<< Background >>Homework is a relatively widespread and common educational activity, especially among elementary and high school students. It facilitates both students’ engagement and performance (Magalhães et al., 2020; Hagger et al., 2015). Despite the apparent benefits of assigning homework to students (learning, consolidation, and application of learning content, better time management in the classroom), it appears to be a tremendous discomfort to students. Trying to make students get their homework done was always a big challenge -not only during the pandemic- faced by teachers and by parents as well. Therefore, the need to address this issue strongly emerges. Research data have shown the effectiveness of gamification techniques in the educational process because they are highly engaging, motivating and thus they enhance learning compared to traditional learning techniques (Hamari et al., 2014; DomíNguez et al., 2013).However, converting educational material and exercises into online educational games for online learning and assessment for each course is a virtually impossible task for teachers and school institutions. The project’s objective is to develop an online gamified environment that overcomes this challenge (the transfer of physical learning material and exercises into digital form) while conserving the motivational mechanics of games to help students better engage with their homework improving their learning outcomes. The proposed gamified homework environment will allow the easy creation of gamified experiences independent of the specifics of each course, thus providing a versatile educational tool encouraging the take-up, use, and adoption in all schools regardless of the courses they provide. This goal will be achieved by eliminating the difficulties of creating educational games that incorporate all the learning content and by associating the gamified elements with the homework activitiesThe GameWork project aims to help alleviate students’ reluctance to do homework by developing a gamified environment for organising homework that will use gamification techniques to engage and motivate students to do their homework.Therefore, this approach promotes innovative pedagogies and methods for teaching, learning, and assessment and supports students and teachers to use digital technologies in creative, collaborative, and efficient ways. Moreover, the GameWork project is about developing digital learning materials and tools, particularly Open Educational Resources and Open Source Educational Software.Finally, the GameWork proposal is also about tackling learning disadvantage, early school leaving, and low proficiency in basic skills since the use of the gamified homework environment will help teachers gain insights regarding the strengths and weaknesses of each student individually, the progress they record, and the time completion for each task. That way, they can intervene individually based on the specific particularities of each student. ReferencesMagalhães, P., Ferreira, D., Cunha, J., & Rosário, P. (2020). Online vs traditional homework: A systematic review on the benefits to students’ performance. Computers & Education, 152, 103869.Hagger, M. S., Sultan, S., Hardcastle, S. J., & Chatzisarantis, N. L. (2015). Perceived autonomy support and autonomous motivation toward mathematics activities in educational and out-of-schoolcontexts is related to mathematics homework behavior and attainment. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 41, 111-123.Hamari, J., Koivisto, J., & Sarsa, H. (2014). Does Gamification Work? – A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification. 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences(HICSS), 3025–3034.DomíNguez, A., Saenz-De-Navarrete, J., De-Marcos, L., FernáNdez-Sanz, L., PagéS, C., & MartíNez-HerráIz, J.-J. (2013). Gamifying learning experiences: Practical implications and outcomes. Computers & Education, 63, 380–392.<< Objectives >>This project aims to motivate students to work on their homework and alleviate their reluctance to do homework. Towards this goal, we will develop a gamified environment for organising homework that will use gamification techniques to motivate students to do their homework. The GameWork project focuses on three precise objectives:1) Homework organisationLearners can access the environment with their smartphone or tablet and see the daily list of activities that they must perform to prepare for the next day, ticking the completed ones. Each activity can provide details that will help the student better organise their time while doing their homework. Some of such details can be: the estimated time to complete an activity which would give students an indication of how to fit each activity into their schedule better, a suggested activity order that would provide a proposed order in activities that depend on each other, complex activities can be divided into subactivities that will better guide the student towards completing them references to educational material that the student already comprehends before completing each activity, etc. This