HTW Berlin develops a teaching module built around a computer-based educational tool (the Game), informed by contemporary research, enhanced by the partner’s input and continually tested in the classroom with students.

Main objective of this module is to advance the understanding of University students in sustainability-related fields (e.g. economics, international relations, business, human geography) about leverage interrelationships between social and ecological systems (SES) leading to unsustainable trends in economic development and collective action problems among users at different levels in an increasingly complex arena. This way the Game will adhere to the principles of, and communicate the challenges for, a sustainable approach for a transition to circular economy in an interactive way. For instance, the regeneration of natural systems on the basis of players’ decisions (dynamic SES) are integral elements in the game. We endorse the assumption that the individual and social learning that emerges in any educational game can be transferred to the world outside the game while allowing experimentation at a safe environment. Beyond that, all the well studied and documented benefits of serious games for education will be utilized. Namely: Contextual Learning, Authenticity of the Activity, incorporation of experts’ skill, modelling of dynamic social processes, collaborative construction of knowledge. It is worth mentioning that an often underplayed element of “edutainment”, the motivation and enthusiasm of students for such activities, is of particular relevance to the challenges of digital education and especially in times where traditional educational practices are forcefully replaced by online teaching.

The stakeholders operating in the policy-making arena are generally heterogeneous actors with diverse and conflicting views on the causes and consequences of political, economic, societal or environmental problems. In this frame, facts are often disputed and knowledge is negotiated. Furthermore, there are unresponsive actors toward government interventions deliberately attempting to influence the outcome of the political process to their own advantage, for example, by lobbying, going to court and most of all by making strategic use of their resources. Thus, policy making is neither static nor following a pre-ordained order. Instead it takes place in a “beautifully chaotic” dynamic interactive arena where policy issues come and go and where stakeholders enter and leave as they will. To some extent, real-world policy making resembles a strategic (messy) game with unpredicted players and ambiguous rules. Therefore, a secondary objective is to reach the policy arena by utilising a shortened and adjusted version of the Game for educating decision makers and stakeholders. This version will be tested with the mobilised MIDE Alumni network consisting of current stakeholders, practitioners, experts, researchers and policy makers on economic development, encapsulating the key characteristics of the diverse policy-making attributes.

Finally, a third objective is to ensure wider dissemination amongst the public by making a freely available version of the game accessible to the public, targeting a wider audience from school kids to adults.