential of serious and entertainment digital games [50]. ...
Games are considered promising for engaging people with climate change. In virtual worlds, players can adopt empowering roles to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and/or adapt to climate impacts. However, the lack of a comprehensive exploration of existing climate-related identities and actions prevents understanding their potential. Here, we analyze 80 video games and classify avatar identities, or expected player roles, into six types. Climate selves encourage direct life changes; climate citizens are easy to identify with and imitate; climate heroes are inspirational figures upholding environmental values; empowered individuals deliberate to avoid a tragedy of the commons; authorities should consider stakeholders and the environment; and faction leaders engage in bi- or multilateral relations. Adaptation is often for decision-making profiles, while empowered individuals, authorities, and faction leaders usually face conflicting objectives. We discuss our results in relation to avatar research and provide suggestions for researchers, designers, and educators.
... The ICT sector is viewed as important in ensuring SD [15]. It is important to note that ICT presently interpenetrates and is vital to the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of many nations around the globe [16]. ...
This article explains the results of a study that focuses on measuring Sustainable Development (SD) education for Information Technology Education (ITE) program review in UPSI. A Sustainable Development Education Model (SDEM) was constructed in this study using two integration approaches, namely a horizontal integration and a vertical integration. Both integration approaches were used to measure courses offered in the existing program with selected courses on the implementation of the SD education. The SD education in the selected programming and networking courses was measured using a self-assessment of sustainability criteria based on the Sustainability Tool for Assessing Universities Curricula Holistically (or STAUNCH©). STAUNCH© is an analytical software used to analyze courses and academic programs across all disciplines specifically on assessing the contribution of their curricula to SD. The software analyzed two parts of SD education evaluation which are curriculum evaluation and concept evaluation, using descriptive statistics with percentage cross-tabulation method. The results from the first part show that there is a normal distribution in ESD contribution by each course and a low indication on the grade strength for SD contribution in curriculum evaluation. The results from the second part show that there is a high importance to agree on the components used in the design of SD integration concept and an average rate of SD integration into the curriculum. For the teaching and learning method used, it was found that a cross-disciplinary approach, a mix-method approach, and a project-based learning (PBL) is extremely important for the successful SD integration into the curriculum. The study concludes that upon measuring the selected programming and networking courses in the ITE program, the SD integration within these courses are above average and necessary steps are needed to be taken accordingly. The study implies that SD education not only benefits the curriculum provider, but also the students because they are the future inheritors of technology as it benefits a sustainable future.
... O potencial dos jogos digitais para no domínio da motivação para a aprendizagem e a sua relevância na educação tem vindo a ser reconhecido há alguns anos (Earp, 2015;Paul Gee, 2008;Robertson, 2012). No campo da educação ambiental e da preservação da biodiversidade, os jogos surgem como uma abordagem inovadora para promover um aumento da consciencialização ambiental entre os mais jovens, quer pela utilização de estratégias de gamificação quer pelo desenvolvimento de jogos centrados na educação para a sustentabilidade e para o desenvolvimento sustentável, gestão ambiental ou alterações climáticas (Madani et al., 2019;Ouariachi et al., 2019;Stanitsas et al., 2019). Ainda que os impactos positivos e negativos de jogar jogos digitais continuem a ser discutidos (Boyle et al., 2012;Morganti et al., 2017), estudos que incidem sobre a utilização de jogos desenhados para promover, nos alunos, uma consciência e uma apreciação pela biodiversidade e pela sua conservação realçam um aumento no conhecimento sobre a biodiversidade e uma consciência relativamente à sua importância (Schaal et al., 2015;Tan et al., 2018); um aumento da assimilação dos princípios ambientais e da motivação dos estudantes (Branco et al., 2015;Madani et al., 2019); um maior conhecimento relativamente a valores relacionados com a sustentabilidade (Kynigos & Yiannoutsou, 2018); e um interesse e desejo em contribuir para classificação de informação relacionada com a biodiversidade e as espécies naturais (Loureiro et al., 2019). ...
Esta investigación pretende analizar la utilidad de una app para favorecer la creación de relatos digitales
en primeras edades ligada a su capacidad inmersiva. Se llevó a cabo una intervención con alumnado de
Educación Infantil (N=93) de tres escuelas rurales de Asturias (España). Para ello, se seleccionó la app
Imagistory, que permite elaborar un relato digital apoyado en una secuencia de ilustraciones. Tras obtener
los permisos correspondientes, el alumnado manipuló la aplicación individualmente durante 10 minutos.
Esta comunicación se centra en determinar la potencialidad inmersiva de la app seleccionada, inferida a
partir de: 1) el grado de autonomía y motivación del alumnado antes, durante y después de la tarea de
creación de sus relatos; 2) su reacción afectivo-emocional, atendiendo a la empatía hacia los personajes, la
verbalización de sus emociones y pensamientos, la curiosidad y/o inseguridad manifestadas, el disfrute, la
inmersión en el relato, la relación de la historia con sus vivencias, etc. Se constata que, si bien más de la
mitad necesitó estímulos para iniciar la narración, la mayoría mostró autonomía para crear su relato con el
apoyo de la app. Asimismo, la mayor parte manifestó bastante o mucho interés tanto durante la actividad
narrativa como en el visionado. Respecto a la reacción afectivo-emocional, casi todos manifiestan
curiosidad y disfrute, y más de la mitad se sumergen en la ficción. Sin embargo, se obtienen resultados más
bajos en la empatía hacia los personajes y en la verbalización de sus emociones. En conclusión, la actividad
narrativa con este tipo de app despierta el interés por la invención de historias, favoreciéndose así las
habilidades lingüístico-narrativas, dada su capacidad inmersiva.
... En témoignent les nombreux jeux ou méthodes de jeux créés en France (Dernat, Martel, et al., 2021) dont certains ont déjà plus d'une dizaine d'années d'ancienneté : Rami Fourrager (Martin et al., 2011), Commod (Abrami et al., 2012), Jeu de Territoire (Angeon et Lardon, 2008). La mobilisation des jeux dans l'éducation/apprentissage est particulièrement étudiée en tant qu'outil d'apprentissage social (Den Haan & Van der Voort, 2018; Mochizuki et al., 2021), mais il existe également une importante littérature sur les jeux utilisés pour l'action (Aubert et al., 2018;Dernat, Rigolot, et al., 2021;Flood et al., 2018;Lacombe et al., 2018;Madani et al., 2017;Ouariachi et al., 2020;Stanitsas et al., 2019). ...
Le présent appel à communications s’intéresse aux approches d’évaluation mises en œuvre au cours ou après la mobilisation de jeux sérieux sur les thématiques agricoles, environnementales et alimentaires et permettant d’en mesurer les impacts potentiels et réels sur les transitions en cours. Les communications retenues seront présentées lors des 1eres journées GAMAE (https://gamae2022.journees.inrae.fr/) qui se dérouleront à Clermont-Ferrand les 9 et 10 juin 2022 et certaines pourront faire l’objet d’une valorisation sous forme d’articles dans la revue Nature, Sciences, Sociétés.
... Most of the studies in this cluster had involved research on video games and learning methods (Bayeck, 2020;Carr and Rogers, 2016;Denham and Guyotte, 2018;Gocheva, Somova, Angelova, and Kasakliev, 2020;Gómez-Carrasco et al., 2020;Mulcahy and Zainuddin, 2020;Núnez, 2018;Nunoo, 2019;Ofosu-Ampong and Boateng, 2018;Silva, Rodrigues, and Leal, 2019;Mathupayas Thongmak, 2019). The effects of serious games had been assessed by focussing on diversified areas such as perceived team cohesiveness (Bozanta, Kutlu, and Nowlan, 2016), mental illness (Fitzgerald and Ratcliffe, 2020), early childhood education (Heljakka et al., 2019), higher education (Cerrato, Ferrara, Ponticorvo, and Sica, 2017;Taylor, Kayis-Kumar, and Bain, 2017;Venter, 2016), pro-environmental behaviours aimed at energy efficiency (Morganti, Pallavicini, Cadel, and Candelieri, 2017;Wu et al., 2020), financial literacy amongst young decision-makers (Rasco et al., 2020), cultural heritage (Escudero and Villagrasa, 2017;Khan et al., 2020;Slavova-Petkova, 2017;Wang and Nunes, 2019), sustainability transition (Stanitsas, Kirytopoulos, and Vareilles, 2019), and the application of game-based techniques for higher education (Dikcius and Urbonavicius, 2020;Gibbens, Gettle, Thompson, and Muller, 2015;Vintimilla--Tapia et al., 2018;Zamora et al., 2018). ...
Over the last few years, gamification has sparked significant interest in both industry and academia. However, the focus of the debate has been mostly on game studies and human-computer interaction (HCI). Even though games are increasingly being supplied as services to customers, few academic works have linked game studies to the service or marketing literature (Dikcius and Urbonavicius, 2020; Dukembay and Zhaksylyk, 2019). This paper presents an examination of the emerging trends of gamification and e-learning for young learners. The first section presents a text-based cluster bibliometric analysis based on 222 qualified articles published between 2015 and 2020. We conducted this analysis to identify the most prominent themes in the literature through cluster identification via the VOS viewer software. As the themes were found to be interlinked, the second section presents a systematic literature review based on a bibliometric analysis performed using the PRISMA method on 32 qualified articles. The findings highlighted the four major future research themes of personalization, game elements, learner styles, and learner engagement. Finally, we provide a future research agenda based on the theory, characteristics, context, and methodology (TCCM) framework. Our findings offer key insights aimed at enabling actors in education policy making and gamification-based software companies and agencies to identify the gamification techniques best suited for e-learning.
... Literary critic F.Kiyikbayev studied the issue of coverage of fathers and children's relations within Uzbek literature as a separate research object. In his opinion, "the transformation of ancestry and generations is a legitimate historical process, which has not always been smooth and calm (Stanitsas et al., 2019;Kulinska et al., 2021). The literature, which is the art of life, has an obligation to accurately describe the complexity, the contradictions, the causes and consequences of the changing process".In the process of reflecting this problem, several characters of new generations have been created in our literature. ...
The article analyzes the concept of transition in the Uzbek literature, the importance of the works created at different stages of the transition period on the education of the youth, and the artistic interpretation of social problems in the transition period. The transformation to the market economy has also influenced the lifestyle of people that it has been even seen in the relationships of people living in different ways, facing financial difficulties or profits to earn that a lot of people who have left to work abroad, is also the majority of the works described in modern Uzbek prose. Such novels are "Isyonvaitoat" by U.Hamdam, the novel of "Mashaqqatlargirdobi" by Zulfiya the daughter of Qurolboy. In conclusion, it can be said that the study and interpretation of the social problems raised in the literature of the transitional period are of great importance in the education of young people. The teacher, mentor's role is also unique in teaching such interpretations to students, to young people in the right direction, to teach them to feel love towards and to love the art.
... The increase in the awareness on sustainability in construction has led researchers to seek for more effective training methods. According to Stanitsas et al. (2019), SG could be used to enhance peoples' awareness and understanding on the values of sustainability. ...
Serious Games (SG) is a pedagogical approach with technical integration of entertainment and knowledge. Even though this approach has been applied in construction, most of the studies have focused on specific areas, such as sustainability and construction safety. Therefore, a general representation of SG applications in construction is in-evident. This gap creates uncertainties and lack of directives on the know-what and know-how of SG in construction. A systematic review and detailed content analysis of 50 post-screened articles related to SG in construction/building have depicted the current state and consolidated view on the applications of SG in construction. The applications of SG were categorized into several subject matters, such as construction safety, management and fire evacuation. Further, an overall classification system for SG in construction has been established, by including elements such as user and purpose. Based on the established classification, a SG process framework was developed and the framework could serve as a reference for construction stakeholders/game developers in designing games for their needs. The main outcome from this study (classification and process framework) would benefit the academic and industry practitioners, as the establishments could guide game development in construction, particularly in empowering construction education and training.
Plastics pollute all environmental compartments because of human activities and mismanagement. Public perceptions and knowledge about plastic pollution differ among individuals and across different jurisdictions. Targeted survey-based research tools can help measure consumer awareness about impacts of mismanaged plastics and help identify trends and solutions to reduce plastic use and plastic pollution. This review primarily focused on survey-based research from presenters at the scientific track session TS-2.15 Plastic Pulse of the Public at the 7th International Marine Debris Conference (www.7imdc.org) and supplemented by contemporary literature. Survey-based research helps provide new insights about public opinions related to the pervasiveness of plastic pollution. This review includes results about consumer use and perceptions of plastic pollution impacts from diverse studies from nine countries including Ghana, Kenya, Bangladesh, Pakistan, United States, Canada, Norway, Germany, and United Kingdom. Overwhelmingly, public perceptions and consumer awareness of the negative impacts of plastic pollution were extremely high, regardless of geographic location. Awareness about the environmental impacts of plastic waste and plastic pollution was highest within younger, white, female and well-educated demographic groups. However, differences were observed in public attitudes towards willingness to pay for sustainable alternatives, end-of-life plastic uses, unintended consequences, recycling and mismanagement.
As the ecological threat to the long-term viability of human society has become more apparent, colleges and universities across the world have pledged their support for sustainability, using a mix of formal and informal approaches across curricular and non-curricular settings. Games should be prioritized among the various educational tools for sustainable development. A growing body of scholarship shows how game-based learning encourages metacognition, problem-solving, systems thinking, engagement, motivation, learning outcomes, and even emotional intelligence. This paper introduces a framework, called the Green Game Frame (GGF), that can be used to identify and select games to educate about sustainable development. The GGF visually represents how a sustainability game might create conditions that facilitate a switch from a sender-receiver model of education to a more interactive learner-centered approach. The GGF model draws on transdisciplinary research from multiple fields to identify essential variables in an effective game that will create the conditions for participants to be receptive to learn and engage in sustainability. This is demonstrated by using the GGF as an assessment tool to evaluate two sample games, Catan: Global Warming and New Shores: A Game for Democracy. This analysis will be useful to anyone who wishes to consider the use of games in educational contexts to teach about complex ecological problems and sustainability.
