Teaching research project: Playful prevention of substance abuse and emotional exhaustion

As part of a teaching research project in the Digital Public Health Master's program, students at the University of Siegen were able to playfully strengthen their health literacy and deal with preventive measures for substance abuse and emotional exhaustion with the help of digital health rallies on December 15, 2025.

The project was carried out in the winter semester 2025/26 in the in-depth seminar "Health Promotion and Prevention" under the direction of Dr. Joanna Albrecht, Pinar Tokgöz and Lea Stark-Blomeier. Students on the Digital Public Health Master's degree course developed two digitally supported interactive health rallies that prepared health-related topics for the target group of students in a needs-oriented, low-threshold and real-life way. A particular focus was on strengthening navigational health literacy.

The rallies were designed as digital scavenger hunts using the Nebolus app. A specially developed narrative framework story led the participants through several stations on the campus of the University of Siegen and in the city center of Siegen over a period of about one hour. At the individual locations, the participants worked on cooperative tasks in order to discover new content and clues and to unlock the next location of the rally.

In terms of content, the two rallies focused on different topics. While one rally focused on emotional exhaustion in everyday student life and encouraged reflection on individual stressors and personal resources, the second rally was dedicated to the prevention of substance abuse. It dealt with risks and coping strategies for dealing with alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and Ritalin.

Both rallies comprised several thematically appropriate stations, including university learning and recreational locations as well as an external addiction counseling center. The tasks were closely linked to the respective settings and the story told. In the first rally, for example, the participants reflected on their everyday lives in the Student Living Room and explored meaningful and resource-promoting activities to prevent emotional exhaustion. In the second rally, a discussion on the non-medical use of Ritalin was encouraged in the university library with the help of a crossword puzzle. In addition, participants were introduced to short meditation exercises as an alternative and health-promoting alternative.

The final evaluation showed predominantly positive feedback from the participants. In particular, the narrative design and the interactive tasks were rated as appealing. There were also indications of a strengthening of health literacy. Against this background, it is planned to carry out further digitally supported health rallies in the coming years in order to raise students' awareness of health-related topics in the long term and to make preventative and support services more visible in the university context.