The goal of this paper is to explore how game-based experiences can be leveraged through mobile technology to activate learner engagement and achieve a seamless connection between formal and informal learning. The paper presents a mobile game authoring tool that enables educators to create gamified lesson paths, drawing on the concept of atomic learning. Preliminary evaluation revealed three main findings. First, mobile games constitute a key driver in seamlessly blending informal, unguided learning that is driven by natural human curiosity with learning experiences which are driven by defined, formal learning objectives. Second, ensuring learning elements are suitable for direct use, and reuse, within game-based tools, requiring learning content with high granularity. Third, the success of gamified learning depends on visual and audio impact, along with an appropriate blend of challenges, rewards, learning content, and assessment units that form the narrative backbone.

Whether in an educational or a professional setting, collaboration plays a major part in value creation, as it fosters creativity and innovative thinking, enriching decision-making processes and widening the approach to include different perspectives. Design Thinking has become an increasingly popular collaboration method as it focuses on problem-solving and user-centric-based strategies, where the participants can identify challenges, participate in brainstorming sessions to gather information, generate potential solutions, refine them and then test the chosen solution. Starting from this methodology, this paper presents the relevance and the advantages of using Design Thinking as a tool in the first stage of the designing process of a software solution. To substantiate the proposed approach, an innovative online collaborative tool, the DT4S platform, has been used. The authors highlight the capability of the platform to stimulate the creative process and the engagement of the design team through brainstorming sessions. The paper describes the process of implementing a brainstorming activity using the DT4S platform, following the five stages of the Design Thinking methodology: emphasize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. It exemplifies how this methodology can be incorporated in a software design process, to ensure a qualitative and easy-to-follow workflow for each member of the design team, mitigating the risk of solution-driven changes that can occur during the software design process. The objectives defined by the team leader were analyzed for each of the stages along with the inputs that were brought on the platform, which represent the entire interaction between the team members, and the outputs that represent the results obtained after participating in brainstorming sessions. Following the experiment, the authors discuss key gamification techniques that could be applied to enrich the collaborative approach of the DT4S Platform.

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Research argues that digital educational games have the potential to make learning more interesting and more effective, creating unmatched learner engagement. However, creating captivating game-based learning experiences remains challenging. Designing and developing games to support learning is still a costly and time-consuming experience that require a multitude of skills. An easy-to-play game does not equate with an easy-to-create design and development process. Creating game-based experiences is more complex than designing a linear lecture or a static online learning module. Moreover, game customization remains limited, making it difficult for teachers to adapt a game to specific learner needs and subjects. To address these challenges, the authors present the game authoring pipeline of the Beaconing Platform that enables the construction of location-based metagames by non-programmers. In the context of this work, a metagame is defined as the component that provides the overarching narrative experience for players. The paper describes the construction and implementation of two such metagames for two different cities - Targoviste, Romania and Coventry, UK. The location of the device is used to enhance the user experience and to customize the content that is made available to the learners. The metagames integrate quizzes into location-based challenges to create more flexible and more engaging learning experiences that blend virtual and real worlds. In these metagames, participants have to find a real world Point of Interest (POI), defined through GPS coordinates, or a series of them, through indirect clues and complete an activity (e.g. Minigame) there to further the narrative (or unlock the next clue/POI).