functionality will allow the student to see a complete overview of their homework at a glance and support them to better estimate, organise, and, in the end, complete their homework.2) Student engagementTowards this aim, the GameWork project will engage students from the early stages of development, allowing us to investigate their views and ideas about gamified homework. The needs analysis from the student’s feedback would provide the gamified features and courses included in the development creating a gamified homework environment that will engage students in doing their homework. Some gamification features that could be included in the environment could be: rewards: upon completing their homework, students can earn points that will increase their level in the environment, prompting them to complete their homework to earn more rewardsrankings: based on the students’ performance, a ranking system can indicate the relative performance of each student, motivating them to do better than their classmatescontent unlocking: content can be unlocked when a student reaches a certain level that can include fun material not related to homework, such as a funny video or an imagenotification: student can receive notifications when they level up to motivate them to continue their progress3) Progress monitoring (for students and teachers)A verification process will be designed for a student not to skip the assignments and declare them untruthfully complete. The platform will ask for answers to one or more questions essential for each task. This verification process serves two purposes: a) it is a safety measure against cheating, b) it constitutes an incentive for students that would not otherwise do their homework learning at least the minimum of the essential questions.Furthermore, performance analytics will be provided for each student, alongside their classroom performance. In addition, students will be held accountable to the teachers, the parents but most important to themselves. Teachers can also add complementary material and content according to their students’ needs (pictures, external links, videos, voice recordings, etc.) to facilitate the learning process. Teachers will gain insights regarding the strengths and weaknesses of each student individually and the progress they record. That way, they can intervene individually based on the specific particularities of each student.<< Implementation >>The following project activities are planned (details on the project Gantt Chart, see Annex): A01: Project Plan (UPatras) A detailed Project Plan (first version M2, final M22) will describe the working process of the project, tasks, activities, and deadlines. It will be a living document being continuously updated throughout the project.A02: Project Quality Plan (UPatras) The Project Quality Plan (PQP) (M2, M6) will describe the internal procedures (peer review process of outputs, communication plan, risk management, internal monitoring procedures, tangible project results templates, etc.) that need to be followed by all partners to ensure the fulfilment of the objectives and the scope of the project. A03: Project Promotion Plan (Arsakeio) Development of the Promotion Plan which will be a living document (first version M4, final M24) describing the sharing and promotion strategy to ensure the widest possible promotion of the project. The plan will describe the envisaged sharing and promotion activities that need to be carried out during the project, but also after its completion. A04: Online PM tools (UPatras) Online Project management (PM) tools will be deployed by UPatras (M3) to facilitate communication between partners. The PM tools will include the use of a project email list, an online project management system that will include project tasks and activities combined with a monitor mechanism, and a secure file sharing system for the storage of project documentation and files, and a virtual classroom system. A05: Project website (ISMAI)The project website (M3, continuously updated until M24) will be created by ISMAI with the contribution of all partners and it will provide information regarding the project and its goals, expected outcomes, and partnership. It will also provide access to project results. A06: Project Social Media (KJGAG) Project pages in social media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) will make use of Web 2.0 technologies for the promotion of the project. These media pages will be created by KJGAG (M3) and will be continuously updated during the project lifetime including contributions from all partners.A07: Project Logo, and leaflets (Freixo) The Project Logo (created by Freixo at M2) will be used in all formal and informal communication of the project. Project leaflets will be released in two versions at M6 and M18. A08: Project newsletter and video (UPatras) During the project lifetime, 4 newsletters (M6, M14, M19, M23) will be created and communicated through project communication channels to stakeholders. A promotional video will be released (M10) in English. A new version, including features from the final