Learning Interdisciplinarity and Systems Approaches in Agroecology: Experience with the Serious Game SEGAE

Giovanni Burgio,Olivier Godinot,Julia Jouan,J. Makulska ,M. Cupiał ,Serena Magagnoli,Kevin Maréchal,Delphine Brogna,Thibault Salou,Mireille De Graeuwe,Benjamin Dumont,Matthieu Carof,Anne Lise Jacquot ,Nathalie N. Bareille ,Sébastien Couvreur,Guénola Pérès ,Barbara Tombarkiewicz,Fabio Sgolastra,Aude Ridier,Suzanne Bastian,Rim Baccar

doi:10.3390/su12114351

Abstract

Agroecology represents a pertinent option to improve the sustainability of agriculture. To promote its application, agroecological concepts should be taught to students and professionals in the agricultural sector. However, most agricultural courses are not adapted to teach these concepts due to little interactivity or interdisciplinarity, and a lack of a systems approach to farm management. Serious games help to fill these gaps by simulating complex models in which players can learn by doing. We thus developed a serious computer game, called SEGAE (SErious Game for AgroEcology learning), which represents a mixed crop-livestock farm and assesses impacts of farming practices on indicators related to environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Its pedagogical interest was evaluated through two types of surveys given to university students who played the game during a one-week workshop: A knowledge survey on agroecology, and a feedback survey based on flow theory. Results showed that students increased their knowledge of agroecology significantly, particularly those who had had little knowledge of crop production. More than 86% of the students enjoyed the game, appreciating its interaction and feedback. Thus, SEGAE is an interesting tool to help students acquire knowledge of agroecology in a fun way by facilitating interdisciplinary and collaborative learning.

Highlights

European agriculture is facing many challenges, such as producing food and other ecosystem services in sufficient quantity and quality and providing economic benefits for farmers and food-chain actors, while decreasing negative impacts on the environment [1,2]
The aim of this study is to present SEGAE and to assess its pedagogical interest for learning agroecology
Results showed that students increased their knowledge of agroecology significantly, with a mean increase of nine percentage points in their scores on the knowledge survey

Summary

Introduction

European agriculture is facing many challenges, such as producing food and other ecosystem services in sufficient quantity and quality and providing economic benefits for farmers and food-chain actors, while decreasing negative impacts on the environment [1,2]. Several authors consider agroecology as a pertinent option to reconcile the environmental, economic, and social pillars of agricultural sustainability [3,4]. This article considers a more restrictive definition that focuses on the farm level: “The study of the interactions between plants, animals, humans, and the environment within agricultural systems” [6]. Agroecological practices aim to increase levels of ecosystem services in order to sustain production while decreasing environmental impacts by decreasing anthropogenic inputs [7]. Beyond studying agroecological practices and transitions [9], there is an urgent need to build awareness and teach agroecological concepts to future professionals of the agricultural sector (i.e., high-school and university students training to become farmers or extension agents), as well as current professionals [10,11]

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