TETHICS

Funding programme

Erasmus+ KA210-VET – Small-scale Partnerships in Vocational Education and Training

Project reference

2023-1-EL01-KA210-VET-000161379

Period

2023–2025

Coordinating organisation

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece

Participating countries

Greece, France

Official project website

Visit official website

TETHICS aims to strengthen awareness, understanding and critical reflection concerning the ethical challenges associated with the development and use of contemporary technologies.

The project uses an original educational board game to make complex ethical dilemmas accessible to vocational education and training (VET) learners, educators, researchers and professionals.

Specific learning objectives

• Ethical awareness: Increase understanding of the ethical implications of technological innovation and the responsibilities of the individuals and organisations involved in its development and implementation.
• Digital ethics: Explore ethical issues related to artificial intelligence, algorithmic decision-making, data privacy, transparency, automation and the social consequences of digital technologies.
• Biomedical ethics: Examine ethical dilemmas associated with biomedical innovation, healthcare technologies, genetic research and the application of artificial intelligence in medicine.
• Environmental ethics: Encourage reflection on the environmental consequences of technological development, including sustainability, resource consumption and the responsibility of different stakeholders.
• Critical thinking: Develop the ability to identify competing interests, analyse ethical problems, question assumptions and evaluate alternative courses of action.
• Perspective-taking: Help participants understand how governments, businesses, research institutions and the public may approach technological decisions from different positions and priorities.
• Ethical decision-making: Encourage participants to consider the potential benefits, risks and consequences of technological decisions, recognising the tensions between economic, scientific and social objectives.
• Communication and argumentation: Promote discussion, reasoned debate and the explanation of decisions concerning complex technological and social challenges.
• Educator competence: Provide VET trainers and other educational professionals with an engaging resource for introducing technology ethics through experiential and game-based learning.

Conceptual foundations

The educational approach draws on philosophy of technology, history of technology, Science and Technology Studies (STS), and the digital, environmental and biomedical humanities.

Intended learning outcomes

The project seeks to increase ethical awareness, strengthen critical thinking and encourage more responsible consideration of technological innovation.

These are intended learning outcomes. Their achievement cannot be established quantitatively from the publicly reviewed evaluation evidence.

TETHICS developed an original educational board game entitled Tethics: A Serious Game for Ethics in Technology.

The game challenges participants to navigate ethical dilemmas associated with emerging technologies by representing different societal stakeholders with competing objectives and priorities.

Game developed: Tethics – A Serious Game for Ethics in Technology

Game concept

Each player represents a societal force involved in technological development and decision-making. Players compete to influence the outcomes of emerging technologies while balancing scientific, economic and social priorities.

Four playable stakeholder roles

• State: Represents governmental institutions and public authorities involved in the regulation and governance of technology.
• Market: Represents commercial and business interests associated with technological innovation and economic development.
• Research Centers: Represents scientific and research institutions involved in producing knowledge and developing technological applications.
• Public: Represents citizens and wider society, including the social interests and consequences of technological decisions.

Documented game mechanics and components

• Asymmetric stakeholder roles: Players adopt different societal perspectives with distinct priorities and strategic interests.
• Competitive strategic gameplay: Players attempt to influence technological outcomes and achieve objectives associated with their stakeholder roles.
• Technology and Aspect Cards: Cards introduce technologies and relevant aspects of their development, creating situations involving potential ethical dilemmas.
• Importance Cards: Players prioritise competing values and interests, such as profit, knowledge and social welfare.
• Resource allocation: Players make strategic decisions concerning the use of available resources and influence.
• Influence Tokens: Tokens represent players’ capacity to influence outcomes and contribute to scoring.
• Outcome Cards: Cards reveal consequences associated with technological decisions and provide opportunities for ethical reflection.
• Discussion and argumentation: Players examine the implications of decisions and consider different ethical perspectives.

Game development and redesign

The first prototype used a more complex, semi-cooperative structure in which participants represented different departments within an enterprise.

Following testing, the developers concluded that the game required too much time for its intended educational applications.

The consortium therefore redesigned the game into a shorter, more accessible competitive experience based on four societal stakeholder roles.