The video game industry plays an essential role in the entertainment sphere of our society. However, from Monopoly to Flight Simulators, serious games have also been appealing tools for learning a new language, conveying values, or training skills. Furthermore, the resurgence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data science in the last decade has created a unique opportunity since the amount of data collected through a game is immense, as is the amount of data needed to feed such AI algorithms. This paper aims to identify relevant research lines using Serious Games as a novel research tool, especially in Computational Social Sciences. To contextualize, we also conduct a (non-systematic) literature review of this field. We conclude that the synergy between games and data can foster the use of AI for good and open up new strategies to empower humanity and support social research with novel computational tools. We also discuss the challenges and new opportunities that arise from aspiring to such lofty goals.
Simulation games can be adopted as knowledge tools to communicate uncertainties and complexities in social-ecological systems. Furthermore, simulation games can be leveraged to inform policy support and provide an experimental platform for novel explorations of complex systems. Here we evaluate the educational and research potential of simulation games, while also exploring the role of experimental learning shaping climate change commitments.
Background
U.S. households produce a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions, indicating a potential to reduce their carbon footprints from changing food, energy, and water (FEW) consumption patterns. Behavioral change to FEW consumption is needed, but difficult to achieve. Interactive and engaging approaches like serious games could be a way to increase awareness of possible measures, leading to more sustainable behavior at a household level. This study looks into the experiences and effects of a digital game for homeowners with the potential to reduce FEW resource consumption impacts.
Intervention
In this study, we developed and implemented a digital game to explore its potential to raise awareness of the consumption and conservation of FEW resources and the efficacy of conservation messages. This study aims to measure learning outcomes from game participation and to assess the suitability of the game for informing resource conservation actions.
Methods
We tested a proof-of-concept of a digital four-player game, called HomeRUN, with 28 homeowners. The data collected include homeowners’ values and preferences with regard to FEW resources. The patterns of game actions are analyzed with an emphasis on the effectiveness of conservation messaging in informing household consumption behavior.
Results
About 65% of the respondents agree that they gained a better understanding of the greenhouse gas emission impacts of FEW resource consumption after playing the game. Over 57% of the respondents agree that the game experience would influence their future consumption behavior, while a quarter of the respondents are unsure. Overall, we demonstrate the HomeRUN game has potential as a tool for informing conservation efforts at a household level.
In order to achieve collaborative action in nature conservation and natural resources management, stakeholders have to understand and acknowledge other stakeholders’ interests, values, world visions and objectives and they have to overcome the problem of irrational decision-making through innate opposition discourses. In this paper we developed the Mangal Play, an experiential learning method to have participants adopt the role of a particular stakeholder in an imaginary mangrove forest social-ecological system (SES). The Mangal Play is a serious game, more specifically a role-play, aimed at promoting oral dialogues between 20 stakeholders involved in governance, fisheries, aquaculture, agriculture, forestry, tourism, transport, conservation and communication sectors. By providing tools to lecturers and scientists to execute it in a public or classroom setting, the Mangal Play stimulates a decision-making process while accepting compromise and distinguishing bottom-line issues from negotiable positions, and instructs about the behaviour of complex real-world systems in a safe learning environment. We exemplify how social network analysis can serve to visualise the outcome and further develop the Mangal Play. In this way we hope to help stakeholders take into account diverse positions in a rational decision-making process.
Das Kapitel zeigt auf, dass die Entwicklung und der Einsatz von Serious Games einer gründlichen Analyse im Vorfeld, eines durchdachten didaktischen Fundaments und der Berücksichtigung lerntheoretischer, mediendidaktischer und medienpsychologischer Erkenntnisse bedarf. Die Autorin legt dar, dass der Erfolg des Lernens mit Serious Games an die individuelle und organisatorische Akzeptanz des Lernangebotes gebunden ist. Wichtig ist ihr, dass sowohl der tradierten Lehr-Lernweise wie auch der Nutzung medialer Angebote eine dem Lerngegenstand entsprechende Bedeutung beigemessen werden muss.
Can Karaarslan beleuchtet die Rolle von Serious Games in der Lehre der Ökonomie und die Entwicklung dieses Lernkonzeptes vor dem Hintergrund der Veränderungen in der ökonomischen Wissenschaftsdisziplin. Das Konkrete in der Implementierung gesellschaftlicher Mechanismen rückt in den Vordergrund und zugleich der holistische Ansatz der ökonomischen Serious Games. Er zeigt, dass weiterhin Spiele für die Vermittlung partieller Kenntnisse der ökonomischen Theorie entwickelt werden, immer mehr aber auch problembezogene Spiele dominieren, anhand derer drängende multidimensionale und interdisziplinäre Problemstellungen wie Globalisierung, Klimawandel und der Nachhaltigkeit thematisiert werden können.
The paper examines how video games are related to international relations. Firstly, we explore the general relationship between video games and international relations. We find that video games reflecting popular culture represent the theory, praxis and norms of world politics. We also shed light on the way in which IR scholars use games as a pedagogical tool in the process of university education. We find that simulation and role-playing games are an alternative way for teaching international relations. Nevertheless, the military is the main area in which video games are extensively used. Indeed, most of the games deal with war and, therefore, we review the IR literature to map out how war and enemies are depicted in games. We conclude that video games affect and are shaped by international relations through different ways and processes. For this reason, they are a field of study in the discipline of international relations.
This article shows a study on the impact of the development of a video game for the teaching of mathematics in elementary school students, developed mainly to strengthen knowledge as a new educational resource for teachers to give interactive classes changing the usual way in which they teach, which would cause the student's interest in learning. The methodology used was based on three phases: first, an exploratory research was carried out in the Gabriela Mistral institution in San Pedro de Pelileo (Ecuador), second, the video game was developed with an agile methodology, applying an adaptive algorithm in its architecture that helps the children's knowledge to be modified through the game, expanding the knowledge information they have. Finally, a determined group of students was evaluated to know whether or not the game contributed to their education and it was found that an increase of 27.78% was achieved in their knowledge, in relation to the levels they had with the conventional learning method.
This study describes the unique value of gaming simulation, also known simply as gaming, in the context of research on sustainability-related issues. The advantages and disadvantages of gaming are investigated through a comparative review with other research methods using games, such as game theory and social psychology experiments. Further, the uniqueness of gaming is explained through experimental results on the theme of energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables in a competitive market. The results of the comparative review suggest that the unique value of gaming lies in its ability to help researchers observe dynamic interactions between the subjective realities of players and the states of the complex technical–social–environmental systems they belong to. A retroductive analysis of experimental results suggests the existence of two mechanisms hindering energy transition among the players: price competition caused by a competitive worldview, and free riding behavior under a cooperative worldview.
Developing countries struggle to implement suitable electric power and water services, failing to match infrastructure with urban expansion. Integrated modelling of urban water and power systems would facilitate the investment and planning processes, but there is a crucial gap to be filled with regards to extending models to incorporate the food supply in developing contexts. In this paper, a holistic methodology and platform to support the resilient and sustainable planning at city region level for multiple sectors was developed for applications in urban energy systems (UES) and the energy-water-food nexus, combining agent-based modelling-to simulate and forecast resource demands on spatial and temporal scales-with resource network optimization, which incorporates capital expenditures, operational costs, environmental impacts and the opportunity cost of food production foregone (OPF). Via a scenario based approach, innovative water supply and energy deployment policies are presented, which address the provision of clean energy for every citizen and demonstrate the potential effects of climate change. The results highlighted the vulnerability of Ghanas power generation infrastructure and the need for diversification. Feed-in tariffs and investment into supporting infrastructure and agriculture intensification will effectively increase the share of renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions.
