Tania Ouariachi

To have sustainable societies, we need to accelerate the energy transition towards clean energy solutions, however, awareness and understanding of the process as well as intentions to change behaviors are still limited, especially among young people. An optimal balance considering the point of view from all parties involved is out of sight without a focus on social structures and a dialogue among all parties. In this context, universities have a critical role to play: these institutions build capacity through the development of new knowledge, new understanding and new insights, and can therefore provide effective solutions to complex societal challenges. In search of innovative approaches to reach young people, whose communicative paradigm has become more interactive and participatory, the use of serious gaming in formal education is gaining attention among scholars and practitioners: they can foster skills and abilities, contribute to content development of complex issues by integrating insights from different disciplines, and permit learning experiences that are not possible in real life. In this paper, we introduce "We-Energy Game", a serious game that address the urgency and complexities in the provision of affordable energy from renewable sources for an entire town. During the game, players negotiate, from their respective roles, which energy source they want to employ and on which location, with the goal to make a village or city energy neutral. Then, we present findings from a pretest and posttest completed by a hundred university students in The Netherlands to analyze the effects of the game on players awareness, understanding and efficacy beliefs. Results reveal positive outcomes on all variables.

What kind of serious games dealing with climate change are out there? Do these types of games share similar quality levels across borders? The purpose of this article is to carry out a comparative quality assessment of games produced in two different countries: United States and Spain. For this purpose, we develop and put into practice a tool to assess the quality of thirty games (fifteen US American and fifteen Spanish) based on the opinion of experts through the Delphi method. Criteria are categorized into identification, narrative, contents, gameplay, and didactics. The results show that these games share similarities but also differ from each other, which bring us to establish different quality scenarios for different countries. The total scores reveal a higher quality level of United States serious games on climate change.

Video games have the potential to educate and engage people—especially young people—in climate change and energy issues by facilitating the development of helpful thoughts, feelings, and actions. The objective of the present article is to propose a set of game attributes that could maximise the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural engagement of players, and lay the foundations for future work. We have used semistructured interviews with experts to identify a set of game attributes and a group discussion with teenagers to validate them. By applying grounded theory in our analysis of the experts’ responses, we have developed a framework for climate change engagement through serious games. It consists of 15 key attributes that we have classified in three dimensions: cognitive, emotional, and behavioural. Literature review drawn on sources in social psychology, communication and education has contributed to further explain and justify the inclusion of each of the attributes

There is an urgent need to curb emissions and mitigate climate change,
and this fight requires a change in teenagers’ attitudes. In search of new approaches targeting youth, online games are seen as a promising tool for communication and education. Using the serious game 2020 Energy as a case study, the main objective of this paper is to examine the influence of the game on Spanish and American teenagers’ attitudes (N = 108), employing a pretest-posttest design with an experimental condition (playing the game) and a control condition (not playing the
game). Results show that there have not been statistically significant differences after playing the game, although when looking closer at each factor, some positive consequences can be found.

Energy transition is key to achieving a sustainable future. However, in this transition, an often neglected pillar is raising awareness and educating individuals on the benefits, complexities, and urgency of renewable energy supply and energy efficiency. This paper exemplifies an educational practice to create awareness on sustainable energy transition by playing a " serious " game, the We Energy Game. Concretely, this qualitative study aims to analyze communicational and educational aspects of the game by making use of a validated framework for serious games analysis, and to expose the opinion of players after maintaining group discussions. The analysis reveals a detailed insight of narrative elements, messages, and gameplay mechanisms, but also educative aspects to be considered by teachers if they are interested in putting the game into practice in their classes. The group discussion reveals that the game has been more successful in achieving cognitive (understanding/knowledge) and affective (emotion/interest and concern) engagement than in motivating attitudinal or behavioral engagement.

Online games have been proposed as a promising tool for communication and education. Taking into account the new communicative paradigm of young people and the fact that climate change is one of the main threats to their future, this paper presents a checklist of indicators validated using the Delphi method to analyze the communicative elements of online climate change games targeting young people, and illustrates their use and usefulness with a qualitative analysis of a sample of games produced in Spain. This exploratory study maintains that online climate change games are shaping up to be innovative strategies, thanks to their immersive narrative and interactivity, among other features, which are used to meet the communicative and educational challenges regarding climate change: causes are made visible, actions are portrayed as local, uncertainty is avoided, contextualized information is provided in a positive and proactive tone, and a critical thinking approach is encouraged through decision-making. 

