July 14, 2025
Open Mind game
Open Mind is a digital 20-30 minute game that can be played on any smartphone or tablet. It offers a structured and engaging environment that challenges players’ assumptions and encourages them to reflect on their own experiences, question their assumptions, and explore diverse perspectives in a safe and interactive way. One can choose to have students play the game in class in class mode and include a plenary introduction and a post-play reflection, or one can have students play the game individually at home or at another location. When played on campus, the activity (game, introduction, and reflection) takes approximately 45 minutes in total. It could be used as a first introduction to perspective-taking and uncovering prejudices, priming students to be more open to participate in follow-up activities like perspective-taking exercises and dialogues. Open Mind was developed as part of the Utrecht University Comenius project Fostering an Open Mind and Open Attitude in Higher Education that strives to stimulate perspective-taking and dialogue in academic education with creative learning activities. Other learning activities that have been developed as part of this project are Playing perspectives (a game design toolkit) and The Square (Het Vlak; a creative dialogue methodology).