Project News Literacy on Board (NEED)  aims to enhance news literacy skills, which are needed to judge the reliability and credibility of news / information, and equip individuals with the skills they need to become engaged and informed participants in civic life by using an innovative approach (mainly game-based learning). 

Game-based learning is an effective active learning technique that uses games to improve learning. The aim of it is to teach something while the learner is playing. It can be achieved through non-digital games (including board games) as well as digital games. Game-based learning is flexible, highly adaptable and can be updated very quickly. Playing games enhances the ability to think in a critical way, which boosts the capacity to retain information for a longer time.

The project will develop two publicly available tools in the field of news literacy. First, it will develop a game-based assessment tool for assessing the actual knowledge and skills level of learners in news literacy and critical thinking. Second, it will develop an educational board game with different difficulty levels to teach news literacy and critical thinking in an innovative way to adults. Moreover, the corresponding online platform for personalized game-based tailor-made education in news literacy and critical thinking skills (both for the trainers themselves and for the adult learners / users) will be established. 

The consortium behind the NEED project comprises four distinguished partners: Nikanor, Bulgaria (coordinator), Hacettepe University (Turkey), Belgrade City Library (Serbia) and Adult Education Center UPI Žalec (Slovenia). 

The project lasts from October 2023 until the end of September 2025. It is implemented within the EU Erasmus+ Programme, Key Action 2: Strategic partnerships for adult education.

This initiative is not just an isolated project but a continuation of the partners’ previous efforts, such as “Open Your Eyes”, “DIGIBLEND”, and “ESSENTIAL“, which focused on increasing digital and information literacy skills. Through this collaborative and innovative approach, NEED is set to significantly impact combating disinformation and fostering a more informed and engaged society.