A pesar del creciente interés por los juegos en línea en los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje, los docentes son escasamente orientados sobre las características de los juegos disponibles en la red y su potencial educomunicativo. El objetivo fundamental de este trabajo es ofrecer un instrumento validado de evaluación para los juegos en línea sobre cambio climático, compuesto por criterios consensuados a partir del juicio de expertos mediante el método Delphi. Esta herramienta cuenta con cinco dimen-siones de evaluación: identifi cación, narrativa, contenidos, jugabilidad y didáctica. El instrumento de evaluación propuesto contribuye a ampliar la visión de características relevantes a tener en cuenta al elegir un videojuego para usarlo en el aula y sentar las bases para crear un repositorio útil de juegos en línea sobre cambio climático, en particular, y sobre temática medioambiental, en general. Abstract: In spite of growing interest in online games in processes of teaching and learning, teachers are rarely familiar with the characteristics of games available on the Internet and their educational/communicational potential. Th e fundamental objective of this paper is to off er a validated instrument of evaluation for online games about climate change; the instrument uses consensual criteria based on expert opinion, by means of the Delphi method. Th e tool has fi ve dimensions of evaluation: identifi cation, narrative, content, playability, and didactics. Th e proposed instrument of evaluation contributes to broadening the view of relevant characteristics to be included when selecting a videogame to use in the classroom, and to establish the bases for creating a useful collection of online games about climate change in particular, and about environmental topics in general.

In search of innovative approaches to raise climate change awareness among digital natives, online and serious games are gaining currency as new platforms for communication, education and social change. Thanks to their interactivity and immersive narrative, games have capacity to convey to young people the problems that they will be facing in the future and enable them to experience these problems directly through the game. In addition, online games can offer the possibility to be implemented in educational contexts as a didactic tool for teachers. This study aims a) to present a checklist with validated evaluation criteria identified through the Delphi method; and b) to conduct a qualitative evaluation of communicative and educative elements of a sample of 24 online climate change games targeting youth and produced in Spanish. Our findings suggest that the games evaluated seem to be on the right path, making the topic of climate change local, visual and connected, although there is still room for improvement in terms of contents, gameplay and didactics.

Los juegos online han sido propuestos como una herramienta de comunicación y educación prometedora. Teniendo en cuenta que el cambio climático es una de las principales amenazas a las que se enfrentarán los adolescentes en su futuro, el presente trabajo tiene como objetivo principal la evaluación de los elementos comunicativos y educativos de una serie de juegos online sobre cambio climático producidos en España, haciendo uso de unos criterios validados por un panel de expertos con el método Delphi. Los resultados de este estudio exploratorio revelan algunas de las oportunidades que ofrecen estas herramientas, tales como el encuadre alternativo de los mensajes o el desarrollo de distintas competencias y habilidades, pero también sus limitaciones, como la falta de instituciones científicas en la producción o de posibilidades para estudiantes con diversidad funcional.

In recent years, we have witnessed an increased interest in integrating the local knowledge and wisdom held by local communities in disaster risk reduction planning and strategies. The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015, the international blueprint for disaster risk reduction efforts adopted by United Nations Member' States, acknowledges the important role of local knowledge to reduce impacts of disasters at community level and encourages governments to consider it into policy planning. This paper provides a case study for Indonesia, particularly for the district of Bantul, to evaluate to what extent local knowledge has been reflected in disaster risk reduction policies and for which purpose. This paper also looks at the level of participation of local communities in the policy formulation process. Results reveal that, despite well formulated disaster risk reduction policies that integrate local knowledge, several factors can hamper an effective implementation of the policies. This research recommends increasing budget allocations for disaster risk reduction and financial support towards the Local Agency for Disaster Management (BPBD), making a better use of participatory structures already in place and reinforcing collaboration between local government and NGOs.

In search of innovative approaches capable of connecting climate change issues with teenagers, scholars and practitioners have become interested in harnessing the potential of gaming for advancing climate change communication. This article aims to propose a set of criteria, validated by experts through the Delphi method, by which to analyze communicative features of online climate change games. The use of the criteria is illustrated with an evaluation of a sample of Spanish games to which we apply qualitative content analysis, narratology, and ludology techniques. Our findings reveal some positive communicative trends in terms of narratives, contents, and gameplay.