A serious game for digital learning of agroecology and systems thinking in higher education

Agroecology, an answer to major agricultural challenges

European agriculture is facing many challenges, among which producing food and non-food products in sufficient quantity and quality and generating added value for farmers and food chain actors, while reducing agricultural impacts on the environment. Agroecology, defined as “the study of the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment within agricultural systems”, is seen as a very pertinent option to reorient European agriculture in order to answer these major challenges.

A serious game, an innovative learning method

Higher education in European Universities is not yet fully adapted to train the present and future agricultural professionals on agroecology. In particular, multidisciplinary approaches are not very developed in existing programs. Moreover, current pedagogical methods often lack interactive and digital dimensions that are promising learning methods. Innovative tools are thus urgently needed to help professors deliver multidisciplinary, high quality and attractive training on agroecology to the students and current agricultural professionals.