The project builded on the aim to highlighting the need for quality pedagogical training on a new technologically digital Era where education had less to do with reproducing information passively and had more to do with the development of creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making. Regarding adult education these considerations were even more evident. Many times, adult education was seen as a less important training for unmotivated learners and with high dropout rates. Most of the times trainees of disadvantaged cultural, economic, and family backgrounds tended to reveal more academic difficulties, and those were accentuated over the years.The main goal of this project was to improve adult training with new pedagogical scenarios combined with technology, to enrich the training process and simultaneously to ensure greater learning commitment and high retention rates.In order to meet this need, the project aimd to designing and developing a blended (face-to-face and online) training model based on Games and Gamification for trainers working with adult learners. The training model we proposed was, in itself, a gamified game. It would have a sequence of sessions where one created a global context and a narrative to generate an immersive learning experience. In the training sessions while working on the contents through games users would have (Seaborn and Fels, 2014): (i) Points (numerical units indicating progress), (ii) Badges (visual icons signifying achievements), (iii) Leaderboard (display of ranks for comparison), (iv) Progression (milestones indicating progress), (v) Status (textual monikers indicating progress), (vi) Levels (increasing difficulty tasks), (vii) Rewards (tangible, desirable items), and Roles (role-playing elements of character). All these game elements throughout individual challenges and group tasks (for peer collaboration, because collaboration was one of the basics of gamification).We wanted develop an innovative pedagogical scenario allowing our trainers to experience new training strategies while building their knowledge, producing a self-reflection that was fundamental for the process of teaching. We believed that the innovative pedagogical scenario that underlied the Game-based learning and Gamification was what it took to face the challenges of training in this new Era and also involved adult learners in order to answer their needs. We also wanted to familiarize other trainers (not directly involved in the project from the beginning) with the new pedagogical skills, being the first to test the training materials, participated and used the virtual platform. These trainers were invited to contribute to the course improvement and also to reflect on how this course could be integrated into the general training offer of their organizations.

"<< Background >>The proposal aims to answer some questions. How may the democratisation of science live up to the ideals of democratic legitimacy in policy making at local level? How does the scientific community deal with growing and deepening pluralism in the society at large? How can the scientific community become more actively involved at local level? How does the scientific community support the involvement of people in the Green Deal and for sustainable development which could be tangible and democratic?Prioritizing the combination between the academic environment, socio-economic needs and their imperatives represents an increasing need to produce, transfer, and exploit viable research findings and new curricula addressing future skills need. This has progressively led universities to rethink and adjust their role within the local and regional contexts they belong to. In line with a growing need to develop a knowledge-based economy and society, Universities, as key knowledge providers, should pursue to develop new strategies for civic commitment and public engagement. The Academic Third Mission encompasses a wide range of activities involving the generation, use, application, and exploitation of knowledge together with other university capabilities outside the academic environment (Tuunainen, 2005). Even if this is fairly defined within the institutional framework, it is necessary that key actors in implementation (HEIs staff, researchers, and students) are educated and motivated to engage with the society at large. Promotion of its significance, appropriate incentives and capacity building programmes could improve human resources and build a critical mass to promote change and development of the Academic Third Mission. Consequently, the project responds to the global needs of a new knowledge-based society that pushes the HE system:- To be sensitised and responsive to societal pressures, democratization of science and inclusion need to be part of the processes in addressing new curricula, non-formal and informal learning practices, and research trajectories.- A careful plan for the mission of civic engagement to maximise the benefits which this brings to the cooperation between universities and society.- To develop the universities’ social engagement dimension unlocking and mobilizing university resources and capacities to society and enterprises needs at regional and local level.- To transfer knowledge and technology innovation while exploiting the results steaming from research with public engagement.<< Objectives >>The project wants to create a transnational partnership which will include students from higher education institutions, researchers, volunteers, teaching and administrative staff and educators in order to share, compare, collect and tune different experiences and practices to enable the partnership to build a standardized learning and empowering pathway for future deliberative practitioners (students, researchers, staff, citizens) within the frame of the Academic Third Mission Strategies.The organizations involved in this project will expand and enlarge the effectiveness of their Third Mission especially in spreading the democratization of science through an intensive cooperation between academic and local communities. The skills developed by professors, researchers and administrative staff will have a direct impact on the training methodologies to be adopted within different educational programmes. The project will aim at creating tools and strategies to promote skills and competencies for the empowerment of the academic community, local citizens and decision makers in developing deliberations through a structured and inclusive reasoned-giving approach. In this regard, the project identifies the Service Learning approach as a methodology to define the activities and to clarify the scopes of the outputs in order to achieve the following specific objectives:•To develop continuing education dimension for capacity building of university staff, researchers and students in the areas of academic civic commitment, public engagement, open science and open innovation and service learning;•To develop universities’ public engagement dimension unlocking and mobilizing university resources and capacities to society and enterprises’ needs;•To establish at least seven Academic Deliberative Arenas (ADAs) for open innovation as spaces to facilitate public engagement end academic civic commitment.