The e-pizza game: a recipe for meaningful learning

How an open licensed learning tool created by Leeds researchers helped biology students actively explore the core principles of gamification through playful, hands on design.

Chandra Adi Prabowo, Lecturer and Researcher at the Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia reflects on his experience of introducing his students to the e-pizza game session as part of his Game Learning in Biology course. 

On Wednesday, 23 April 2026, in week six of my Game Learning in Biology course, I told my students we were having a pizza party.

They walked into the class expecting food. What they found instead inside the pizza box were scissors, printed toppings, and a circular paper base. The disappointment on their faces was real, but so was the laughter that followed.

Students' expressions after opening the pizza box

I am a lecturer at the Biology Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. That Wednesday session was dedicated to gamification in biology learning and its core components: levels, competition, aesthetics, rewards, feedback, and social connection. Rather than walking students through these concepts via slides, I introduced them to the e(ducation)-pizza game, an open-licensed collaborative resource for learning and teaching co-created by Chrissi Nerantzi, John Hammersley, Damian McDonald, Sarah Briggs, Mavis Brew, Matthew Lickiss, Joseph Gilmore, Antonio Martinez Arboleda, Laura Gooch, Charles Reader, and Martha Binks Iturriagagoitia at the University of Leeds and freely available at https://zenodo.org/records/8052352. I first encountered the game during a hybrid Teaching and Scholarship meeting organised by the Imaginative Curriculum Research and Scholarship Centre on 28 January 2026, hosted by Dr Vasiliki Kioupi and co-organised with Professor Chrissi Nerantzi and Dr Damian McDonald, where we played the game as part of a discussion on instilling imagination into the curriculum.

The rule was simple: students choose pizza toppings as metaphors for the gamification components they believe matter most in learning design. A mushroom might represent levelling up and progression, a chilli the heat of competition, basil the quiet importance of aesthetics, and a wildcard topping, a blank piece that students draw themselves; to express any idea the standard set of toppings couldn't capture.

Students discussing which toppings to include in their pizza

Groups of four to five students built their pizzas thoughtfully, then presented their "pizza story" to the class. Students were no longer passive recipients, they were actively constructing ideas, testing them against each other, and reflecting on their own experience.

Students presenting their "pizza story" to the class

At the end of the session, I surprised my students with real pizza that I had prepared in advance, as a small appreciation for their energy and engagement. I had promised a pizza party, after all, and a promise is a promise. The class ended exactly as it should have, with a happy pizza party.

Real pizza arrives at the end of the session

This experience has deepened my appreciation for open educational resources that are thoughtfully designed and generously shared. The e-pizza game is deceptively simple yet rich with pedagogical possibility. I am grateful to Professor Chrissi Nerantzi and colleagues for creating and sharing this wonderful resource, and for making it freely available to educators everywhere.

The home of the e-pizza game is the Imaginative Curriculum Research and Scholarship Centre and we were delighted to hear about the use and usefulness of the game at the Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. Thank you Chandra for giving this a go!

Chandra Adi Prabowo is a Lecturer and Researcher in Department of Biology Education at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia.

Chrissi Nerantzi is the director for the Imaginative Curriculum Research and Scholarship Centre, and can be found on LinkedIn here.

A selection of photographs from the day: