PR3 - E-POSITIVE ACADEMY for MHPs: a digital platform including a Serious Game for Moodle and an E-Kit

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Needs Analysis

R3 focus on constructing a digital platform including a Serious Game for Moodle and an E-Kit. R3 aims to enhance the mental health professionals’ (MHP) resilience by linking experiential learning scenarios and adult education methodologies with resilience building resources. The Serious Game will help to simulate MHPs working conditions drawing on the digital storytelling of R1. Among others, it will touch on the topics of emotional contagion, secondary traumatic stress, burn- out, and compassion fatigue that are common among MHPs, especially during the pandemic. It will provide a space for reflection, experiential learning, and exchange of experiences. For example, it will simulate how it feels to work in a team of MHPs, who face the challenges of remote working, self-isolating and shielding. Then, the facilitators will link the Serious Game simulations or stories to the training and content of the platform (E- Kit) that addresses how to cope with working stressors and enhance resilience, e.g. through cultivating self-compassion. Furthermore, it is expected that the Serious Game will provide scenarios and simulations that illustrate group dynamics in the MHP teams, successful or unsuccessful management of internal conflicts and emotions at times of critical urgency, how MHPs deal with their emotions at the aftermath of a crisis, and how they reach out to the team or bottle up their emotions.

Target Groups

The target groups of R3 are:

  • MHPs
  • VET Providers, who work with MHPs
  • stakeholders
  • the end-users (people who receive mental healthcare services).

Elements of Innovation

The innovation here lies in the different interactive areas of the Learning Platform. On the one hand, the Serious Game will create a space for reflection and sharing for MHPs, especially on the unprecedented conditions of COVID-19. On the other hand, the VET trainers will link the experience of the Serious Game to the experiential training through case studies and to the content of the platform, which aims to help MHPs with resilience building and to cope with burn-out.

Expected Impact

The platform will facilitate communication, online interaction and networking by motivating engagement with the contents and the Serious Game scenarios. Thanks to distance learning methodologies, the project will promote independent and flexible learning. The learners can define their learning journey, choosing to work with other MHPs or on their own. These features are important in increasing the appeal of the result to a wide audience. The gamification approach will propose a rich environment, where the users can test their soft skills in simulated working conditions. This approach, in combination with the Positive Psychology theoretical framework that underpins the R2, will create a powerful tool for the VET trainers and promote deep learning. As a result of integrating a Serious Game, the platform will benefit from

  1. impressive management of the graphical layouts in an innovative and integrative way;
  2. design and developing of user interfaces using a personalised avatar to facilitate navigation and enhance engagement.

Furthermore, the Serious Game app will be available on Google Play for mobile devices and as a web app, which strengthen the impact of R3.

Quantitative Indicators

  • 5 MHPs, 5 VET trainers and 5 stakeholders per partner (apart from the IT partner) will join the piloting activities (n=105);
  • 40 registrations per partner on the platform’s e-courses (n=280);

Transferability Potential

The digital resources will be translated from English to the five partner’s national languages, which will ensure the transferability of the platform to many national contexts. In addition, the E-Kit will be piloted in a variety of cultural contexts, which will ensure that it can be transferred to both national and European contexts