HopaSus in Bulgaria – An Overview

In the landscape of physical education, integrating digital technology has emerged as a powerful tool to enhance engagement and effectiveness. Recognizing this need, the HopaSus project was born, spearheaded by the National University of Physical Education and Sport in Bucharest in collaboration with partners from Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Serbia. Supported by funding from the European Commission’s Erasmus Plus grants, HopaSus endeavors to revolutionize sports education by harnessing the potential of digital platforms and video games.

At its core, HopaSus aims to address the challenge of insufficiently trained human resources in physical education, as identified in the National Strategy for Sport. This deficiency not only impacts the quality of sports instruction but also affects student engagement and involvement. By leveraging e-sport type video materials, HopaSus seeks to infuse excitement and relevance into physical education classes while promoting the health benefits associated with sports participation.

The project’s strategy and implementation guide, developed collaboratively by the four participating entities, provide a roadmap for integrating video games into teaching practices. Moreover, HopaSus has curated a selection of video games tailored to align with educational objectives, ensuring that teachers can seamlessly integrate digital support into their lesson plans. Central to the project is the creation of a vibrant online platform, www.hopasus.eu, designed to foster a community of sports educators committed to leveraging technology for enhanced learning experiences.

Adina Geambaşu, a professor at the National University of Physical Education and Sport and a driving force behind the HopaSus initiative, underscores its potential impact: “Hop Up! is the promoter of sports activities. Effectively, the HopaSus project is a direct channel of communication and useful advice between the movement educator and the student. In the case of students, it would be a very good educational source in addition to the movement factor involved.”

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which thrust education into the digital realm, sports teachers faced unprecedented challenges due to the lack of digital resources. HopaSus emerges as a timely solution, offering a bridge between traditional sports education and innovative digitization. By embracing video games as a medium for student involvement, HopaSus not only addresses current educational needs but also aligns with the broader objectives of the Erasmus+ program.

 

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HopaSus Erasmus Sport Plus project was born out of the need of teachers and youth workers from 4 European countries to develop their digital skills and become more resilient in times of pandemics by using sport video games in their virtual or face-to-face classrooms. The aim of the project is to encourage sport teachers to recognize the potential of video games and sport applications and experiment with new strategies for incorporating them into their gyms and classrooms, and to promote the inclusion of “video games addicted youth” by changing the paradigm of persistent stereotyping of video games as predominantly mindless, violent forms of entertainment, into seeing the potential of video gaming technologies as instructional tools that takes out the children from the desk chair out into the sport field.