The establishment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) bolstered momentum to achieve a sustainable future. Undeniably, the welfare of future generations is a fundamental value of sustainable development since the publication of the Brundtland report. Nevertheless, SDGs and their targets are meagre on intergenerational justice concerns. The 15-year target horizon of the SDGs might be beneficial for implementation reasons. However, such a short-term perspective is far from innocuous in justice terms. It jeopardises the establishment of long-term goals, which protect both present and future people. This article advocates for clearer stances on intergenerational justice. What type of distributive principles could and should dictate the present socio-economic development? Looking at intragenerational justice principles contained in SDGs does not provide a full answer since they express conflicting visions of what constitutes a fair development. Furthermore, a fair distribution of the development benefits and burdens among present and near future people does not necessarily guarantee the wellbeing of more distant generations. I propose an intergenerational sufficientarian perspective as a way of extending the beneficial impacts of SDGs to both close and distant future generations. Hopefully, it facilitates the translation of the SDGs into policies that promote fairer implementation strategies.
The most critical question for climate research is no longer about the problem, but about how to facilitate the transformative changes necessary to avoid catastrophic climate-induced change. Addressing this question, however, will require massive upscaling of research that can rapidly enhance learning about transformations. Ten essentials for guiding action-oriented transformation and energy research are therefore presented, framed in relation to second-order science. They include: (1) Focus on transformations to low-carbon, resilient living; (2) Focus on solution processes; (3) Focus on 'how to' practical knowledge; (4) Approach research as occurring from within the system being intervened; (5) Work with normative aspects; (6) Seek to transcend current thinking; (7) Take a multi-faceted approach to understand and shape change; (8) Acknowledge the value of alternative roles of researchers; (9) Encourage second-order experimentation; and (10) Be reflexive. Joint application of the essentials would create highly adaptive, reflexive, collaborative and impact-oriented research able to enhance capacity to respond to the climate challenge. At present, however, the practice of such approaches is limited and constrained by dominance of other approaches. For wider transformations to low carbon living and energy systems to occur, transformations will therefore also be needed in the way in which knowledge is produced and used.
Nowadays, sustainability assessment tends to focus on the biophysical and economic aspects of the built environment. The social aspects are generally overestimated during an infrastructure evaluation. This study proposes a method to optimize infrastructure projects by assessing their social contribution. This proposal takes into account the infrastructure’s interactions with the local environment in terms of its potential contribution in the short and long term. The method is structured in three stages: (1) preparation of a decision-making model, (2) formulation of the model, and (3) implementation of the model through optimization of infrastructure projects from the social sustainability viewpoint. The theory of Bayesian reasoning and a harmony search optimization algorithm are used to carry out the research. The paper presents the application to a case study of a set of alternatives for road infrastructure projects in El Salvador. This approach creates a model of participative decision-making. The results show that the method can distinguish socially efficient alternatives from the short and long-term contributions. In addition, the results suggest that some variables are less sensitive to the short and long-term maximization, while others vary their values to improve one objective or the other. The findings are directly applied to a real case. The method can be employed in the infrastructure formulation and prioritization phases and complemented with economic and environmental sustainability assessments.
With an overarching goal of addressing global and regional sustainability challenges, Long TermSocio-Ecological
Research Platforms (LTSER) aim to conduct place-based research, to collect and synthesize both environmental
and socio-economic data, and to involve a broader stakeholder pool to set the research agenda. To date there have been few studies examining the output from LTSER platforms. In this study we enquire if the socioecological research from 25 self-selected LTSER platforms of the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network has produced research products which fulfil the aims and ambitions of the paradigm shift from ecological to socio-ecological research envisaged at the turn of the century. In total we assessed 4983 publically available publications, of which 1112 were deemed relevant to the socio-ecological objectives of the platform.
A series of 22 questions were scored for each publication, assessing relevance of responses in terms of the
disciplinary focus of research, consideration of human health andwell-being, degree of stakeholder engagement,
and other relevant variables. The results reflected the diverse origins of the individual platforms and revealed a
wide range in foci, temporal periods and quantity of output fromparticipating platforms, supporting the premise
that there is a growing trend in socio-ecological research at long-term monitoring platforms. Our review highlights the challenges of realizing the top-down goal to harmonize international network activities and objectives and the need for bottom-up, self-definition for research platforms. This provides support for increasing the consistency of LTSER research while preserving the diversity of regional experiences.
Today, the principles of sustainability and sustainable development represent key points in policy development and activities of the Higher Education Institutions, both for their impact on the environment and the role they play in society. In the wake of the spread of rankings in Higher Education Institutions over the past decades, Universitas Indonesia in 2010 implemented an environmental sustainability ranking, called UI GreenMetric World University Ranking. The aim of this paper is to carry out a constructive analysis of the GreenMetric Ranking in order to improve and strengthen the ranking method. This analysis is based on the review of the scarce literature, the survey of questionnaire and on an evaluation of the guidelines that have been evolving over time. Despite the improvements made over time by the authors, the critical review of the methodology points out that the GreenMetric Ranking still falls short on some issues. Furthermore, the analysis shows the incomplete compliance with the Berlin Principles. The GreenMetric Ranking though, lays a good foundation for the incorporation of the principle of sustainability within the Higher Education Institutions and reflects the need to quantify the efforts towards sustainability. Therefore, there is the need to make this method more scientific and rigorous, suitable to plan sustainability policies in universities.
Roads bring significant economic benefits that are vital for development. But they are often also the precursors to deforestation and other adverse environmental impacts. This paper examines the road-induced tradeoffs between economic growth, deforestation, and biodiversity loss in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Decades of conflict have left the DRC’s transport infrastructure among the sparsest and most dilapidated in the world. Most of the provincial capitals are unconnected to the capital city, and improving road connectivity could lead to a significant boost in trade and economic growth. At the same time the DRC is also home to the second largest rainforest in the world. The iconic Congo forests are a trove of ecological value—some monetizable and most that is not. So the destruction of the DRC’s forests will have significant environmental ramifications. We provide empirical estimates of the economic benefits of improving market access and reducing transportation costs. We then estimate a forest destruction function to assess the impact that new or improved roads have on forest clearing. In addition, a novel biodiversity index is developed to identify forests of high biodiversity significance. Two simulations are performed to quantitatively demonstrate the impacts of road improvement projects in terms of increased GDP, forest loss, and biodiversity that are put at risk. To our knowledge, this is the first study to jointly examine the economic benefits and ecological risks to infrastructure investments. It is envisioned that the methods employed here can be used to guide future infrastructure investments toward designs which have a large economic impact while minimizing ecological risks.