<< Implementation >>The main goal of this project is to involve universities and associated partners in an international partnership to design and develop a set of models and digital tools to improve and increase the relevance of the Academic Third Mission in the knowledge-based society. The Consortium includes partners aimed at fostering digital development, Innovation and Technology transfer, continuous training and quality in education and students’ services. Four main methodologies will be used to achieve the project objectives.1 - Participatory Action Research (PAR) - 2 – Community Service-Learning (CLS) 3 - Gamification and digital open badge 4 - Peer e-learning and team working.For the first Project Result, the research team will coordinate desk and field research. This will imply the administration of questionnaires, the organization of focus groups and the analysis of data both from the comparison of main models in literature and both from best practices available on the web and among the universities involved by the partner (at least 60 institutions). The administration of the questionnaire and the coordination of the focus groups will be the task of the Accreditation Council for Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities (DE). University of Camerino (P1) and University of Zaragoza (P5) will assure the involvement of all other partners. Polytechnic of Bucharest (P7) will collect and analyze data and information gathered from at least 60 universities from 7 countries (we expect more than 100 universities involved).The second Project Result is based on gamification techniques and mechanics, the activities will be led by Pluriversum (P2) with the technological support of University of Camerino (P1) and Polytechnic of Bucharest (P7) to:- Identify trouble spots- Pinpoint trouble spots and points which will help determine the best gamification strategies - Survey the target groups to understand the games and guide your subsequent research into gaming- Set learning and behavior goals- Structure open projects to help meet the goals- Adjust the scoring system and badge - Identify resources and create the avatar- Apply gamification elements- Pilot testing in each countryThe Expert Team provides advice and technological support to all partners and participants engaged within the design of the game and the testing within local pilot actions. Each partner will coordinate local working groups to provide ideas and contents for the development of the game. For the third Project Result, the team of experts of Camerino will coordinate the design of the project platform, with the technical support of Pluriversum (P2), Polytechnic of Bucharest (P7) and University of Vilnius (P9). The team of engineers and researchers who will take part in the project will be crucial for the proper implementation of the two products: web platform and mobile app. University of Camerino will involve at least 2 technicians and 2 researchers for developing both tools.Through this approach, Professors, researchers, students, administrative staff, citizen, experts, entrepreneurs, and policy makers will work together to accomplish a common learning goal, following well planned groups work activities and sharing several training resources and tools. In addition, to empower these methodologies, the project Consortium will select and integrate the best digital technology and effective ICT resources to design and develop the innovative distance system to support the improvement of skills needed for a change in the behavioral culture that limits the improvement of the Academic Third Mission.The work plan shared by all partners of the project will produce three relevant outputs (PR1 – PR3) designed and related as a coherent set of models and resources to support Universities in providing tailored and effective programmes/initiatives/services for academic civic engagement and civic commitment education.<< Results >>The project and the activities planned along the 24 months duration will provide three project results:●PR1 - Handbook. Academic civic commitment through public engagement in the third mission; ●PR2 - Academic Deliberative Arenas (ADA) for open science and innovation: serious games;●PR3 - E-Learning Platform and mobile app for academic deliberative practitioners.Moreover, the project will provide a learning activity dedicated to teaching and administrative staff to be implemented in a short-term mobility, in order to make them aware about the new training approaches, ICT tools (e-learning platform and app) and education material related to the topic of the project: academic civic commitment through public engagement in the Third Mission. In addition, to give consistency to the project activities, the consortium plans to organize 4 Transnational project meetings among the members.Along with the project results, the project will produce the following results:- Adaptation and integration of at least 3 ""best OER"" tools for improving scientific and local communities skills in becoming deliberative practitioners;- Pedagogical and learning material in different languages for disseminating the models at European and national level;- Report on the ""pilot actions/multiplier events"" for testing the framework and the tools in different contexts;- At least 1 modular course and 1 serious game available on the e-learning platform and mobile app for deliberative practitioners;Moreover, by the end of the project, the Consortium is expected to realize other results which can be listed as follow:- A quality plan of the project;- Questionnaires and follow-up tools for collecting data and information to manage the project and to evaluate the quality of the working processes and the project results and products;- Pilot Actions plan, for ensuring the coherence of the testing phase in each national context involved;- Dissemination plan, for describing the whole strategy to inform potential stakeholders and beneficiaries, also using social networks and web marketing techniques.Most of the results will be produced during the implementation of the three Project Results (intellectual outputs), which represent the core phase of the project. The development and implementation of the Project Results will generate the following outcomes:1. University outcomes: - The project introduces service learning practices in each academic partner (PR3); - The project promotes a shared framework of deliberative arenas in different Member States (PR1);- The enhancement of ICT uptake in learning by mainstreaming the use of open and innovative education and participatory practices (PR3).- Enhanced community relations, networking opportunities and new avenues for research and publication via new relationships between faculty (PR2; PR3)2. Students and academic staff outcomes: -The project supports students and HE staff in improving consciously the use of ICT and in learning skills to be able to organize deliberative arenas and participatory practices with local communities;-The project promotes peer education as it will offer students, teaching staff and researchers the chance to become pivotal for empowering local policymakers in using deliberative practices in specific areas of issue combining academic open innovation approach for local development and sustainable growth of local communities (PR2); - The project will result in a positive impact on students’ academic learning, on academic outcomes such as demonstrated complexity of understanding, problem analysis, problem-solving, critical thinking, and cognitive development; in an improvement of students’ abilities to apply what they have learned in “the real world”; in improved social responsibility and citizenship skills of students, researchers, professors and academic staff.3. Community outcomes:- Enhanced community-university relations."