AGILE PRACTICES THROUGH SERIOUS GAMES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The general idea behind Agile is that a project needs to be flexible, evolving, and adaptive. Agile design supports the idea that design must stay close to often evolving user needs. It is mostly applied in situations where the user requirements may not be fully understood at the beginning of a project, or where the requirements change. It facilitates the management of specific tasks, since it allows flexibility and continuing development. Agile is an up-and-coming methodology that is embraced with innovation and is used in industrial processes. On the other hand, a significant chasm exists between the knowledge obtained through university courses by learning the theoretical background and the practicality of this knowledge and how exactly it can be applied to real-world professional scenarios. This chasm can only be eliminated in case scholars are supplied with the appropriate up-to-date knowledge and obtain a wide range of experience that exposes them to real-world needs. Technology, and more specifically serious games, can support knowledge development and retention among students by simulating real-word practices in a virtual and safe environment. Through serious games students have the opportunity to address their lack of practical experience, acquire self-confidence, and succeed. Agile learning processes may further allow students to influence the learning process in relation to their interests and needs taking into account industry requirements for employment, thus promoting the competitiveness and employability of learners as future professionals. This paper presents project LEAP, which aims at exposing higher education students to agile practices applied in industry in preparation for a smooth transition into the job market. The project develops a serious game through which students are exposed to agile practices deployed in professional settings. The LEAP serious game is based on an active and problem-based methodological learning framework. The LEAP serious game will be validated in learning experiments that engage higher education students and their instructors in Greece, Estonia, Spain, the U.K., and Portugal.