Many students have to choose their future profession during their last years in the high school and therefore to choose a university where they will get proper education. That choice may define their professional life for many years ahead or probably for the rest of their lives.Bauman Moscow State Technical University conducts various events to introduce future professions to high-school students. Such activity helps them to pick specialization in line with their interests and motivates them to study key scientific subjects.The paper focuses on newly developed educational tools to encourage high school students' interest in STEM disciplines. These tools include laboratory courses developed in the fields of physics, information technologies and mathematics. More than 2000 high school students already participated in these experimental courses. These activities are aimed at increasing the quality of STEM disciplines learning which will result in higher quality of training of future engineers.
Environmental attitudes are essential for the today’s world in which shrinking natural resources and pollution are one of the biggest problems of the society. The research challenges go in two directions: on the one hand, the environmental researchers try to reduce the impact of human actions on the environment and, on the other, human researchers try to educate people to adopt ecological behaviour. This is the main issue faced in this research to sensitize young people to the environmental health using multimedia technologies. The paper presents a serious game addressed to primary school pupils aimed at transferring knowledge about marine litter and four species of Mediterranean Sea that are estimated to be at risk of extinction. The aim is to foster knowledge about the marine life and to explain people the problems that marine litter can cause. The results of a pilot study that investigates the usability of the game is presented.
Mindfulness, derived from Buddhist origins, refers to deliberate, unbiased and openhearted awareness of perceptible experience in the present moment. With its focus on cultivation of benevolent and clear-headed values and actions to self, others and the world, as well as its possible value in fostering greater coherence between values, attitudes and behavior, the concept of mindfulness has most recently attracted the interest of scholars in sustainable consumption research. So far, however, research on the connection between mindfulness and sustainable consumption is scattered across different disciplines and lacks integration. This paper contributes to a consolidation of the field. Based on a systematic literature review (Ninitial sample=1,137 publications, Npreliminary sample=32, Nfinal sample=7), it represents a stocktaking exercise to evaluate the research methodologies used and findings reported in the emerging field of empirical research relating mindfulness to sustainable consumption. The focus of the review is on four potential mechanisms of mindfulness for sustainable consumption that have been postulated in seminal conceptual works in the field: to disrupt routines, to promote more congruence with regard to the attitude-behavior gap, to nurture non-materialistic values, to enhance well-being, and to foster pro-social behavior. Preliminary evidence suggests support for these assumed potentials. However, the review also reveals that there are serious methodological challenges and shortcomings in existing empirical approaches, namely with regard to definitional issues, the development and use of instruments, selection of samples, study designs and the inclusion of mediating or moderating variables. The paper concludes with a discussion of challenges and recommendations for future work in the field.
The companies having implemented sustainability concepts ensure that the sustainability issues are well understood and are acted on. But many of these issues are very complex and firstly they have to be identified. Further, the interrelations among these factors should be clearly defined. So, the main aim of the given study is to identify the factors influencing the sustainability of corporate businesses and to analyse the probable mechanisms to react upon changing boundaries making the businesses resilient towards both political and social pressures, as well as to the environmental changes.
For this analysis, (a) literature review on sustainability and resilience within the business models of the companies has been carried out, studying various indicator catalogues and sustainability indices; (b) trends and developments of sustainability practices in companies have been reviewed presenting various organizational sustainability models; (c) business models have been checked for their sustainability and innovation potentials.
In order to combine the analysis on business models and their innovation dependent on sustainability parameters, their interlinkages and dynamical changes, System Dynamics Model has been applied to capture the major feedback mechanisms within the system of business models, firstly building a mental Causal Loop Diagrams (CLD), afterwards transforming them into a Stock and Flow Diagram (SFD), which is then the basis for simulation. For simulation purposes an Energy Utility has been used as a case study.
The simulation results, showing that a sustainability transition delay has to be modelled with adjustment delay, refer to the fact that the lower adjustment delay time is, the more pressure is exerted on the system to adapt to the change, causing a turbulence within the implementation phase. Despite these turbulences, implementation of sustainable practices has a direct and indirect impact on sales, due to gaining new customers, as well as increasing the company reputation. Moreover, sustainability is directly linked to reduced operation cost, widening the profit margins.
These results provide good basis for companies to develop sustainability strategies in dependence on changing political boundaries.
The need for a more sustainable world was unanimously acknowledged by United Nations members in September 2015, when 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were set, positioning education at the heart of the strategy to promote sustainable development. This paper aims to demonstrate the importance of adopting an interdisciplinary approach to education for sustainable development, and to illustrate how to advance it, acknowledging different perspectives of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of diversity. It examines the broad agenda of the SDGs, which requires the participation of multiple disciplines and sectors to be delivered. Considering the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), the paper reviews the literature regarding interdisciplinarity and its application in education for sustainable development, including practices and barriers to enhance it. A case study is provided to illustrate how to advance interdisciplinary education for sustainable development amongst postgraduate MBA students from different backgrounds, in a course where sustainable development concepts are already embedded across disciplines. The case illustrates the application of the Six Principles of PRME and explains how a sustainability and CSR module can encourage students to combine knowledge from all disciplines in order to advance their understanding and action on sustainable development issues.
We discuss affective serious games that combine learning, gaming and emotions. We describe a novel framework for the creation and evaluation of serious affective games. Our approach is based on merging pertinent design patterns in order to recognize educational claims, educational assessment, best game design practices, as well as models and solutions of affective computing. Björk's and Holopainen's game design patterns have been enhanced by Evidence Centered Design components and affective components. A serious game has been designed and created to demonstrate how to outline a complex game system in a communicative way, and show methods to trace how theoretically-driven design decisions influence learning outcomes and impacts. We emphasize the importance of patterns in game design. Design patterns are an advantageous and convenient way of outlining complex game systems. Design patterns also provide favorable language of communication between multidisciplinary teams working on serious games.
There is growing interest in integration of sustainability into business planning decisions under a sustainable development framework. Environmental accounting methodologies for collection, measurement, and disclosure of financial and environmental impacts of strategic and operational managerial decisions are developed and utilized by business entities worldwide for effective management of both organizational and operational environmental protection policies. At the operational level, while extant literature has primarily focused on managerial decision making under different voluntary and regulatory emission pricing schemes, the intersection of economic (monetary) and environmental impact (non-monetary/physical) dimensions of sustainable development goals has received scant attention. This paper examines the intersection of the environmental and economic goals of sustainable development initiatives of a focal firm, which is engaged in the primary activities of production and/or transportation and storage of a single product within a forward supply chain. This paper assumes the presence of a responsive “green market ” through modeling of consumer awareness and response induced by the firms' environmental footprint disclosures. Through quantitative modeling approach, normative conclusions are derived on the compatibility of economic and environmental goals of sustainable development initiative. The results indicate the presence of convergence, divergence, and avoidance decision zones in balancing the environmental and economical goals of the firm's sustainable development for production and storage efficiency. The paper explicitly establishes the boundaries of the operational zones within the domain of the firm's environmental reduction and operational efficiency efforts. The results demonstrate that the efficacy of voluntary or regulated emission reduction targets depends on the firm's existing environmental and operational cost structures, and hence emission reduction targets must be well planned to avoid adverse environmental impact or operational inefficiencies. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that in a green responsive market, there may exist critical emission reduction thresholds below which the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable development initiatives diverge.
European policy makers have shown a keen interest in the success of 5G because ubiquitous and high capacity electronic communication infrastructure is recognized as a cornerstone of economic development and productivity growth. The second generation, GSM, is considered the leading example, reaching its peak of deployment in 2015 with 3.83 billion subscribers served by over 700 operators in 219 countries and territories.