The original enterprise-based prototype has been preserved separately as an archived draft.

Technical characteristics

• Game approach: Custom-Designed Educational Games.
• Game format: Physical educational board game, with a digital implementation on Tabletopia.
• Number of players: The Tabletopia edition supports 1–4 players.
• Recommended age: 16 years and older, according to Tabletopia.
• Playing time: Tabletopia indicates approximately 15–45 minutes. Facilitated educational sessions may require additional time for introduction and discussion.
• Languages: English, Greek and French.
• Availability: Downloadable game components and digital gameplay are offered through official project resources.

Educational focus

The game addresses ethical questions concerning artificial intelligence, digital technologies, biomedical innovation and environmental sustainability through stakeholder-based decision-making.

Games developed: One original educational board game, Tethics, with an archived earlier prototype and a digital implementation of the final design.

TETHICS applies a purpose-designed Board Game-Based Learning approach in which players adopt the perspectives of different societal stakeholders involved in the development and governance of emerging technologies.

The methodology seeks to promote critical reflection on technological ethics through strategic decision-making, competitive interaction, the consideration of consequences and facilitated discussion.

Documented learning process

1. Introduction to technological ethics: The facilitator introduces the educational context and the ethical challenges associated with technological innovation, including digital, biomedical and environmental issues.
2. Stakeholder role selection: Participants assume one of four societal roles: State, Market, Research Centers or Public. Each role represents different interests and priorities.
3. Exploration of technological scenarios: Technology and Aspect Cards introduce technological developments and situations involving ethical challenges.
4. Strategic decision-making: Players allocate resources, prioritise objectives and use influence to shape the development and outcomes of technologies.
5. Consequences and competing interests: Outcome Cards reveal consequences associated with decisions, creating opportunities to consider conflicts between economic, scientific, social and ethical priorities.
6. Discussion and argumentation: Participants explain their decisions and discuss the ethical implications of the outcomes from different stakeholder perspectives.
7. Reflection and educational transfer: Guided questions encourage learners to connect the game experience with real technological debates and the responsibilities of institutions, organisations and citizens.

Facilitator’s role

The project provides a dedicated Trainer’s Guide intended to support educators in implementing the board game.

Facilitators introduce the activity, explain game rules, clarify the ethical context, support participation and encourage discussion of decisions and consequences.

The guide includes discussion prompts and additional scenarios intended to extend the educational application of the game.

Reflection and debriefing

Reflection is an explicit element of the game’s educational design. Outcome Cards provide opportunities for participants to consider the consequences of technological decisions, while guided questions support discussion of competing interests and ethical responsibilities.

However, the publicly reviewed documentation does not establish a single mandatory debriefing protocol, a standardised assessment instrument or a fixed duration for post-game reflection.

Stakeholder-based learning

By assigning different roles to players, TETHICS makes competing societal priorities visible during gameplay. This creates opportunities to examine ethical tensions between technological innovation, scientific development, economic interests and public welfare.

Adaptation and customisation

The project provides blank card templates that allow trainers to develop their own technology-related scenarios and adapt the game to specific educational topics and learner needs.

Relationship between game mechanics and learning objectives

Asymmetric roles support perspective-taking; strategic decisions represent competing interests; resource allocation and influence introduce constraints on decision-making; and Outcome Cards provide opportunities to examine the consequences of technological choices.

The pedagogical connection between these mechanics and ethical reasoning depends on explicit discussion and reflection rather than on competitive performance alone.

TETHICS was implemented through an Erasmus+ small-scale partnership involving the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Dracon Rules Design Studio and Galaxea Advisory.

The project combined interdisciplinary research on technology ethics, participatory board game development, prototype testing, educational dissemination and the production of resources for trainers.

