The Playful University Platform (PUP) was launched on the backdrop of the first Playful University Conference at Aarhus University in Forskningsford Denmark in 2019. The community has recently published a book called Playful Higher Education: Voices, Activities & Co-creations from the PUP Community. This book is ‘for people and from people with a passion for playfulness and playful higher education’ with an aim to ‘understand, share and inspire playfulness in academic practices – be they teaching, learning, studying, doing research or attending webinars.’

The book includes practical play activities designed to turn passive listeners into active participants, including examples of play pedagogies for use in an online environment, with the aim to foster sustainable learning by engaging imagination, exploration, creativity, curiosity, co-operation and other values.

‘Over the last decade we have witnessed a steadily growing interest in the field of playful higher education. Books, projects and networks around play and playfulness are proliferating out there in an effort to make education and the world more playful. PhD projects are undertaken, scholars and practitioners are collaborating and playful people are connecting around the world. They all share an interest in exploring the possibilities and potentials that playfulness might bring to the future of higher education. There is an academic passion underlying playful higher education – a feeling that teaching, learning, research, projects, studying and other academic practices should not feel cumbersome, stressful, disengaging, unrewarding or like something you just have to manage and survive. Rather, higher education should make us come alive, feel human, be curious and act with authenticity while also feeling safe, cared for and valued.’

The book is available as a free download:

Voices, Activities & Co-creations from the Playful University Platform Community (Free Download)
Edited by Rikke Toft Nørgård, Josephine E. M. Solheim, Kimie Jay Bukholt