With 5G rapidly shaping up in the R&D and standardization environments, and a call for leadership with 5G in Europe by policy makers, it is timely to investigate what lessons can be learned from the success of 2G that can be applied to 5G. More broadly, this calls for research into the commonalities and differences between successive generations of mobile technology, their introduction and the market adoption that followed. This also calls for an investigation into the possibility of multiple futures of 5G and how that impacts the opportunity for leadership. As one future may be more desirable than the other, depending on the perspective of the actor involved, a policy debate will be required to determine the most desirable future. As well as a discussion of the policy and regulatory actions required to enable a particular future.
Hence, the two-part research question being addressed in this paper is: What explains the success of 2G-GSM and how can it be applied to create success with 5G in the European Union?
To respond to the research question this paper first identifies the leadership lessons to be drawn from the success of 2G-GSM in relation to its successors 3G and 4G. Secondly, the contribution describes two stylized images of possible futures of 5G, called “Evolution” and “Revolution”, as input to the policy debate on the options for leadership with 5G. These images reflect two extremes in terms of possible futures of 5G. “Evolution” follows the pattern of previous generations and current trends. “Revolution” represents a clear break with these trends and a path towards leadership with 5G, as it exploits the opportunities of standardized APIs for service creation, being enabled by network virtualization as an architectural foundation of 5G. These open and uniformly applied APIs allow the market entry of a multitude of virtual mobile network operators (VMNOs) serving particular industry verticals or economic sectors with tailored feature sets and qualities of services. They allow a market momentum to be built that constitutes leadership with 5G in Europe.
As institutions of higher education, universities have a significant impact on society and can play a key role in sustainability provision. Particularly, it is expected that green universities, because they are becoming more widespread, would contribute to the sustainability performance the most. However, none of the case studies have analysed the differences in sustainability performance between the “green” and the “non-green” universities from the perspective of the students. Therefore, the objective of this study was to contribute to this topic and compare students' attitudes towards sustainability in Vytautas Magnus University (a non-green university) and Kaunas University of Technology (a green university). According to a survey conducted in 2015, the differences in campus sustainability, environmental information, the university's role in sustainable development, students' attitudes to the university's self-presentation as green, and students' involvement in sustainability in these two universities were analysed. Results indicate that there were no significant differences regarding sustainability aspects in general, but green university students more often agree that their university presents itself as environmentally friendly. They get more environmental information and more often participate in sustainability activities compared with students from the non-green university. After applying the regression analysis, it was found that only campus sustainability and environmental information determined students' involvement in sustainability significantly. This suggests that official declarations and commitments should be realised in particular activities on campus and via information campaigns to contribute to sustainability provisions in a more holistic manner. Otherwise, commitments will remain as statements only.
The growing complexity of environmental issues and its connection with the way in which society is consuming make essential to understand the extent of the consumers' awareness regarding the sustainable aspects. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the motivations of sustainable consumers and how those motivations should be considered by consumer organizations for improving their purposes and services to drive environmental sustainability. The research presents a content analysis of the websites of 30 Ibero-American organizations that promote sustainable consumption habits, classifying those organizations according to their purposes and services based on the six dimensions of consumer sustainability awareness. Then, a questionnaire was sent to a sample of Spanish-speaking consumers of sustainable products in order to assess their motivations for choosing environmentally friendly products or services. Then, an analysis was performed by comparing both results. As a result, the study offers new knowledge about the perception of sustainability consciousness across Spanish-speaking consumers and of the purpose of consumer organizations. It also provides valuable information for companies and marketers who wish to align their eco-innovation strategies with green consumers’ motivations.
The generation of new and creative ideas is vital to stimulating innovation. Morphological analysis is one appropriate method given its objective, impersonal, and systematic nature. However, how to build a morphological matrix is a critical problem, especially in the big data era. This research focuses on Wikipedia's case-specific characteristics and well-coordinated knowledge structure and attempts to integrate the platform with morphological analysis. In details, several methodological options are explored to implement Wikipedia data into morphological analysis. We then propose a Wikipedia-based approach to the development of morphological matrix, which incorporates the data on table of contents, hyperlinks, and categories. Its feasibility was demonstrated through a case study of drone technology, and its validity and effectiveness was shown based on a comparative analysis with a conventional discussion-based approach. The methodology is expected to be served as an essential supporting tool for generating creative ideas that could spark innovation.
The discussion in recent years about the sustainability of the mining industry has emphasised its commitment to social responsibility as an emerging topic. In this context, this article aims to develop a mapping of the literature on social responsibility in the mining industry. In accordance, a systematic literature review approach was adopted and, grounded on a rigorous screening processes, 72 significant papers were selected for analysis from the ISI Web of Knowledge database. The paper provides a bibliometric analysis regarding this specific field and, based on a content analysis approach, highlights a growing interest by the academic community and identifies two key research streams: i) Relationships with local communities, and ii) CSR reporting. Cluster 1 shows that relationships with stakeholders are important to mining companies in obtaining relevant social performance, and in acquiring local legitimacy from surrounding communities; cluster 2 highlights the importance of the elaboration, dissemination and quality of social reports, particularly concerning credibility. The review also points to shortcomings identified in literature, which correspond to potential significant opportunities for future research, either quantitative, qualitative, action research or mixed in nature.
Higher education plays an important role in furthering the sustainability agenda, as reflected in a growing body of literature. While there have been several recent reviews of this work, these have been limited in scope and do not explicitly discuss implementations of sustainability in higher education curricula. In response, this paper presents a comprehensive, systematic review of the literature on integrating sustainability into curricula at both an undergraduate and postgraduate level of study in one particular subject area – engineering. A total of 247 articles, of which 70 were case reports, have been analyzed. Twelve future research questions emerged from the analysis, including: the exploration of the knowledge and value frameworks of students and teachers; the exploration of stakeholder influence, including by accreditation institutions, industry partners, parents, and society; and, the use of competencies to evaluate implementations. It is hoped that answering these questions will help to enhance education such that engineers are prepared, engaged, and empowered to confront the environmental, social, and economic challenges of the 21st century.
This paper examines what drives green innovation investment and exploitation with regard to sustainability. The specific focus of this paper is on company valuations of different dimensions of sustainability and their relationships to green innovation. Empirical data were gathered from a cross-section of horse industry companies located in Finland. The scientific value of the paper lies in showing that certain dimensions of sustainability lead to the exploitation of and investment in green innovation, while other dimensions do not. The results of this study’s regression analyses show that the more a company values economic, institutional, and social sustainability, the more likely it is to invest in green innovation. Further, a high valuation of institutional and economic sustainability increases the willingness to exploit green innovation. The valuation of environmental sustainability was not found to affect the willingness to invest in or exploit green innovation. Our results suggest that green innovation is driven by economic and institutional pressures, and that such innovation can create value in terms of social sustainability.
