In September 2022 the SportKompas Exergame (SPEX) project funded by the European Union was launched. We gathered with all 8 partner organizations in Ghent to do the kick-off meeting. The goal of the 3 day kick-off was to educate all partners on SportKompas, to learn about the possibilities for developing an exergame, to introduce all partner organizations in detail and their role in the project, and of course to get to know one another better. Read the full summary of the 3 days in Ghent here.

In the 7 months since the kick-off we held monthly meetings to keep up to date on the progress of each other's work. We decided to hold another physical meeting in Finland to take the next steps in the development of the exergame and because this is the expertise of the Finnish partner organization, Kajaani University. So, on April 20-21 we gathered for 2 days. Below you can read all about the program, goals and activities during our stay in Kajaani.

The program

Day 1

We started the day with a review of the SPEX project given by Bruno D’Hulster (SportaMundi, BE). We tackled how the various work packages have evolved so far, what the current state of affairs is and which items are being addressed in the short and long term by whom. Next up was Johan Pion (HAN University, NL) who gave a summary of the research he did on the different physical testing situations in all countries of the partner organizations: he discussed the various physical tests, who the executing partner is, which parties are involved, the experience in conducting physical tests…

The reason the meeting took place in Finland was because of the expertise Kajaani University owns on exergame development. The Finnish team let us experience different kind of exergames and showed us what they already developed for SportKompas, led by Kyösti Koskela (Kajaani University, FIN). After that we moved on to the discussion on how we can implement an exergame into the SportKompas model. With our project goal in mind, to help children find the sport they like and improve their motor skills, we concluded that the exergame should have the primary objective to let children experience different sports and to get them excited about starting a sport in a club. As a secondary objective (nice to have) we want to evaluate the exergame to replace some of the SportKompas tests. Another nice to have is to evaluate the exergame for training purposes.

Once in Finland we had to get the full snowy experience so in the evening we went on a dog sleigh ride with the whole team and enjoyed a lovely local dinner afterwards. It was a great time to socialize and learn more about each other.

Day 2

We kicked off the second day with a dip in the icy lake to get that blood flowing and start the day fresh!

The focus of this day was the pilot SportKompas testing of 20 children, the presentation of the pedagogical model, the communication and dissemination, and the conclusions and next steps for the project.

Kari Partanen (Kajaani University, FIN) gave us insights on how the physical education system is built in Finland and how SportKompas can be implemented in that system. Following this, Katri Takala (Kajaani University, FIN) gave us a first view on what the pedagogical model could look like.

In the afternoon, a class group of students of Kajaani University organized the SportKompas testing for 20 children. This time the SPEX group could observe how a SportKompas testing takes place. Elise Van der Stichelen (SportaMundi, BE) guided the students and teachers who took the role as coordinators that day. Coordinators guide the test leaders and monitor the quality. This was a good example for the partners who must also do a pilot testing with 20 children before doing a testing with 200 children as is described in the deliverables of this project. Afterwards there was time to talk about different ways to do the SportKompas testing in different scenarios because the organization differs a bit in each country.

Panos Papageorgiou (EPSI, BE) joined us online to inform us about the progress on the communication and dissemination plan for this 2 year project. Together we try to log all our marketing and communication actions and to spread the word about our project.

To finalize the 2 days, Bruno summed up the actions we plan to do in the upcoming months concerning the different work packages. Another very productive time spent accelerating the SPEX project and pursuing our goal of developing a SportKompas exergame to help children find the sport they like and improve their motor skills!