The introductory Game-based workshop on digital literacy and inclusion for Educators will be held on November 27 in Tenerife

STARS EU is promoting a face-to-face workshop that will take place on November 27, 2025, within the framework of the Project Meeting that the alliance will hold on the island on the 25th, 26th and 27th. The initiative, aimed at the alliance’s faculty and academic staff, will offer practical strategies to design and facilitate sessions based on gamification and inclusion in the university environment.

The activity, organized by the University of La Laguna, will be taught by Madelon van Oostrom, professor at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, sociologist and PhD from ULL, with an outstanding career in educational innovation.

With a capacity limited to 30 participants, the workshop will be delivered in a highly participatory and collaborative format. The organisation by working groups will make it possible to promote experimentation, the exchange of good practices and direct transfer to teaching.

The meeting will take place on November 27, from 12:00 to 14:00 hours, on the first floor of the Agustín Arévalo Tower (Ficread room) of the University of La Laguna.

For more information, visit: Interactive Workshop on Digital Competence

If you are interested in participating, click here: Registration.

Students from several European countries have jointly developed innovative game concepts for Bremen’s cultural sector. The 30 or so students worked in interdisciplinary teams at Hochschule Bremen (HSB) – City University of Applied Sciences, partner of STARS EU Alliance, on projects supported by regional partners from the fields of culture and art. The winning team developed a smartphone game that allows users to discover and interactively experience art in public spaces.

The workshop in the summer semester of 2025 was one of the results of the three-year cooperation project ‘IGNITION’. It connects European universities and promotes innovative teaching formats. The intensive workshop week in the innovative FreiRaum@HSB and the hybrid final event offered students a unique opportunity to gain practical experience in game development, intercultural collaboration and challenge-based learning. The event was organised by Professor Andreas Teufel from the Media Informatics course at Faculty 4 – Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at HSB. ‘The project was a proof-of-concept for our new didactic concepts, which combine hybrid teaching with intensive workshop work,’ explains Andreas Teufel.

‘Much more fun than the traditional course structure’

The positive feedback from the students emphasises the success: ‘It was one of the best courses I’ve attended at HSB,’ says one student looking back. Someone else from the workshop commented: “The concept is great and much more fun than the traditional course structure I’m used to. I really enjoyed the one week of the workshop as it allowed you to fully concentrate on your project with little to no distractions. It felt like a great experience and not just another course.”

Students from three STARS EU partners

Students from the three STARS EU partners Instituto Politechnico de Bragança in Portugal, Hanze University in Groningen (Netherlands) and HSB were involved. They were joined by exchange students from Norway, Turkey and Luxembourg, who are spending their summer semester at HSB. They came from the Media Informatics, Design, Computer Science and Business Administration (BWL) degree programmes. An online phase in April and May was followed by an intensive week of workshops at Hochschule Bremen in June at FreiRaum@HSB. The event officially ended at the end of June with a hybrid closing event.

The partners from Bremen’s cultural scene: The Günter Grass Foundation Bremen, the Verein zur Förderung des Welterbes Rathaus und Roland in Bremen, the Städtische Galerie Bremen and the Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus took part as partners from Bremen’s cultural scene.

About IGNITION

IGNITION is a research project of the STARS EU partners Hanze Groningen (Netherlands, lead partner), Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal) and Hochschule Bremen (HSB) together with the South East Technological University (SETU) in Waterford (Ireland).

The acronym IGNITION stands for European DIGital Literacy Coalition for Inclusion, Collaboration aNd InnovaTION. ‘The aim of IGNITION is to provide our lecturers with concrete didactic tools and technological support to enable curricular teaching in international and hybrid settings,’ says project leader Professor Andreas Teufel, Dean of Studies at Faculty 4 – Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. ‘This will not replace our core expertise of teaching in small groups and practical tasks in the seminar room and laboratory, but it will expand our possibilities.’

Teams of international students and a common goal: to develop the space and improve the tourist potential of the Małopolskie commune of Zakliczyn. As part of the FutureLab Camp workshops, 26 students from the Krakow University of Technology and foreign universities belonging to the European STARS EU alliance worked on Zakliczyn’s concepts.

The workshops, which took place in person at the Krakow University of Technology, involved students from the Krakow University of Technology, the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal), the Marie and Louis Pasteur University (France), and the Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands). The main task of the students was to define the problems related to tourism in Zakliczyn and to propose modern concepts to take advantage of the opportunities present in and around the city, including the reconstruction of the cycle-pedestrian bridge over the Dunajec River, which leads to the ruins of the castle in Melsztyn.

The participants were divided into three working groups, led by: dr. hab. inż. arch. Kinga Racoń-Leja, Prof. PK, and dr. inż. arch. Ernestyna Szpakowska-Loranc, from the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of Urban Structures at the Faculty of Architecture of the Cracow University of Technology, with the support of Professors Joao Pereira, from the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, and coordinators Lorene Keram and Robin Roche, from Marie and Luis Pasteur University.

Adam Sadło, who works at FutureLab PK and is the leader of the WP 2.5 working group within STARS EU, was responsible for cooperation with partners and coordination of the entire Blended Intensive Erasmus+ Programme. The format in which the participants of the FutureLab Camp – Blended Intensive Programme Erasmus+ (BIP) worked is intensive programs focusing on selected scientific issues, utilizing innovative teaching methods. Such activities are organized in collaboration with several (a minimum of three) universities affiliated with the Erasmus+ program. The BIP program consists of a virtual and a stationary part (BIP participants from different universities meet at one university).

Getting to know the local culture

The work within the FutureLab Camp began with a study visit to Zakliczyn, during which students met with Mayor Dawid Chrobak and representatives of local cultural institutions. After the presentation and discussion about the characteristics of the municipality and potential strengths to be utilized, the participants visited the Zakliczyn market square, the historic church, the ruins of the castle in Melsztyn, and the European Centre for Krzysztof Penderecki’s Music in Lusławice.

After acquiring a valuable dose of knowledge, the students began conceptual work. The teams consisted of individuals focused on various project aspects: architecture, IT management, international business, art, and culture. Such multidisciplinary collaboration allowed participants to propose unique and complex concepts.

The review of the current work results took place on February 28 of this year. It was attended by the rector of the Cracow University of Technology, Andrzej Szarata, the STARS EU coordinator at CUT, professor Dariusz Bogdał and the director of FutureLab CUT, Monika Firlej.” Working within the framework of Blended Intensive Programs is more than just learning through project activities. It is also an opportunity for intercultural exchange, which the European Commission encourages in its recommendations. We proposed an interesting program for the students, which also includes meetings after classes, joint games of bowling and billiards, visiting Wieliczka and Kraków, and experiencing the flavours of Polish cuisine. This is particularly important when building teams that, after the physical component, will continue to work together online until mid-June 2025”, says Adam Sadło from FutureLab PK.

On the last day of classes, Monday, March 3, the final presentations of the developed concepts took place. The special guest of the day was Kazimierz Dudzik, the director of the Zakliczyńskie Center for Culture. The expert declared that he would try to use some of the presented ideas in his work. The final presentations also took place under the watchful eye of experts from the Faculty of Architecture at the Cracow University of Technology – prof. dr. hab. inż. arch. Sabina Kuc, dr. inż. arch. Wojciech Wójcikowski, prof. PK, dr. inż. Stanisław Czernik, and dr. inż. arch. Agnieszka Wójtowicz-Wróbel, Vice-Dean for Student Affairs at the Faculty of Architecture.

Months of work ahead

The group work of the teams will continue for the next three months, and the detailed concepts will be provided to Zakliczyn for use by mid-June. “I am proud of the work our university students have done together with their foreign colleagues. I have known for a long time that multidisciplinary work on specific solutions for cities and businesses brings tangible results, as we deal with supporting such groups every day at FutureLab PK. Bringing the FutureLab idea to an international level is, for me personally, the greatest recognition of the work we have been doing with students and researchers at the Cracow University of Technology for six years”, summarizes Monika Firlej, director of FutureLab PK.

The agreement regulating the cooperation between the municipality of Zakliczyn and the Cracow University of Technology was signed in January 2025 by professor Andrzej Szarata, the rector of PK, and Dawid Chrobak, the mayor of Zakliczyn.  Everyone agrees that, thanks to its convenient location, Zakliczyn is an ideal place for investments, especially in tourism.

“We are very pleased with the potential that lies in the cooperation between our university and such a dynamically developing municipality. Especially with the opportunity this cooperation creates for students of the Polytechnic and our partner foreign universities. Workshops dedicated to Zakliczyn are another example of modern education that we promote at the Polytechnic, which is education through the implementation of projects with practical applications for local communities. These dedicated to Zakliczyn – as the mayor conveys – have a chance to inspire real changes in the municipality”, said the rector of CUT at that time.