version of the environment, will be available at M18. A09: Internal Evaluation Reports (UPatras) UPatras will control the internal evaluation of all major events, tangible project results, and activities and will collect all responses from all the partners and will combine them into a report. This report will be delivered periodically (every 6 months) and will serve as the internal monitoring of the Quality Assurance Procedure of the project. A10: Progress Report (UPatras) The coordinator will prepare the interim progress report for the National Agency (M12). A11: Partnership Agreement (UPatras) Partnership Agreement which will reflect the major principles ruling the cooperation among project partners and the exploitation of existing & project generated value will be created by UPatras (first version at M2 and final version at M6). A12: IPR Agreement (Arsakeio) The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Agreement will reflect all intellectual property rights of all elements created within the project. The first version will be available on M2 and it will be agreed upon, but the final version will be signed after the final version of the system (M20). A13: Closure Report (UPatras) Closure Project Report for the National Agency will be prepared at M24.<< Results >>The GameWork project will include the following project results:PR1: Needs analysis, course selection, gamification featuresThis PR will engage students from the early stages of development, allowing us to investigate their views and ideas about gamified homework. The work underdone will be included in the report “How students would like to have fun with their homework,” which will combine the literature findings with the students’ views collected from the GameWork schools. This report will also identify the courses selected to be included in the implementation phase (PR3), based on the feedback from the schools. Furthermore, following the feedback from students (Arsakeio, KJGAG, Freixo), the psychologists (ISMAI) of the consortium will work along with the developers to analyse the findings and conclude to a set of features that would be implemented into the gamified environment. We expect that the needs analysis from the student’s feedback would provide more features that could be included in the development. All these will be included in a report called “Analysis of the gamification features” and, based on a typical software engineering approach, will be used as the analysis and design blueprints for the development of the various versions of the gamified environment.Therefore, the work on this PR will be presented in two reports:· How students would like to have fun with their homework· Analysis of the gamification featuresPR2: Development of the environment Alpha, Beta, and Final versionFollowing the work on PR1, a gamified environment for homework will be developed. This environment will offer features and functionalities that will be defined in detail in PR1. Such features could be (based on preparation analysis): allowing students to self-evaluate their homework progress, further motivating students that delaying, introducing a healthy competition among students (using awards and leader boards), offering rewards to students, allowing the teachers to monitor the activities (both progress and correctness), and allowing teachers to modify future homework based on students’ progress. The environment will offer a gamification-based approach in which the students will engage in homework-related activities that will help them be better prepared for their studies and the exams.The main outputs of this PR are:· The environment (Alpha, Beta, and Final Version)· A technical report for the future content creators that will use the environment after the end of the funding period.· Three demonstrative videos of the environment for the three roles (student, teacher, creator) that will explain the system features.PR3: Implementation, Students’ feedback, and ReportingFollowing the iterative development of the gamified homework environment, which is the focus of the PR2, in this PR, the GameWork partners will start inviting students, teachers, and course creators (primarily teachers) into the environment. This PR is the one most related to the impact of the gamified homework environment. The innovative character of this environment will be demonstrated to educators, students, and all types of stakeholders (education providers, local administration), thus having a multiplying effect. The main output of this PR is a report on “Implementation and Students and Teachers’ feedback.” This report will present all data collected anonymously. The report will include implementation strategies, success stories, dos and don’ts, best practices, and the results from the environment evaluation. These results will be analysed (both statistically and qualitatively) and will be reported. The report will focus on cultural differences and will compare results across countries. Due to its nature, this report is expected to be innovative, highly influential, and will probably lead to scientific publications.

