Press start: gamification and game-based learning with eTwinning
Course details
“Compared with games, reality is too easy. Games challenge us with voluntary obstacles and help us put our personal strengths to better use” (“Reality Is Broken”, Jane McGonigal)
In an educational landscape that calls for creativity, collaboration and meaningful engagement, this course invites teachers to rediscover the transformative and satisfying power of playing. The “Press start: gamification and game-based learning with eTwinning” course, is designed to empower teachers to enrich their eTwinning projects through innovative, student-centred methodologies that foster motivation and deeper learning.
The general aim of this course is to equip participants with the pedagogical vision and practical tools needed to integrate game-based learning and gamification strategies into cross-border collaborative projects. By blending purposeful game design with curriculum objectives, the course seeks to improve learners’ basic skills, such as literacy, numeracy and mathematics, science, digital literacy, citizenship while strengthening collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, engagement and inclusion within diverse classrooms.
Let’s make this course an inspiring and engaging experience! An experience that will bring together a community of enthusiastic educators who see learning not just as instruction, but as a meaningful journey. Together, we can turn challenges into opportunities and empower every learner to become an active player in their own educational adventure!
Even though this is a self-paced course, adapted from a version that ran from Monday, 18 May, to Wednesday, 3 June 2026, we encourage you to re-visit the course’s forums and Padlets, reflect on what your peers shared and use their input as food for thought for your own teaching practices, school and classroom life and interaction with your students.
The course is offered by the European School Education Platform. Visit our website for more information.
Duration and workload
Start and end date: open-ended, you can take this course (or any section) at your own pace
Duration: 2 weeks
Workload: 8-10 hours
This course is based on a version that ran from Monday, 18 May, to Wednesday, 3 June 2026. The original course provided participants with opportunities to interact during a specific active timeframe of 2.5 weeks, exchange ideas, prepare their final activity and engage in the peer assessment process. However, we recognise that not everyone was able to attend during the scheduled timeline.
To make the course accessible to a wider audience, we’ve developed this self-paced format. This version allows you to explore the content and complete the activities at your own pace, whenever it suits you best.
What the self-study format means:
- Flexible schedule: You decide when and how to engage with the course materials. There are no deadlines, live sessions, or required meeting times.
- Independent learning: While the original course included discussions and peer reviews taking place in certain days and weeks, this format empowers you to work independently, using the same materials and guidance provided during the initial version. Please note that discussions in the forums and contributions on Padlets will not be moderated, allowing for a fully self-directed learning experience.
- Self-assessment: To replicate some of the reflective benefits of peer feedback, you will be encouraged to evaluate your own work using the provided assessment criteria.
Course competences
The recipient of this certificate has demonstrated proficiency of the following competences according to the digital competence framework of the European Commission's SELFIE for TEACHERs tool:
- Area 1 Professional Engagement: Professional learning (through digital technologies) at B1 level
- Area 3: Teaching and Learning: Emerging technologies at B1 level
- Area 5 Empowering learners: Differentiation and personalisation at B2 level
- Area 6 Facilitating learners’ digital competence: Content creation at B1 level
For more information about the competences and associated proficiency levels see the SELFIE for TEACHERs toolkit.
Target audience
This course is aimed at primary and secondary teachers, school leaders, and teacher trainers interested in exploring whole-school democratic practices and empowering pupils’ active participation both in classroom but also in their broader communities.
Learning objectives
- Understand the basics of digital game pedagogy, game-based learning, serious games and gamification, and serious games, and how they can be used in an international classroom.
- Explore how game elements (like stories, challenges, levels, feedback systems, badges and rewards) can support learning outcomes in eTwinning projects.
- Study examples of game-based activities and adapt them to suit their own students’ needs.
- Create age-appropriate gamified learning activities for various subjects with the support of AI tools.
- Learn how to plan group work, engage students, and assess learning in a gamified environment.
- Feel more confident using games and gamification to motivate students and encourage participation.
Offered by
This content is offered by the European Commission. The European Commission is the European Union's politically independent executive arm. It is alone responsible for drawing up proposals for new European legislation, and it implements the decisions of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
Schedule
- Disclaimer: course tailored to eTwinners
- How this self-paced course works
- Module 1: Foundations of game-based learning and gamification
- Module 2: Fostering basic skills through game-based learning and serious games
- Module 3: Gamification and course assessment
- Certificate of completion
