Initial Piloting and Testing Findings SGSCC Conference 03/06/2015 Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Piloting in 7 Countries

• SGSCC deliered following outcomes

– Training Curriculum, Handbook and supporting

Exercices for Trainers

– Mobile game for trainees

– Desktop game for trainees

• Piloted in 7 countries (January – June 2015)

– Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Serbia,

Turkey, UK

– Target groups: moderate to severe learning

difficulties.

Evaluation Approach

BEFORE THE START OF THE TRAINING PACKAGE

DURING THE TRAINING - AFTER EACH SESSION

AFTER THE END OF THE TRAINING PACKAGE

Trainees:

self-assessment of social competence and

background questionnaire

Trainers:

evaluation the social competence of each

participant

Evaluation of training

workshop / exercises

Usability of games

Questionnaire For Self-assessment Of Social

Competence

Questionnaire For Evaluation Of Social Competence For

Each Participant

Questionnaire For Evaluation Of Handbook/Training

Materials

Case Study Report

Participants were recruited from various organizations

Trainees from Institutes, special education schools, end user

organizations, secondary schools ( 300)

• E.g. II School of Economics Belgrade, DrvoArt Belgrade,

School of Chemistry and Technology Subotica, School for

Beauty Care…

• Sheltered homes, VET secondary schools

Trainers from special school education ( 60)

• E.g. in BG from Smolyan, Plovdiv, Syedinenie, Sliven.

Preliminary experience with games

• The majority of the participants who piloted the

games have a desktop computer or laptop 79% -

91%; which is not the case with a smart mobile

phone or tablet 47% - 80%

• The majority of those questioned have had some

experience in playing games 74% - 88%.

Description of the training

• Training has been adapted according to the needs

of the participants

– Bulgaria – weekly sessions from January to June 2015

– Serbia – two-weekly sessions from January to June 2015

– Austria – 8 dedicated sessions

– Belgium – 14 (two-weekly) sessions

– UK – dedicated sessions in June 2015

– Turkey – weekly session from January 2015

– Lithuania – monthly sessions from January 2015

Evaluation of social competences before and after the training

Training without game

sessions

Training with game

sessions

Self-assessment of social competences before and

after the training – Initial Findings

Participants have observed a change after the

training:

• 62,1% - feel more able to initiate conversation

• 53% - more able to calm down when they are angry

or upset

• 71,9% - more able to express feelings when they are

wronged

Evaluation of the HandbookEv

• Generally positively evaluated (between 3.8 and

4.27 on a scale of 5)

• Assessed as clear and comprehensible, engaging

and useful for the development of social

competences and creativity

• Trainers state that more varied difficulty level of

exercises would be useful – currently there are

three levels

Initial Feedback from the Workshops

• Trainers reported that the participants have been

immensely interested throughout workshops; the

exercises were generally assessed as useful and

moderately hard

• Reported high involvement of the participants as

well as good retention of the material

• The majority of the participants liked the exercises

and reported that they had learned something

useful

Evaluation of the workshops

• „Students have actively participated and tried to

apply self-control techniques that they had learned.

Several students had already known that they

should count to ten and breathe when they are

upset, however majority of them had not used them.

After the exercise they said that they learned how to

alleviate negative emotions.“

Initial Feedback – Desktop Games

+

• High engagement by participants

• Games were engaging and immersive

• Considerable liking of the realistic situations display

• “I’m really playing a real computer game”

-

• Requires considerable ICT and cognitive skills

• Some participants have found the game hard and

playing the game tiring

• Mainly of interest of trainees with moderate learning

difficulties

Initial Feedback – Mobile Games

+

• High engagement by participants

• Three games were liked as there was a very close linkage

with the training exercises

• Even trainees with severe learning difficulties were able to

complete most games/levels

• “The game allows me correct my mistakes”

-

• Requires smart phone (tablet) and for some functionalities

internet connection

• The “point of view game” is for some trainees too abstract

to grasp the meaning

Next Steps

• Finalizing the collection of data

• Optimizing the training material, exercises,

games to reflect the feedback received

• Release the final version of the training

material and games by the end of June 2015

– downloadable from the project web site and

Google Play

Thank you for your attention

cgcc@bos.rs