In contemporary knowledge societies, access to scientific knowledge and research data is becoming increasingly significant (Stehr, 2023). Science is therefore not only challenged to generate new knowledge, but also to make it accessible, usable and socially meaningful. In this context, the Open Science movement (UNESCO, 2021) promotes transparency, accessibility and participation, principles that are also firmly anchored in European research policy, particularly within Horizon Europe. Open access to publications and research data is understood as a key prerequisite for democratic knowledge production, following the principle “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” (European Commission, 2026).

Educational science plays a central role in this debate, as it is fundamentally concerned with the pedagogical mediation, contextualisation and transfer of scientific knowledge (Diederichs & Desoye, 2023). Against this background, the paper explores the potential of games as a form of science communication and knowledge transfer. Games are increasingly discussed as innovative tools for communicating complex scientific issues to broader audiences (Ouariachi et al., 2017; Asplund, 2020). Serious games, in particular, aim to combine learning objectives with playful elements (Schrader, 2022), enabling users to engage cognitively and emotionally with complex topics.

However, the use of games becomes especially challenging in the field of Holocaust education. While games may offer new forms of access and engagement, their use in remembrance culture is highly contested (Tillmann, 2023). Critics warn against trivialisation, inappropriate representations and ethically problematic forms of immersion (Frasca, 2000). Research emphasises that serious games addressing the Holocaust must be grounded in scientifically validated sources, clearly distinguish between fiction and historical reality, and follow explicit ethical and educational guidelines (Schwarz, 2023; Zimmermann, 2023).

This paper addresses these debates by examining an exploratory teaching project situated at the intersection of Open Science, science communication and adult education. The guiding research questions are:
 How can open research data be translated into serious games for remembrance work in adult education? What tensions emerge between openness, ethical responsibility and playful design when working with Holocaust-related research data?

By focusing on adult education, the paper highlights a learning context that is often overlooked in discussions of Holocaust education and serious games, despite its relevance for lifelong learning and democratic remembrance cultures.

The empirical basis of the paper is a teaching project conducted with fourth-semester Bachelor students in Education at the University of Koblenz. Within two workshop-based seminars, students developed serious game concepts for remembrance work based on open research data from Holocaust-related projects. In the first workshop (2025), students worked with anonymised quantitative data from the citizen science project BEFEM – Citizen Science Research into Family Histories and National Socialism, funded by the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament. The dataset provided insights into knowledge levels, attitudes and family references to National Socialism within a regional context. The project was introduced comprehensively to ensure transparency regarding methodology, scope and limitations of the data (Lenzgen, Jansen & Engel 2023). A second workshop (planned for 2026) will complement this approach by using qualitative audiovisual material from the oral history project The Effect of Reparations – A Jewish-German History of Experience, hosted on the Oral-History.Digital platform (Oral-History.Digital 2024). In line with FAIR principles, Oral-History.Digital makes the interviews searchable, accessible, linkable and reusable as audiovisual research data. FAIR stands for: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. It ensures that research data is easily discovered, accessed, interpreted and used by humans and machines alike (Wilkinson et al. 2016. In both workshops, students developed game concepts using the Triadic Game Design framework (Harteveld, 2011), which balances the dimensions of reality, meaning and play. The project follows an exploratory qualitative approach, drawing on observations, student artefacts (game prototypes) and reflective questionnaires.

The first workshop resulted in four different game prototypes, including a board game, a role-playing game, an escape game and a story-based game. The findings indicate that working with research data in game development posed significant challenges. Some groups largely ignored the data, while others adhered too closely to it. Quantitative data, in particular, proved difficult to integrate meaningfully into game mechanics, as it was context-specific and not suitable for direct factual representation. At the same time, students were required to integrate ethical guidelines inspired by Adorno’s (2012) Erziehung nach Auschwitz, which ruled out purely informational or quiz-based approaches. Designing games for adult education added another layer of complexity, as learning in this field often takes place in non-institutional, voluntary and self-directed contexts. Student feedback highlights ethical considerations as the central challenge. The tension between serious engagement and playful design was perceived as constant, alongside concerns about trivialisation and inappropriate representations. Nevertheless, games were widely regarded as a promising medium for addressing complex and emotionally charged topics of remembrance, provided that ethical boundaries and educational intentions are clearly defined. Overall, the project demonstrates both the potential and the limits of using open research data for serious game development in Holocaust education. It contributes to current debates on Open Science by showing that openness alone does not guarantee pedagogical usability, but requires careful didactic translation, especially in ethically sensitive fields. The presentation is planned to include both results from the first workshop (2025) with quantitative data and the as yet unavailable results with qualitative data (2026) from the second workshop. The workshop is scheduled to take place in spring 2026.

