ROCKET Teacher Training: Advancing DEI through Critical Virtual Exchange, Role-Playing Games, and Conflict Transformation

Are you a teacher in a university? Do you want to learn more about effective ways to address conflict, including issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)? Are you interested in experiential learning methods for practicing socio-emotional skills? Consider joining our online training!

The Erasmus+ ROCKET project is holding an international online training in the Fall connecting topics related to DEI to skill building in conflict transformation. This training will take place in a Critical Virtual Exchange (CVE): an innovative format that includes asynchronous discussions with video conferencing sessions.

This teacher training will be open to members from the ENLIGHT network:

ROCKET Teacher Training

In this more extensive training, educators from different ENLIGHT universities are invited to come together to learn how to address issues of DEI and train skills in conflict transformation in your curriculum design. This training will also introduce best practices in Critical Virtual Exchange (CVE), using the training itself as a model. The training will be held in English.

If you attend the training, you will collaborate with other educators to plan activities related to your course content and experience role-playing methods in an embodied fashion. You will learn to recognise conflict styles as key drivers in everyday interactions and gain tools on how to make your classroom more inclusive.

In this training, you will learn to:

• Identify underlying positions, interests, feelings, and needs in conflict
• Practice different conflict styles through short role-playing scenarios
• Discuss intersectional factors related to DEI in the university context
• Map the support resources available at your institution
• Recognize the value of critical virtual exchange in fostering (inter-)disciplinary and transversal competencies relevant to your courses
• Identify design features of transformative role-playing games

Time commitment:

We have two options for the teacher training. All learners will take the mandatory core modules, with the option at the end to take the extension modules.

Core modules (mandatory):

• Date range: Sep. 15 – Oct. 10
• 16 hours spread over 4 weeks
  • 8 asynchronous written discussions or journal entries
  • 4 synchronous video conferencing sessions (5 hrs 30 min):
    • Sept 17 (10-11), Sept 26 (10-11:30), Oct 2 (14-16), Oct 10 (10-11). All times in CEST.

Extension modules (optional):

• Date range: Oct. 13 – Nov. 14
• 24 hours total spread over 5 weeks
• Option to take some or all modules
• If you take all modules, 1 week / 40 hours total of training including the core, spread out over time
  • Maximum 9 asynchronous written discussions or journal entries
  • Maximum 4 synchronous video conferencing sessions (4 hrs 45 min): Oct 23 (10-12), Oct 30 (10-10:45), group meeting week of Nov 12 (based on your schedule), Nov 14 (10–11). All times in CEST.

In the extension modules, you can learn to:

• Deepen your understanding of CVE and jointly work on a concrete scenario for future collaboration with a partner
• Discuss educational applications of RPGs
• Design and facilitate transformative role-playing games for conflict transformation
• Address issues related to conflict and worldview, cognitive dissonance, and perception checking
• Explore intersectional aspects of DEI from your own experience

Join our teacher training if you would like to explore new avenues of international collaboration with educators from other universities in the ENLIGHT network!

If you are unable to attend one or more of the synchronous sessions, please sign up anyway and indicate those dates on the form.

• Registration deadline: September 1, 2025.

Please register here:

You will choose whether or not to take extensions at the end of the Core. If you participated in the pilot training in early 2025 already, you are eligible to sign up for the extension directly. Please let us know at rocket@uni-goettingen.de.

You will receive a digital badge or a digital certificate from one of our universities for successful completion.

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For questions about the training, please contact rocket@uni-goettingen.de.

ROCKET is an innovative project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships program with partners from Göttingen, Uppsala, and Groningen universities. The project develops a working concept for Critical Virtual Exchange which implements role-playing games for conflict transformation. These novel modes of online interaction can aid participants to take on new perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of issues relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).