SUMMARYCONTEXTIn 2015, the EU Ministers of education adopted the Paris Declaration, which explains that one of “the major challenge we face in safeguarding our pluralistic societies [is] to impart common fundamental values”. They agreed on a common effort to teach pupils to become active citizens promoting democratic values and fundamental rights. However, the values of the European Union cannot be taught with coercive and top-down methodologies, but through empathic educational instruments. Empathy is a vital concept to reach the goals of the Paris Declaration. TARGET GROUPS, NEEDS and PROJECT OBJECTIVESKey-Code addresses the challenges that young students face in consolidating their European identity based on the fundamental values of the UnionProject also identifies the need to make teachers aware of the existing and crucial connection between, on the one hand, interpersonal key competences (soft skills on emotional intelligence) with specific reference to empathy and, on the other, the development of sound EU citizenship skills based on the awareness of EU fundamental values and human rights. Thus, Key-Code aims to expand the curricula of secondary schools with educational experiences that enhance the key competences of pupils based on empathy, active citizenship and EU values. For the purpose Key-Code aims to develop, test and disseminate active learning instruments that enhance three categories of preadolescents’ (11 - 16 years) key competencies: (i) interpersonal skills based on empathy; (ii) active EU citizenship; and (iii) cultural awareness concerning the EU values.OUTPUTS on COMPLETIONRESULTSThe Key-Code project expects to achieve the following results :- Improvement of the lower secondary school teachers’ (working with students between 11 and 16 years old) competences in new educational methods (non-formal education) where they provide consolidated instruments and then facilitate their use by students for educational purposes; thus, promoting the use of proactive approaches by students.- Provide students (between 11 and 16 years old) with the opportunity to improve their soft skills (key competences) through learning-by-doing and peer-to-peer activities where they can choose the instruments for their education among those selected to improve their key competences.- Provide students with competences to deal with diverse social situations through the lenses of their active learning experience. This may be imprinting that shapes their under-construction personality. Besides, students will be aware that they can be active actors in their education and in their being citizens of Europe- Promotion of the values of the EU among schools environments, enhancing the community living and stimulating positive feelings on the Union. Hence, shaping the new generations of EU citizens around the principle of emphatic European brotherhoodIn relation to the above, the project will produce the following deliverables:IO 1 - Database of Teaching Sources on EU fundamental values and human rights, through empathy and emotional intelligenceThe Intellectual Output identifies selects and adapts teaching sources to be used by secondary school teachers to promote the learning of key competences and soft skills on EU citizenship, EU values and Human rights through innovative methods based on empathy and emotional intelligence, among 11 - 16 years old students. IO 2 – Inspirational and Exemplary short films for the reinforcement of key competencesThe Videos created through the active involvement of experts, teachers and students will:-Record the teaching activities in class applying empathy and emotional intelligence for key competences development and make them easily replicable and transferable -Assess the impact of the methodologies and practices proposed by the project-Enhance the active participation of students as part of the educational experience offered by Key-Code to empower preadolescents and adolescents with the awareness of their real personal potentialIO 3 - Guidelines for teachers, school decision-makers and policymakers in the field of Education for teaching EU fundamental values and human rights, through empathy and emotional intelligenceGuidelines aim to increase the effectiveness of strategies and activities to promote the development of key competences among adolescents and preadolescent students on EU values and citizenship. They will mainstream educational methods that can develop key competencies through the improvement of interpersonal skills whose importance schools, often underestimate, as emotional intelligence and empathy.

G-Guidance project is designed to address the need to implement integrated, comprehensive and effective career guidance services and methodologies in educational settings, identified and underlined both at European and national level in a report by the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (Oomen & Plant, 2015). In the report, career guidance is considered across the EU state members as a focal point for preventing the widespread problem of early school leaving, poor qualifications and disadvantage, which will have an impact on societal and economical problems (productivity, criminality, employment, health, social exclusion, etc.) across all the European state-membersG-Guidance has three main objectives: a) create, develop and implement web based, gamified platform, which will be at the centre of a comprehensive career guidance methodology for middle and high school students, with ages between 13 and 17 years old, that will enhance and broaden the reach of career guidance in schools; b) train and support school psychologists, teachers and parents/caregivers, on different levels and with different roles, on the use of the platform as a tool to actively participate and contribute to youths’ career guidance and vocational and personal development; and c) create an open source multimedia database with high quality career/vocational information, presented in the platform through gamified elements and on and offline activities to carry inside and outside school. To achieve these objectives, G-Guidance will develop a Professions Guide (IO1), a Career Guidance Method (IO2) and a Digital, Web Based and Gamified Platform (IO3), using a methodology traditionally used as a reference in the production of learning technologies, based in a 5 phases structure, Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE). After Analysis, Design and Development phases, the career guidance method and the platform will be implemented on a national level, in school setting, to a group of 300 youths, 30 teachers, 5 psychologists and 300 parents/caregivers (one per youth), across the 5 participant countries (local piloting intervention, A4), that comprises one university and one school partners per country. The implementation phase includes training Psychologists on the career guidance method, and Psychologists, Teachers, Parents and Youths on how to use the platform for career guidance. For this purpose, a training manual and a users’ manual (IO4) will also be developed and used on the local training activity of the project (A4). Finally, an Handbook of Good Practices on Technology-Based Education for Teachers and Policy Makers (IO5) which will collect and share realiable guidelines for other schools or professionals to apply or be inspired to apply in their context.We expect that G-Guidance’s gamification orientation will make career guidance more appealing, motivating and useful, since it empowers and engages youths in their self and career development, and thus with higher chances of causing positive impact in short, medium and long term. At the same time, career guidance becomes more inclusive, as these tools will allow career guidance experts and educators to reach a wider range of kids, especially those less engaged, more absent and at risk of dropping out. The fact that all career related contents will be available in multimedia format (text, images, sounds, video) also promotes interest and engagement in career guidance, and foster inclusion for students with different characteristics and/or learning disabilities. Also important is the expected positive impact on higher levels of participation and support from teachers and parents/caregivers to youths’ career guidance, which will contribute greatly to the quality and success of career guidance in schools.All the outputs (content, manuals and tools) developed in this project will be made available in english, besides in portuguese, greek, spanish, italian and bulgarian, in digital format, on the platform and on an open access format. That, together with the multiples ways by which this information can be disseminated, makes it easy to replicate G-Guidance, and the career guidance method and platform to be used in any school/educational context internationally. All aspects of the project are designed to be used beyond G-Guidance, in any educational context, thus contributing not only to enhance career guidance, but also as tools to help psychologists and teachers develop new and efficient skills, namely in terms of digital literacy, tools to assess the impact of technology in education and evaluate and monitor technology based interventions. Therefore we believe that G-Guidance will have a positive impact at various levels and in a long term.

"The Erasmus + project ""Cultivating Languages ​​and Youth Entrepreneurs"" brought together partners from Estonia, Greece, Italy and Latvia. The coordinator was Aloja Ausekla Secondary School from Latvia. The project was aimed for secondary school students. 100 participants, both students and teachers, took part in transnational learning activities and 3 transnational project meetings. More students and teachers were involved in the local project activities, thus benefiting from the project.This project was based on the promotion of a European dimension in partner schools, especially since it was the first Erasmus+ project for all. This project gave students and teachers an opportunity to acquire and improve foreign language skills, learn about entrepreneurship, ICT and promote awareness and tolerance for social and intercultural inclusion. Another major project theme was reducing food waste. Participation in activities promoted the ability to collaborate and team spirit. The partner schools and the educators involved have expressed a desire to continue their cooperation. This was an opportunity for both the school and the teachers to learn project management and the use of ICT in it. The project motivated the practical use of foreign language skills as well as learning new words and phrases, especially for students in host families.The project promoted cross-curricular links across topics such as language, business English, entrepreneurship, ICT and food production and waste, biology, geography, history, social sciences, music. Pupils and educators took part in a series of activities to improve their knowledge of the issues covered, as well as to improve their foreign language skills, intercultural understanding and tolerance, thanks to the opportunity to cooperate in the context of European Union.Students prepared questionnaires and surveyed more than 100 respondents to find out about the habits of local households in terms of purchasing food and reducing waste. The results were compared between partner schools and posted on school website.The participants also had the opportunity to find out what partner schools are doing about the issue, to look at the Greek school garden, to compost, During the study trip in Greece, the students planted something typical from their country in the international garden of the project. During the presentations, the participants explained or showed more about the plant, its use.During the project, the partner schools also got to know the eTwinning platform and created a project site there.The project gave an idea of ​​employment in the partner school countries, regions, prospects, unemployment as well as traditional jobs as well as jobs related to the environment and tourism, business. The participants learned about the role of foreign languages ​​in different companies and sectors.The participants made presentations about the project activities, told at school meetings, wrote articles for school and municipal websites and newspapers."

