A gamified community for fostering learning engagement towards preventing Early school leaving

Abstract

Early school leaving is a complex phenomenon that may adversely affect on a learner’s future development. ESL is the result of a combination of factors, such as insufficient school curricula understanding, low value placed on education by families, unavailability or low capacity of parents to support learners in schooling, insufficient parent-teacher-learner communication, and more. Many factors are socio-economic and are related to the extended social environment of learners. This work aims at strengthening the ties of school networks aiming at preventing ESL risk factors to set root in a learner’s life through early interventions that start in primary school. This is pursued through a gamified school community and supporting gamified complementary to school curricula learning activities that aim at fostering engagement of parents, teachers, and learners. The community promotes a sense of affiliation, opens-up communication channels, and promotes a positive school environment for the benefit of learners and their parents. © ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2016.