The Role of Serious Games, Gamification and Industry 4.0 Tools in the Education 4.0 Paradigm

Abstract

Education 4.0 is a new educational paradigm that intends to address the needs andpotentialities of the fourth industrial revolution. Education 4.0 builds on the concept oflearning by doing, in which students are encouraged to learn and discover different thingsin singular ways based on experimentation. This study intends to analyze the role ofemerging technologies like serious games and industry 4.0 in the transformation ofeducation 4.0 in higher education. A qualitative methodology was employed based on 25case studies of innovative projects in Portuguese higher education institutions. Theresults indicate a residual adoption of serious games and gamification approaches onlyappear in less than 20% of the projects. It was also possible to identify that most projectsinvolve several stakeholders such as teachers, students and university managers, andtypically involve multidisciplinary competencies fields. The main benefits brought to theeducation context include greater involvement of students in projects, development oftheir skills and its application in a real context. On the other hand, the main challengesare the simplification of the real world made by these applications, the difficultiesinherent to their inclusion in the didactical system and the limited capacities to offergreater interactivity without predefined external stimuli.