During the last few years the world has witnessed severe climatic conditions, be it in the form of unprecedented droughts or devastating floods, tornadoes, landslides along with major earthquakes and Tsunamis. Are these natural calamities natural and normal or are these the manifestation of man's adverse impact on the environment? If the nature and frequency of numerous geo-climatic upheavals that the earth is experiencing is compared to the worst case scenario of the climate change advocates, the resemblance seems amazingly similar. A plausible explanation for this could be the fact that mankind does not know how to reign in its need for continuous economic growth without adversely affecting ecological sustainability! This problem of achieving and maintaining sustained economic growth seems to be a problem that is unique to the modern post industrial economy. It is being increasingly realized that the ancient civilizations may have economic systems and practices that was based on living in harmony with nature. Hence, there is a growing clamor to learn from the wisdom of the ancients and incorporate their ideas and practices or in other words learn from the philosophies that have stood the test of time.
That tribal wisdom may be better equipped to deal with natural calamity was vividly displayed a few years ago in India. When the massive Tsunami of December 26th, 2004 ravaged Asia, one of the hardest hit region was the remote chain of some 500 islands known collectively as the Andaman and Nicobar. Inhabited by hunter gatherer tribes that have little contact with the outside world, anthropologists initially feared the tribes could have been completely wiped out. However it was soon discovered that the tribal community used their ancient knowledge of nature to escape the Tsunami. One of the tribes that lives there are the Onge. They are estimated to have lived in the islands for 30000–50000 years. Numbering some one hundred individuals, they are on the verge of extinction. However, in the Tsunami, they suffered no casualties as their folklore speaks of large waves that follows earthquakes, so all of them retreated to the high grounds.
As north east India is home to numerous traditional societies that have followed old age practices up to the modern times, this region could make significant contribution to the sustainability discourse. Tribal communities and indigenous religions the world over are accepted repositories of ancient knowledge and wisdom. Significantly, with the tribal communities, such knowledge systems are living traditions. Thus such living knowledge systems could be an important source of guidance for modern man in his quest for sustainability. For the purpose of this paper, the Khasi sacred forest were used as a case study to understand what lessons it can offer in our quest to conserve our forests and also achieve sustainability.
Sustainability issues, as unwanted results of not fully respecting natural cycles, are widely recognized as wicked problems, which should not be thought of as problems to be solved, but rather as “conditions” to be managed, as if they were a chronic disease (Seager et al., 2011). There exists a general agreement on the need to reform scientific expertise by developing new ways of knowledge production and decision-making able to cope with the challenges sustainability poses. In this sense, transdisciplinary aspects of sustainability are acknowledged as a transformational stream of sustainability science.
Transdisciplinarity is considered a competence for sustainability in technological curriculums. Nevertheless, engineering education professionals tread on unfamiliar ground when entering transdisciplinarity approach, as it includes social sciences and humanities perspectives. Advancing sustainable engineering science requires creating new long-term, participatory, solution-oriented programs as platforms to recognize and engage with the macro-ethical, adaptive and cross-disciplinary challenges embedded in professional issues.
Meanwhile, individual university professors and researchers take a step forward to try out innovative experiences in their classrooms to deal with complexity and reach holism in fostering knowledge in different ways. This paper analyses first what is being done and how is it being focused, and second, What are the strategies for and purposes of implementing transdisciplinary experiences in engineering higher education.
Assuming that distinct patterns of definition of transdisciplinary exists, the authors collated transdisciplinary initiatives in engineering education for sustainability from Thompson Klein (2014) discourses on transdisciplinarity: transcendence, problem solving and transgression. They also explored how practical constraints imposed by a classroom context, highlighted the limits of transdisciplinarity, and offered suggestions on improvements, which could be implemented. Balsiger (2014) proposes four varieties of transdisciplinarity (soft, hard, inclusive and reflexive) to identify ways for moving from one type to another as circumstances change, in terms of stakeholder’s collaboration and knowledge integration possibilities.
The methodology consisted in literature review of articles published in relevant journals in the field of sustainability, which focussed on transdisciplinarity approaches in engineering education. We have analysed how the different initiatives fit in Klein’s discourses on transdisciplinarity. Moreover, an affinity analysis has been performed to cluster transdisciplinarity initiatives in engineering education for sustainability in homogeneous groups. Finally, in the varieties of transdisciplinarity framework, the experiences identified when reviewing the literature have been spread over the range among Balsiger’s taxonomy.
The investigation indicates that most transdisciplinary initiatives in technological education for sustainability fit in the problem solving discourse, where co-production of knowledge and method-driven aspects are relevant. Additionally, they fit in the scheme of broad collaboration and deep integration understood as hard transdisciplinarity. Within such discourse, experiences related to “innovation” fit in the reflexive transdisciplinarity area, which depends more on the efforts of education entities. It is relevant that none of the experiences analysed seems to fit under the transgression discourse paradigm, linked to human rights and emotional intelligence.
We conclude that, if engineering programs are to challenge transdisciplinarity, in order to assure the acquisition of competences and worldviews needed to cope with complexity, a new brand of engineer should be trained, one that thinks critically about the co-construction of public welfare and the technological systems in which he or she works.
This analysis is a starting point to analyse transdisciplinarity in engineering education for sustainability and to construct the education framework (curriculum structure, faculty competences, pedagogical approaches, etc.) that best facilitates the practice of transdisciplinarity in engineering education.
Depression is a common mental disorder that causes sadness and loss of interest. It affects 350 million people in the world and its most severe state can lead to suicide. Many technologies are being used to aid the depression treatment and gamification has been used as an approach to improve adherence and engagement in the treatment. This systematic study aimed at identifying how gamification and serious games have been applied to support the treatment of depression, what technologies are being used currently and what gaps are still left unexplored. Eight scientific repositories were used to search for papers in the area of depression and a filter process was used to remove bias. As a result of this search and filter process, 28 works were completely reviewed, analyzed and categorized in this paper. In the reviewed papers the technologies found for treatment of depression were mobile, computer, wearables and web applications. These technologies are applied in gamification, serious games, virtual reality and speech analysis. Some papers used Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as an intervention and other papers used gamification as a way to promote engagement and adherence to treatment.
Many scholars, commentators and activists have been involved in often fierce debates about the normative desirability of economic globalisation. This issue remains highly contested to this day. Judgements as well as evidence on the positive and negative impacts of globalisation on the economy, society and ecology can be seen as statements on the sustainability of globalisation: is globalisation leading to a world in which people now and in the future can have a good quality of life? This paper explores the sustainability of globalisation by analysing its ‘social robustness’. It argues that in order to be considered sustainable, a policy, trend or process should be acceptable to a broad range of people in society. A text and discourse analysis, based on Cultural Theory, demonstrates the overall dominance of the ‘individualist’ perspective across various organisations of global policy significance delineating sustainable futures within three core themes of global governance: climate change, the economy and health. This analysis contributes towards a more inclusive discussion on global issues that matter in the context of a sustainable future for all. A more socially robust form of globalisation is possible, but only if marginalized perspectives are included in the policy debates and thereby allowed to contribute to solving humanity's most pressing issues.
