E-learning and serious games: New trends in architectural and urban design education

Abstract

The complexity of urban processes needs professionals trained in understanding and managing the design of its spaces and the implementation of urban policies. This paper discusses an educational methodology to complement the standard Project-Based Learning approach with an experience using serious games with gamification elements to stimulate critical thinking in urban planning and urban design students, to promote designing spaces more adaptable and usable for a wide range of users and situations of public life. The proposed methodology uses five “mini games” that place students in different situations: (1) finding an unknown landmark, (2) reaching goal avoiding obstacles, (3) navigating with artificial lighting, (4) simulating the point of view of a person with a disability, and (5) simulating group behaviour. As a secondary objective the experience will track the participants’ behaviour to extract data to be incorporated into an agent-based model rule set.