From teachers to game developers, we went straight to the source to find out what’s working, what’s missing, and what’s possible when education meets game design.
We carried out an in-depth needs analysis to better understand the real-life experiences, expectations, and needs of the people at the heart of game-based learning (GBL) and gamification — including teachers, teacher trainees, game developers, and game design students. The insights we gathered through questionnaires are now helping shape the design of our learning materials, tools, and training programs.
The analysis was led by the University of Bielsko-Biała (UBB) in Poland, who took care of the survey design, data collection and overall coordination. „We created four different questionnaires, each targeted at a specific group: pedagogy teachers, university educators and developers, teacher training students, and game design students. The surveys were conducted online, and every project partner took part by reaching out to their own focus groups,“ says Elwira Lewandowska from UBB.
Digitization and development of soft skills
At Comenius University Bratislava (CUBA) in Slovakia, the team worked with pedagogy teachers and teacher trainees. What did they find? Teachers clearly preferred blended learning – mixing traditional methods with interactive activities – as the most effective approach. However, they also pointed out that time and resources are major obstacles when it comes to implementing game-based approaches. Despite that, there’s strong interest in using interactive formats and digital materials. Students training to be teachers see GBL as a way to make lessons more engaging and motivating — but they often lack hands-on experience and would welcome more guidance.
Meanwhile, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava (UCM) focused on game design students. These students feel technically confident, but they’re often missing a solid understanding of educational needs. They also stressed how important it is to collaborate with teachers — ideally from the early stages of game development — and highlighted the need for clear feedback and communication. They see the value in developing soft skills too, like teamwork, communication, and empathy.
User friendly tools and input from teachers
Over in Finland, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (XAMK) collected responses from both developers and game design students. The results showed that there’s a strong desire to connect the technical and educational sides of game creation. Developers want input from teachers, but often run into issues like lack of clarity, compatibility challenges, or not enough feedback. They called for clearer guidelines and expectations to help make cross-sector collaboration smoother and more productive.
UBB also analyzed the responses from pedagogy educators. Their results showed a clear preference for interactive, student-centered teaching — particularly using a combination of lectures, group work, and independent tasks. Teachers were enthusiastic about the cognitive and behavioral benefits of GBL, but many didn’t feel confident designing their own games. Most said they’d love to create custom games for their subjects, but need support, training, and user-friendly tools to do it well.
So what’s the big picture? Across the board, all target groups are interested in educational games — but they’re also facing similar challenges: limited time, lack of tools, insufficient training, and unclear collaboration channels between teachers and developers.
That’s why the Learn2Play project is responding with:
- hands-on courses for teachers and developers,
- practical guides and resources,
- and the development of the Edu Game Maker ToolBox— a tool designed to help even non-experts create educational games more easily.
We’re also focused on building bridges between the education and tech worlds to create a sustainable model for long-term collaboration.