Keywords
GlobalisationSustainabilitySocial robustnessCultural theoryPerspectives methodDiscourse analysis
Educational games and simulations provide teachers with powerful tools for teaching students in the sciences. Within the broad category of educational gaming, there are several types of games to include Serious Educational Games (SEG), Educational Simulations (ES), and Serious Games (SG). The purpose of this meta-analysis is to characterize and compare outcomes related to serious educational games, serious games, and educational simulations as they are presented in the educational literature. Specifically the authors intend to fill gaps left by previous studies, include major finding, and assess the current state of the field related to the use of these innovative technologies. The results of this study are in line with previous studies suggesting higher cognitive gains and increases in positive affective toward learning from subjects using SEGs, SGs, and ES. Effects were calculated from 46 empirical experimental studies. The examined studies suggest that ES, SGs, and SEGs do not differ in a statistically significant way when compared to traditional instruction but do differ from each other. More to this point, effect size outcomes are suggestive of a cumulative medium effect for cognition (d=.67) and affect (d=.51) with a small effect for behavior (d=.04).
Purpose
In the past decade, various types of organizations all over the world have made numerous efforts to include sustainability in the management systems. These efforts have only partly been able to manage sustainability since these were focused to address specific needs of different type of organizations; mostly to comply with regulations. Therefore, a holistic consideration of sustainability in management systems was neglected. The current study is an attempt to fill this gap and highlight the imperative features of sustainability management from organizational point of view.
Methodology
This research is designed to conduct a comprehensive and systematic literature review which targets three different dimensions of sustainability management at organizational level; sustainability management and assessment frameworks published in academic journals, and standardized international guidelines for incorporating sustainability in management systems.
Findings
The findings of the literature review reveal that the operational parameters required to systematically undertake the essential elements of sustainability in management systems, and the inter-relationship of those parameters, have been largely ignored. Furthermore, integration of sustainability assessment in the management models has been overlooked.
Originality value
In order to fill this gap, a generic sustainability management framework is proposed with a three-dimensional insight on organizational sustainability management. The threefold focus ensures that the proposed framework is: (1) fundamentally correct, (2) consistent with the established international standardized guidelines, and (3) embedded with an assessment tool which keeps the focus of sustainability management system in the intended direction. The contribution of this paper is unique from existing relevant studies for two main reasons: (1) the authors have undertaken the management of sustainability as a distinct concept rather than the integration of existing MSs and MSSs, which many authors have done in past; and (2) the proposed framework establishes clear and distinct connections between the processes required to systematically manage sustainability, rather than trying to stitch what exists in the ad hoc systems.
Implications
The advantages of this framework include extensive involvement of stakeholders, enhanced transparency, adaptiveness, and organized development and assessment of the sustainability management system. Moreover, multi-dimensional focus of the proposed framework is one of its strengths; economic, quality, environmental, health and safety, and social challenges can all be managed through the application of this framework.
Context
There is a great variety of techniques for performing authentication, like the use of text passwords or smart cards. Some techniques combine others into one, which is known as multi-factor authentication. There is an interest in knowing existing authentication techniques, including those aimed at multi-factor authentication, and the frameworks that can be found in literature that are used to compare and select these techniques according to different criteria.
Objective
This article aims to gather the existing knowledge on authentication techniques and ways to discern the most effective ones for different contexts.
Method
A systematic literature review is performed in order to gather existing authentication techniques proposed in literature and ways to compare and select them in different contexts. A total of 515 single-factor and 442 multi-factor authentication techniques have been found. Furthermore, 17 articles regarding comparison and selection criteria for authentication techniques and 8 frameworks that help in such a task are discussed.
Results
A great variety of single-factor techniques has been found and smart card-based authentication was shown to be the most researched technique. Similarly, multi-factor techniques combine the different single-factor techniques found and the combination of text-passwords and smart cards is the most researched technique. Usability, security and costs are the most used criteria for comparing and selecting authentication schemes, whereas the context is given an important remark as well. No framework among the ones found analyzed in detail both single-factor and multi-factor authentication techniques for the decision-making process.
Conclusion
The review shows that a vast research has been done for authentication techniques, although its use in some contexts has not been researched as much. The lack of works regarding the comparison and selection of authentication techniques is observed.
Higher Education Institutions have embedded sustainability initiatives into their core activities of curriculum, research, community, and operational to respond the global transformation towards a sustainable future. Numerous studies have been conducted concerning an integrated sustainability into the missions and strategies of the Higher Education Institutions. However, there is a lack of works that highlight the important role of information systems to support the sustainability practices in Higher Education Institutions. This problem motivates the study to underscore the important role of information systems during the sustainability implementation. A preliminary case analysis is performed to observe how the Higher Education Institutions implement the sustainability initiatives and to proof the knowledge gap in real practice. The analysis was conducted during visits via a semi-structured interview with a number of persons from Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia that have been implementing sustainable campus. According to the preliminary case analysis, the Higher Education Institutions do not contemplate the information system strategy at the beginning of their sustainability implementation. There is a lack of information system application to support their sustainability practices. They still use manual methods to collect the sustainability metrics and assess their sustainability performance. As a result, the sustainability decision-making is isolated and they cannot evaluate their sustainable performance. The problems of managing the sustainability data and processes arise. Therefore, a concept of the strategic alignment between sustainability and information system is underscored in the present study. The introduction of this concept through this study would enhance our understanding in term of the significant role of the information systems to support the sustainability practices and to achieve a successfully sustainable campus.
Sustainability is one of the most important challenges of our time. It is recognized that projects play a pivotal role in the realization of more sustainable business practices and a developing theme in project management research is the relationship between projects and sustainability. As the literature on this topic is evolving, this paper discusses the question whether the growing attention for sustainability in project management research represents a new ‘school of thought’ in project management? The study builds upon earlier work on schools of project management research, in which nine schools were identified. The question whether sustainability should be considered a new school of project management is answered by deriving the criteria for recognition as a school and performing a structured literature review on a sample of 71 articles on sustainability in project management, taken from the leading academic journals on this topic. As criteria for recognition as a school of project management, the criteria content, community and impact were found. After a content analysis of the articles in the sample, the conclusion is reached that sustainability qualifies a new, distinct and emerging school of thinking in project management. The defining characteristics of this sustainability school are: considering Projects in a societal perspective, having a Management for stakeholders approach, applying Triple bottom line criteria, and taking a Values based approach to projects and project management.
In recent years, there have been a considerable number of efforts to integrate sustainability into Higher Education Institutions; however, there are still a number of challenges that need to be overcome. A process that has received an increasing attention has been the Organisational Change Management for Sustainability. This article is aimed at reviewing the main drivers of the integration of sustainable practices and the barriers to change slowing or stopping it. A systematic literature review was carried out using Web of Science de Thomson Reuters and in Scopus databases focussing on retrieving all papers on sustainability in higher education institutions (HEIs) published between 2000 and 2016. The drivers of and barriers found for the integration of sustainability in HEIs were compared to those previously described for companies. The similarities on drivers to change found in HEIs and companies were greater for external ones. A lower number of barriers to change were reported in the literature for HEIs than those reported for corporations, nonetheless, it was found that HEIs and companies have several common barriers to change. The article proposes a list of main drivers of and barriers to change, some general and others context specific. The findings on the drivers of the integration of sustainable practices in HEIs can serve to identify additional good practices at companies and vice versa. The barriers to change detected for the process of integration can help into anticipating, preventing and overcoming them. This knowledge can help institutions better plan and use their resources in working to becoming more sustainable.