<< Background >>Secondary school education is a significant turning point in the individual’s academic life but comes with many challenges; a considerable difficulty for the students is stress. Recent works on the subject of stress in adolescents [1] points to the main reason for stress being: disturbed family dynamics, peer pressure, inability to cope with studies, drug abuse, lack of competence. Though the reasons for stress in students can be numerous, this project focuses on the stress related to students’ school daily life.Excessive stress during this stage could result in an increased prevalence of psychological problems like depression and nervousness, which could ultimately have a negative impact on the outcome of their achievements. Stressed-out students might have a reduced ability to study and take exams, which can impact their educational performance, and studies have shown that early adolescent school-related stress negatively affected academic performance later [2]. Moreover, the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child [3] 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. The previous points lead to the fact that proper care should be taken to help reduce academic stress in school students.Unlike adults, who can identify, communicate and then seek help from professionals when stress adversely impacts their lives, adolescents may not recognise or even have the words to describe how they feel, let alone find ways to cope with stress. Therefore a particular need becomes apparent; students must learn to become aware of their stress to acquire the coping mechanisms necessary to manage it. The POSITIVE project's main objective is to help school students learn, first how to identify stress and second how to overcome obstacles associated with stressful situations during school life. After the consortium has already examined potential moderators of stress exposure and reviewed the nature, sources, symptoms, and treatments of stress in children and youth, with particular attention being directed to the school setting, we propose to develop a 3D Virtual World Learning Environment that will simulate real-life scenarios based on school life that are stressful to students. The focus of the environment is twofold on the one hand, to increase stress awareness, and on the other, to help students better cope with stress. The environment will incorporate gamified virtual scenarios that the student can play while simultaneously learning about stress.The POSITIVE project is also about supporting school educators since using the 3D Virtual World Learning Environment will enhance educators’ competencies and make them aware of the students’ stress issues that can otherwise hinder students’ school performance.References[1] G. Snehlata D., “Academic Stress among Higher Secondary School Students: A Review” International Journal of Advanced Research in Education & Technology (IJARET), vol. 4, Issue 1 , 2017.[2] D. S. Kaplan, R. X. Liu, and H. B. Kaplan, “School related stress in early adolescence and academic performance three years later: the conditional influence of self expectations,” Soc Psychol Educ, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 3–17, Mar. 2005.[3] National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. “Excessive Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain” Working Paper No. 3. Updated Edition, 2005.<< Objectives >>In today’s highly competitive world, school students face various academic situations that cause them stress, and providing opportunities to improve young people’s intellectual stress-related coping abilities during this highly stressful, crucial period of development is a vital target [1].The main objective of the POSITIVE project is to design and develop a 3D Virtual World Learning Environment (VWLE) using the potential of a gamification-based approach in which school students will engage in activities that will help them be better prepared for various curricular activities that induce stress and ultimately help increase their stress awareness and enhance their stress coping mechanisms.The goal of this project is to incorporate into the proposed environment mechanics and tools that are familiar and engaging to students, such as gamified mechanics (that can include virtual escape rooms, awards, points, etc.), cooperative play (using the same virtual avatar), social interactions (that can include inter alia, chat, voice communication, virtual item sharing, media sharing, etc.) and avatar personalisation (an avatar is a virtual representation of yourself in the virtual world). Furthermore, the environment will comprise a visually appealing and attractive virtual environment. These aspects will make the environment engaging to students, motivating them to play more and thus enhance learning.Inside the virtual environment, school students will engage in gamified activities that usually induce stress, such as doing their homework, preparing for an exam, engaging in school social activities, doing group assignments, etc. Students will play in a safe