Adorno, T.W. (2012). Erziehung nach Auschwitz. In: Bauer, U., Bittlingmayer, U.H., Scherr, A. (eds) Handbuch Bildungs- und Erziehungssoziologie. Bildung und Gesellschaft. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-18944-4_7 Asplund, T. (2020). Credibility aspects of research-based gaming in science communication: The case of The Maladaptation Game. Journal of Science Communication, 19(1), A01.https://doi.org/10.22323/2.19010201 Diederichs, T., & Desoye, A. (2023). Transfer in Erziehungswissenschaft und Pädagogik. In T. Diederichs & A. Desoye (Eds.), Transfer in Pädagogik und Erziehungswissenschaft: Zwischen Wissenschaft und Praxis. Juventa. European Commission. (2026). Open science in Horizon Europe.https://rea.ec.europa.eu/open-science_en Frasca, G. (2000). Ephemeral games: Is it barbaric to design videogames after Auschwitz? In M. Eskelinen & R. Koskimaa (Eds.), CyberText Yearbook 2000 (pp. 172–180). University of Jyväskylä. Gertrudis-Casado, M. C., Gálvez-de-la-Cuesta, M. C., Romero-Luis, J., & Gertrudix, M. (2022). Serious games as an efficient strategy for science communication in the COVID-19 pandemic. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 80, 40–62.https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2022-1788 Glouftsis, T. (2022). Implicated gaming: Choice and complicity in ludic Holocaust memory. History and Theory, 61(4), 134–151.https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.12277 Hammer, J., & Turkington, M. (2021). Designing role-playing games that address the Holocaust. International Journal of Designs for Learning, 12(1), 42–53.https://doi.org/10.14434/ijdl.v12i1.31265 Harteveld, C. (2011). Triadic game design: Balancing reality, meaning and play. Springer. Lenzgen, H., Jansen, P.-E., & Engel, I. (2023). Zwischenergebnisse Projekt BEFEM: Bürgerwissenschaftliche Erforschung der Familiengeschichte von Einheimischen und Migrant:innen und ihr Verhältnis zur NS-Geschichte. Landtag Rheinland-Pfalz.https://landtag-rlp.de/files/pdf1/zwischenergebnis_froschungsprojekt-befem.pdf Majkowski, T. Z., & Suszkiewicz, K. (2021). Cardboard genocide: Board game design as a tool in Holocaust education. GAME: The Italian Journal of Game Studies, 9, 71–90.https://www.gamejournal.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/I9_GAME_05_MAJKOWSKISUSZKIEWICZ.pdf Pfister, E., & Zimmermann, F. (2021). “No one is ever ready for something like this”: On the dialectic of the Holocaust in first-person shooters as exemplified by Wolfenstein: The New Order. International Public History, 4(1), 35–46.https://doi.org/10.1515/iph-2021-2020 Oral-History.Digital. (2024). Interviews zur Wirkung der Wiedergutmachung.https://www.oral-history.digital/news/2024-11-22-touro.html Ouariachi, T., Olvera-Lobo, M. D., & Gutiérrez-Pérez, J. (2017). Analyzing climate change communication through online games: Development and application of validated criteria. Science Communication, 39(1), 10–44.https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547016687998 Schrader, C. (2022). Serious games and game-based learning. In O. Zawacki-Richter & I. Jung (Eds.), Handbook of open, distance and digital education (pp. 1–14). Springer. Schwarz, A. (2023). Digitale Spiele aus Perspektive der Geschichtswissenschaft. In Ç. Uzunoğlu, C. Huberts, & M. Brandt (Eds.), Handbuch Erinnern mit Games: Digitale Spiele als Chance für die Erinnerungskultur (pp. 32–35). Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur. Stehr, N. (2023). Understanding society and knowledge. Edward Elgar. Wilkinson, M., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, I.et al. (2026)The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship.Sci Data3, 160018. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18