Balance youth opportunities with Eurodesk!

Hatay Mustafa Kemal University

Media materials:

Organisation:

Hatay Mustafa Kemal University

Country:

Türkiye

About organisation:

Hatay Mustafa Kemal University (MKU) is a state university.Hatay Mustafa Kemal University was formally established in Hatay located in mid-south Turkey in 1992. Hatay is one of the 81 provinces in Turkey and Antakya is the central city of the Hatay province. MKU has become an arrogant education and science center through continuous development. The main campus of the University is named Tayfur Sokmen Campus and located in Serinyol area, about 15 km north to the Antakya city center.Hatay Mustafa Kemal University has 12 faculties, 6 four-year colleges, 11 two-year vocational schools, 3 post-graduate institutes, 19 research centers and one university hospital.Hatay Mustafa Kemal University has been the Eurodesk contact point since 2022. Studies are carried out not only in academic studies but also in the field of European Union youth projects. In the field of Erasmus+ Youth, both project information activities and project execution activities are carried out.

Contact person:

Alaeddin Türkmen

Title of the project

Balance youth opportunities with Eurodesk!

Start date:

February 15, 2023

End date:

December 14, 2023

Source of funding:

We used two sources when designing this creative and effective Eurodesk information material. The first one was the organizational support budget of the "Strong Future Will Come with Erasmus+" project, which we carried out in 2023 and supported within the scope of Erasmus+ KA152. We paid for the cassettes and cards with some of this support. We covered the costs of laser printing and the promotional video of the product from our own resources.

Objectives:

The devastating earthquakes that occurred on 06.02.2023 seriously affected our city. Many of our citizens have lost their lives and our young people have turned into profiles with limited opportunities. As Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, we aimed to design a sustainable and environmentally friendly game in addition to information seminars to introduce EU youth opportunities to these young people, and to both entertain and inform young people with the game we designed. The game we have developed can be played by 2-6 people and provides information as well as engaging young people in a fun competition with its balance and time strategy. The game is played thanks to question patterns containing Eurodesk opportunities sandwiched between wooden boards. Initially, the boards are in a balanced position, forming a tower.Question plaques stuck between the board contain questions/suggestions about Eurodesk opportunities. The player chooses a board so as not to upset the balance and tries to answer the question on it against the clock. If correct, it gets points. If it is wrong, the other party has the right to reply. The Eurodesk representative introduces the relevant Eurodesk opportunity in detail and directs you to the opportunity web page via the QR code on the question plate. The game continues until the balance is broken and the tower collapses.As a result of this material, young people are enabled to both learn about opportunities and have fun with a time-based balance game.

Why does it correspond to the thematic category:

Although our initiative actually covers 3 different categories, it is designed to provide information in a creative way at its core. Eurodesk is an information network established to introduce and disseminate the numerous European Union education, youth and volunteering opportunities to young people. Information is generally provided through question-answer and physical/online information approaches. In this process, we turned Eurodesk opportunities informative into a game. With the game, young people not only learn, but also take part in a balance game against time and compete against the other young person to correct answer more questions. After each question, the Eurodesk contact person/representative provides information regarding the relevant question and directs you to the relevant web page via QR code for opportunities. With this approach, young people go through an experiential learning process to learn about Eurodesk opportunities and also calculate the balance for their next move within the scope of the game. In this way, youth information can be displayed creatively through gamification and based on peer interaction. Both a sustainable and environmentally friendly material, a gamification approach, and digitally directing the questions answers to opportunities with a QR code appear as a creative youth information tool that covers all the priorities.That's why we thought the creative information/creative tools category was suitable for project application.

The impact the initiative had on young people and the local community:

We decided to design a creative information material for young people to both have fun and learn. We decided that this material would be useful, especially in mass information. Thanks to our game, which can be played by 2-6 people, young people can develop their balance-based strategies and be informed about Eurodesk opportunities. Our initiative has an impact on young people in two different ways. The first impact actually involves introducing Eurodesk opportunities to young people who have not come to learn about Eurodesk. While sitting with our student groups, we asked"dear young people,would you like to learn about the opportunities that will change the balance of your life ?" and generally use this material in teams of 4 people.In this way, we can introduce youth opportunities through games and broaden their horizons.The second effect includes young people who come to get information about Eurodesk opportunities. We generally use this method for informing two people. For the young person who comes to get information, we actually start by saying "let's play a game first". This offers young people an interactive and innovative learning experience instead of monotonous information. We have also added some common misconceptions to the questions. We convey the correct information to the young person through question cards, based on a proposition such as "Erasmus is only available at universities". In this way, young people have a more exciting experience of gaining knowledge.

How it ensured the visibility and promotion of Eurodesk:

This material is designed to provide effective/creative Eurodesk information. Eurodesk Türkiye Logo is printed on each bar via laser. Visibility is provided through the logo. On the other hand, the questions in each tape include questions from the European Union Youth opportunities offered within the scope of Eurodesk. That's why young people who play our game can both play a balance game and better understand the support offered within the scope of Eurodesk. When the game is over, the Eurodesk website is introduced. Then, Eurodesk contact points are introduced practically from Eurodesk maps. In this way, Eurodesk promotion and visibility is provided with the game. A promotional video was shot for the corporate promotion of the game and its introduction to Eurodesk contact points in Turkey. Eurodesk logos are used in this video and visibility is supported.In other words, through this game material, both the opportunities offered within Eurodesk and Eurodesk itself are promoted and disseminated.

How it respected the green principles:

Stationery tools and digital content are mostly preferred in Eurodesk information. Stationery tools increase paper/cardboard consumption and carbon footprint. Digital vehicles, on the other hand, create a low carbon footprint due to electricity consumption. Since the material we developed is also a physical game, it has almost no water and carbon footprint. Instead of paper-based information, questions containing Eurodesk opportunities were placed on artificial sticks. In this way, the use of paper and stationery was limited and long-term informative became possible with one material. The questions also include some information about green transformation, which is one of the priorities of the Erasmus+ program. For example, green travel. There is a question/information in the material regarding the participant receiving a higher amount of travel grant if he/she prefers green travel. In this way, green transformation is supported. With the QR code included in the question sticks, players are directed to the web interfaces of Eurodesk and national agencies to get detailed information if they wish. This is a green innovation material, especially against printed informative materials.

The devastating earthquakes that occurred on 06.02.2023 seriously affected our city. Many of our citizens have lost their lives and our young people have turned into profiles with limited opportunities. As Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, we aimed to design a sustainable and environmentally friendly game in addition to information seminars to introduce EU youth opportunities to these young people, and to both entertain and inform young people with the game we designed. The game we have developed can be played by 2-6 people and provides information as well as engaging young people in a fun competition with its balance and time strategy.

The game is played thanks to question patterns containing Eurodesk opportunities sandwiched between wooden boards. Initially, the boards are in a balanced position, forming a tower.
Question plaques stuck between the board contain questions/suggestions about Eurodesk opportunities. The player chooses a board so as not to upset the balance and tries to answer the question on it against the clock. If correct, it gets points. If it is wrong, the other party has the right to reply. The Eurodesk representative introduces the relevant Eurodesk opportunity in detail and directs you to the opportunity web page via the QR code on the question plate. The game continues until the balance is broken and the tower collapses.

As a result of this material, young people are enabled to both learn about opportunities and have fun with a time-based balance game.