Prevention of stress by exploiting an innovative virtual environment (POSITIVE)

Prevention of stress by exploiting an innovative virtual environment (POSITIVE)

Recent works on the subject of stress related to student's of the secondary school shows  that excessive stress during this stage might increase prevalence of psychological problems like depression and nervousness, reduce ability to study and take exams, which can negatively impact the educational performance.

The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (USA) reveals that the neural circuits for dealing with stress are malleable during childhood and adolescence, and chronic stress can rewire the brain to become overly reactive or slow to shut down when faced with threats. So too much stress can disrupt normal brain development and increase the risk of diseases even into adulthood. Therefore it becomes crucial to pay proper care to reducing academic stress, and to help students to become aware of their stress in order to acquire the coping mechanisms necessary to manage it.

Students must learn to recognise, communicate and seek help from professionals when stress adversely impacts their lives. They must acquire the words to describe how they feel, and  learn how to overcome obstacles associated with stressful situations during school life.

 

Project period: 01.01.2022 – 31.12.2023   (01-11-2021 - 01-11-2023)

Project No.: 2021-1-PT01-KA220-SCH-000032534

Erasmus+ program: KA220 – Cooperation partnerships in school education

Target groups: Secondary education teachers, students, parents.

Stakeholders: Higher education Institution, teachers, education experts, students, parents.

 

Aim: The POSITIVE project will design and develop a 3D Virtual World Learning Environment. In the game scenario the school students will engage in activities that will help them be better prepared for various curricular activities that induce stress.

Objectives:

  • raise awareness for the problem of school students’ stress, inform stakeholders about this issue, and educate students on how to develop coping mechanisms to deal with stress.

  •  promote innovative pedagogies and methods for teaching, learning, and assessment.

  •  increase the educational performance of the students.

  • support school educators and teachers in using digital technologies in creative, collaborative, and efficient ways.

  •  lead students to seek help and deal with their stress issues while preventing them from becoming more severe as they grow up.

  •  improve the community’s social and emotional wellbeing and enhance the student’s family dynamics.

 

Results:

PR 1: Student's needs, game scenario, educational material available in the 3D VWLE. Identification of specific stress sources and activities related to school stress and of gamification elements that the students would most likely want to encounter in a 3D Virtual World.

PR2: 3D virtual world learning environment. Design of learning environment Alpha, Beta, and the Final version of the POSITIVE project. Creation of The User Manual about the games, offering instructions on navigating into the environment and accessing the educational material. Demonstrative videos of the environment will showcase the functionality of the environment and the gaming features.

PR3: Implementation of 3D VWLE, survey results, documentation. User surveys, regarding the environment’s effectiveness in increasing students’ stress awareness, analysed and combined with the implementation results, will comprise the documentation. Implementation will begin after the release of the Alpha Version, continue following the Beta version’s release, and conclude by an  implementation of the Final Version.

 

Project partners:

1. VsI "eMundus" (Lithuania)

2. Maieutica Cooperativa de Ensino Superior CRL (Portugal)

3. Panepistimio Patron (Greece)

4. Arsakeio Lyceum of Patras (Greece)

5. Agrupamento de Escolas de Rates (Portugal)

6. Colegio Los Pinos- Los Pinos Educación, S.L. (Spain)

 

Project website positivelearning.eu