virtual environment, scenarios that naturally occur in their daily school lives that cause them stress. Additionally, completing the activity in the virtual world will reduce the stress in real life when the actual activity occurs. Furthermore, instead of scenarios dealing with stressful situations, some scenarios can teach students relaxation exercises (e.g., abdominal breathing, muscle relaxation techniques, etc.) that specifically target alleviating stress symptoms. Students will become aware of the situations that create stress and learn to identify them, prepare for them and ultimately better cope with them.Raising students’ stress awareness can lead them to seek help (to their parents, school teachers, or professionals) and deal with their stress issues while preventing them from becoming more severe as they grow up and join the adult community. Individuals who have developed stress coping mechanisms during their school lives can also help others with their example or by transferring their knowledge to other stressed individuals making a small but essential step in improving the community’s social and emotional wellbeing. Another important side effect of reducing student stress is that it can grow the student’s family dynamics. A less stressed student will induce less stress to their parents and siblings, significantly improving the family’s wellbeing.Enhancing students’ stress coping mechanisms can potentially help students increase their educational performance. If the barriers imposed by stress on educational activities are lessened, it will help students achieve what they were always capable of, having the potential to considerably improve a student’s school achievements.If students learn to identify and cope with stress at an early age, this is something that they will carry with them for their whole life. Coping mechanisms for stress acquired during their student lives can prove detrimental to the rest of their lives towards achieving personal and career goals, personal fulfilment, and wellbeing.References[1] M. C. Pascoe, S. E. Hetrick, and A. G. Parker, “The impact of stress on students in secondary school and higher education,” International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 104–112, Dec. 2020<< Implementation >>The following project activities are planned (details on the project Gantt Chart, see Annex): A01: Project Plan (ISMAI) A detailed Project Plan (first version M2, final M22) will describe the working process of the project, tasks, activities, and deadlines. It will be a living document being continuously updated throughout the project.A02: Project Quality Plan (UPatras) The Project Quality Plan (PQP) (M2, M6) will describe the internal procedures (peer review process of outputs, communication plan, risk management, internal monitoring procedures, outcomes templates, etc.) that need to be followed by all partners to ensure the fulfilment of the objectives and the scope of the project. A03: Project Promotion Plan (Arsakeio) Development of the Promotion Plan which will be a living document (first version M4, final M24) describing the sharing and promotion strategy to ensure the widest possible promotion of the project. The plan will describe the envisaged sharing and promotion activities that need to be carried out during the project, but also after its completion. A04: Online PM tools (UPatras) Online Project management (PM) tools will be deployed by UPatras (M3) to facilitate communication between partners. The PM tools will include the use of a project email list, an online project management system that will include project tasks and activities combined with a monitor mechanism, and a secure file sharing system for the storage of project documentation and files, and a virtual classroom system. A05: Project website (ISMAI)The project website (M3, continuously updated until M24) will be created by ISMAI with the contribution of all partners and it will provide information regarding the project and its goals, expected outcomes, and partnership. It will also provide access to project results. A06: Project Social Media (eMundus) Project pages in social media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) will make use of Web 2.0 technologies for the promotion of the project. These media pages will be created by eMundus (M3) and will be continuously updated during the project lifetime including contributions from all partners.A07: Project Logo, and leaflets (LosPinos) The Project Logo (created by LosPinos at M2) will be used in all formal and informal communication of the project. Project leaflets will be released in two versions at M6 and M18. A08: Project newsletter and video (UPatras) During the project lifetime, 4 newsletters (M6, M14, M19, M23) will be created and communicated through project communication channels to stakeholders. A promotional video will be released (M11) in English. A new version, including features from the final version of the environment, will be available at M18. A09: Internal Evaluation Reports (UPatras) UPatras will control the internal evaluation of all major events, outcomes, and activities and will collect all responses from all the partners and will combine them into a report. This report will be delivered periodically (every 6 months) and will serve as the internal monitoring of the Quality Assurance Procedure of the project. A10: Progress Report (ISMAI) The coordinator (ISMAI) will prepare the interim progress report for the National Agency (M12). A11: Partnership Agreement (ISMAI) Partnership Agreement which will reflect the major principles ruling the cooperation among project partners and the exploitation of existing & project generated value will be created by ISMAI (first version at M2 and final version after partners comments at M6). A12: IPR Agreement (Rates) The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Agreement will reflect all intellectual property rights of all elements created within the project. The first version will be available on M2 and it will be agreed upon, but the final version will be signed after the final version of the system (M20). A13: Closure Report (ISMAI) Closure Project Report for the National Agency will be prepared by ISMAI (M24).<< Results >>The POSITIVE project will include the following project results:PR1: This PR will engage students from the early stages of development, allowing us to investigate their views and ideas about gamified homework. This feedback, combined with the input from the partners will shape the game scenarios and educational material.This PR includes three major tasks:1) Students’ NeedsIn this task, the goal is to identify specific stress sources and activities related to school stress the students would most likely want to encounter in a 3D Virtual World. Furthermore, students will be asked to decide what type of gamification elements they want to experience during the play sessions and which features, usually found in virtual worlds, they would like to use.2) Game scenariosThis task aims to create engaging game scenarios that students will enjoy playing in the 3D VWLE. These scenarios will be based on the students’ opinions as they have been identified in the previous task and will be tailored to the specific dynamics the environment has to offer.3) Educational materialShort educational material will be created during this task that will be available in the 3D VWLE. The aim of such material is to be offered naturally, during games, or in areas between games to the students and to be embedded in the environment in such a way that will not remind learning.PR2: The consortium intends to develop a multidisciplinary and friendly gamified 3D virtual world learning environment, allowing the technical non-expert users to deal effortlessly with the in-world gamified learning activities about stress. This PR includes three major tasks:1)Learning environment Alpha, Beta, and the Final versionThe POSITIVE project will design and develop a 3D VWLE by using an iterative process. Inside the virtual environment, school students will engage in gamified activities that usually induce stress, such as doing their homework, preparing for an exam, engaging in school social activities, doing group assignments, etc. Students will play in a safe virtual environment, scenarios that naturally occur in their daily school lives that cause them stress. Students will become aware of the situations that create stress and learn to identify them, prepare for them and ultimately better cope with them.2)User Manual The user manual, which will offer details about the games, hints for the players who need further guidance, instructions on navigating and moving into the environment and accessing the educational material.3)Demonstrative videos of the environmentTwo demonstrative videos of the environment will be produced showcasing the functionality of the environment and the gaming features.PR3: Following the development of the 3D VWLE the POSITIVE partners will start inviting students and school educators into the environment. During the implementation, we will conduct user surveys that will then be analysed and combined with the implementation results will comprise the documentation.This PR includes 3 major tasks:1) ImplementationThe implementation will begin immediately after the release of the Alpha Version of the 3D VWLE by inviting students and school educators into the environment, continue following the Beta version’s release, and conclude by an intensive implementation of the Final Version, involving school students and school educators into the final multilingual version of the environment.2) Survey Results This task is about collecting, analysing, and presenting the data from students’ surveys regarding the environment’s effectiveness in increasing students’ stress awareness and enhancing their coping mechanisms during the piloting of the 3D VWLE. 3) DocumentationThe documentation will include all the details relevant to the implementation of 3D VWLE and the detailed analysis of the survey results, which is expected to be innovative, highly influential, and will probably lead to scientific publications.