Documented implementation activities

• Project kick-off: The partnership held its kick-off meeting at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens on 3 February 2024, establishing the development plan and responsibilities of the participating organisations.
• Conceptual development: The consortium examined ethical challenges relating to digitalisation, biomedical technologies and environmental sustainability, drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from the humanities and Science and Technology Studies.
• Initial game prototype: The development team created a semi-cooperative prototype in which players represented different departments of a technology enterprise.
• Game redesign: After initial testing identified excessive playing time, the consortium redesigned the game into a more accessible competitive experience centred on four societal stakeholders.
• Transnational development meeting: Partners met in Karditsa, Greece, in July 2024 to refine game concepts, educational content, interactivity and accessibility.
• International Learning, Teaching and Training Activity: From 14 to 18 October 2024, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens hosted a five-day event involving board game testing and educational discussions.
• Participant involvement: The Athens testing activity included computer science students and alumni, school educators, gender studies specialists, business professionals, gamers and game designers.
• Formative feedback: Participants provided feedback on the game’s mechanics, content and educational application, informing subsequent refinement of the game.
• Multiplier Event in Paris: On 21 November 2024, Galaxea Advisory organised a dissemination event involving entrepreneurs, VET academics and technology-sector professionals.
• Multiplier Event in Athens: On 27 November 2024, the project coordinator organised an event involving educators, institutional representatives, learners and professionals working on technology and ethics.
• Educational resources: The project made the final game, multilingual materials, Trainer’s Guide, blank card templates and a digital Tabletopia implementation available through its official channels.

Evaluation approach

The available documentation confirms formative evaluation through gameplay testing, participant feedback and discussion of the game’s educational relevance.

The five-day Athens training activity explicitly included testing intended to examine the game’s mechanics, content and potential educational contribution.

The project also reports positive qualitative responses from participants at dissemination events.

Available evidence

Public sources confirm the development and redesign of the game, practical testing with different stakeholder groups, dissemination events and publication of educational resources.

However, the reviewed documentation does not provide a consolidated quantitative evaluation of learning outcomes. Sample sizes, validated ethical reasoning measures, statistical comparisons and long-term follow-up results were not identified.

The available information is therefore insufficient to establish whether gameplay produces measurable improvements in ethical awareness, critical thinking or decision-making skills.

Evidence classification: Documented game development, iterative design, formative playtesting and qualitative participant feedback. Quantitative educational effectiveness has not been established from the publicly reviewed sources.

Evaluation limitations: Positive participant feedback and successful implementation should not be interpreted as experimental evidence of educational effectiveness.

Further research would be required to determine whether the game improves ethical reasoning, perspective-taking or the transfer of ethical principles to professional decision-making.

Project status: Completed according to the published project period, ending on 30 November 2025.

TETHICS provides a collection of educational resources designed to support the introduction of technology ethics through Board Game-Based Learning in vocational education, professional training and other educational contexts.

Available resources

• Tethics Educational Board Game: An original competitive board game in which participants represent different societal stakeholders and navigate ethical dilemmas related to emerging technologies.
• Downloadable Game Components: Printable game materials, including player boards, Technology and Aspect Cards, Outcome Cards, Importance Cards and Influence Tokens.
• Game Rulebook: Instructions for setting up and playing the game, describing its components, roles, objectives and main mechanics.
• Trainer’s Guide: Educational documentation intended to help trainers facilitate gameplay, introduce ethical dilemmas and guide discussions. The guide includes questions and additional scenarios.
• Multilingual Materials: Game components and educational guidance are offered in English, Greek and French.
• Blank Card Templates: Editable templates enabling trainers to develop additional technological scenarios and adapt the content to specific educational requirements.
• Archived Enterprise Prototype: An earlier, more complex semi-cooperative version of the game, preserved as a resource for individuals interested in examining its original design.
• Digital Board Game: A Tabletopia implementation allowing participants to experience Tethics online. The digital edition supports 1–4 players and is accessible through a web browser.
• Project Documentation: Descriptions of the educational objectives, conceptual foundations, game development process and implementation activities.

Transferability

The availability of physical and digital formats facilitates implementation in different educational environments, including vocational training centres, universities, professional development activities and online learning settings.

Multilingual resources reduce language barriers, while blank card templates allow educators to introduce new ethical dilemmas reflecting emerging technological developments.

The archived prototype also provides an additional resource for examining alternative design choices and the relationship between game complexity and educational usability.

