I am Denise Levy, a Learning Innovator at Impact at the Core. I believe one of the greatest strengths of impact-driven education is that it is a hands-on endeavor. It goes beyond simply explaining to students why making a positive societal impact is important. Instead, it invites them to engage in authentic, collaborative experiences centered around real-world societal challenges.
By navigating these significant challenges and celebrating small victories, students gain a deeper understanding of the role they wish to play in contributing positively to society. This connection between impact-driven education, experiential learning, and self-reflection is crucial. Students learn through meaningful experiences—such as field visits, interviews, design sessions, and presentations—and by reflecting on their role in these experiences and their implications for both their current learning process and future aspirations.
With this mindset, our learning innovation team began exploring different ways to spark dialogue around impact-driven education by offering not just explanations, but experiences. We are proud to have developed our own learning landscape for impact-driven education, which explains the key principles to consider when designing an impact-driven course. However, we wanted to take it a step further and provide students and teachers at EUR with an even more engaging taste of what it means to experience impact-driven education. This led us, in collaboration with Almar Bok (Brûs Design) and Nadia Pepels (Studio Nadia Nena), to create our own board game: “Rise of Roffanova: The Impact City Challenge.”
“Roffanova” is the city where the game takes place, symbolizing a futuristic or reimagined Rotterdam. The city faces grave danger as it is under attack by an AI virus. The municipality has appointed a group of students enrolled in a course named “The Impact City Challenge”—the players—to address this issue. Participants must redesign the city to make it resilient to the AI virus, ensuring spaces that promote face-to-face interaction, community building, and knowledge sharing. We chose this theme because of its current relevance and realistic nature, which also served as inspiration for the game's graphics.
Each player represents a student with a different profile. For instance, “The Activist” is focused on representing the citizens and ensures that the team remains committed to their ultimate goal: a fair Roffanova. On the other hand, “The Strategist” is primarily concerned with the political aspects of creating positive impact in the city and reminds the team about their long-term strategy. We felt it was important to reflect the diversity within student groups and allow participants to experience the possibilities and challenges that arise from differing perspectives. During the game, participants receive updates and feedback from both their teacher and the municipality, mirroring the experience of managing diverse stakeholder expectations in an impact-driven course.
The game targets three main groups. Firstly, teachers interested in learning more about impact-driven education and how to better support their students’ journeys. Playing from the students’ perspective is crucial in this context. Secondly, learning innovators who want to support impact-driven education while also experimenting with board games as a format for educational innovation—a growing trend. Lastly, the game is ideal for students who are about to begin an impact-driven course, helping them reflect on their collaboration style and anticipate challenges and opportunities in their learning journey.
I thoroughly enjoyed the process of developing this game, which involved tapping into my creativity, embracing trial and error, and maintaining a curious and playful mindset—exactly what we encourage our participants to do when playing. I hope this game becomes a valuable tool for learning innovators and teachers at EUR, creating a memorable experience around impact-driven education that resonates deeply and sparks meaningful reflection. Additionally, I hope it inspires learning innovators to explore diverse and creative approaches to promoting educational innovation at EUR.
