Student group’s challenge

“Yes, that idea was the GanZOOM board (deducted from the Game of the Goose). Students worked on the problem that, especially, older people have less contact with their family during the lockdown period of Covid-19. Students argued that people generally easily communicate with each other via video call, such as ZOOM and Teams. However, this is a challenge for older people, because older people really do not understand ZOOM, and that it is really difficult for them (older people). The students discovered things by trying to video call with their grandparents. […] Based on this discovery, the students remodeled a board game with cards with tasks on them. Then, the students played this remodeled board game in an elderly center. It was announced to the elderly that by playing this game they would learn how to call their grandchildren with video call. I thought it was funny. Students took existing things and combined into a new idea that also fits with the experiences of elderly. Everyone is familiar with typical board games, and students created some simple but also very funny tasks. For example, ‘you have contact with the teacher of the senior gym, and he invites you to do three squats. But then you are out of view in the video call. How to ensure you remain in view during the video call? ’ […] At one point, students wanted to turn the board game into programming a serious game where people can earn points with cards and so on. However, to design and program the principle of a game requires a lot of knowledge and experience. There is a whole body of literature on the principles of error-free learning, a game where things cannot go wrong so that there are not failure experiences. I recommended students to talk with a study association on technology and game design to discover that their idea was not feasible” [T3 loneliness elderly].

Teaching activities

“Then I looked at how students still design a game that is simple and fits with the experiences of elderly, because developing a game is an art in itself. But if students take an existing game their energy will be spend as much as possible as to help elderly people and as little as possible to developing the game. […] At one point, I helped the students to conclude that developing a game will be too challenging. […] The simplest game that there is, is the Game of the Goose, because—as a player—you have no influence on it. And that is what we are going to use. This is the game that students will develop into an innovation” [T3 loneliness elderly].