Accessibility and licensing

The official project website identifies its game materials as distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) licence.

Individual downloadable files should be checked before modification or redistribution to confirm that their specific conditions are compatible with the intended use.

Resource availability note

The official resource page lists downloadable game components and Trainer’s Guide files. Some external download links may require verification or updating. The Tabletopia implementation remains separately accessible.

TETHICS represents a distinctive example of purpose-designed Board Game-Based Learning applied to technology ethics, critical thinking and professional education.

Its principal methodological contribution lies in transforming ethical dilemmas into strategic decisions involving different societal stakeholders, competing priorities and consequences.

Methodological strengths

1. Alignment between game design and educational objectives. The combination of stakeholder roles, competing priorities and technological outcomes creates a relevant environment for examining conflicts between scientific, economic, political and social interests.
2. Asymmetric stakeholder perspectives. By assigning participants to the State, Market, Research Centers or Public, the game provides opportunities to consider how different groups approach technological innovation according to their responsibilities and interests.
3. Decision-making under competing priorities. Importance Cards and strategic resource allocation introduce tensions between objectives such as profit, knowledge and social welfare. These tensions are relevant to ethical decision-making.
4. Consequences as learning opportunities. Outcome Cards connect decisions with potential implications, creating opportunities to examine the relationship between technological choices and wider societal effects.
5. Integration of reflection and debate. The game’s official methodology includes discussion of the consequences of decisions, supported by facilitator questions and educational scenarios.
6. Iterative educational game design. The consortium revised its original semi-cooperative prototype after identifying excessive playing time. The redesign illustrates the importance of balancing game complexity, participant engagement and practical classroom constraints.
7. Interdisciplinary foundations. The project draws on philosophy of technology, history of technology and Science and Technology Studies, providing a conceptual basis that extends beyond technical descriptions of innovation.
8. Customisation and transferability. Multilingual materials, digital gameplay and blank card templates support adaptation to different educational contexts and emerging technological issues.

Methodological limitations

The use of competing stakeholder roles introduces an important educational opportunity, but it also creates a risk of simplifying complex ethical positions into narrow strategic interests.

For example, representing the Market primarily through economic objectives or the Public through social welfare may help structure gameplay, but actual ethical debates involve more diverse and sometimes contradictory positions within each stakeholder group.

Competitive scoring also requires careful facilitation. A strategy that maximises points or influence within the game should not automatically be interpreted as an ethically preferable decision.

In this respect, the quality of learning depends on whether participants are encouraged to move beyond winning strategies and critically examine the values, assumptions and consequences underlying their decisions.

The project’s published description establishes the importance of discussion and reflection, but the reviewed sources do not provide sufficient detail to assess the consistency of facilitation across different educational settings.

Furthermore, although the game has undergone formative testing and redesign, quantitative evidence demonstrating improvements in ethical reasoning, perspective-taking or critical thinking has not been identified in the publicly reviewed documentation.

Ludus Magnus assessment

TETHICS offers a valuable example of how asymmetric roles, strategic competition and consequence-based mechanisms can be used to introduce ethical complexity into educational board games.

Its most relevant methodological contribution is the possibility of making competing interests visible through gameplay and subsequently examining their ethical implications through structured discussion.

The documented redesign of the initial prototype is particularly significant because it demonstrates responsiveness to practical educational constraints. A shorter and more accessible game may facilitate classroom integration, although reduced complexity should be balanced against the need to preserve meaningful ethical dilemmas.

For educational replication, Ludus Magnus recommends combining the game with explicit learning objectives, sufficient time for facilitated debriefing and assessment procedures that distinguish competitive performance from ethical reasoning.

Future research should examine whether the game improves participants’ ability to identify competing values, justify ethical decisions, consider alternative perspectives and transfer ethical reasoning to authentic technological or professional situations.

Independence of assessment

TETHICS was developed by an external European consortium. This appraisal by Ludus Magnus is based on publicly available project documentation, descriptions of the game, educational resources and implementation reports. It does not constitute direct observation of the complete intervention or an independent experimental evaluation of learning outcomes.