Roles of Gamification in Youth Engagement and Empowerment

Background and Purpose: Gamification maybe unfamiliar to some in the social service field, yet social workers and many helping professions have been using different kinds of intentional games or programs to work with youth. Seaborn and Fels (2015) define gamification as an intentional use of game elements for a gameful experience of non-game tasks and contexts. Self-Determination Theory is one of the underpinnings of gamification. The purpose of gamification is to facilitate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to accomplish specific tasks that in turn build a sense of engagement, confidence, autonomy, and well-being. Proven outcomes of the use of gamification include the enhancement of physical, psychological, and social well-being, as well as academic performance among youth. Gamification resonates with the target population in our project as they are born in the information era. This paper will present the process and outcome of a Web Application Co-Creation Group project that utilized the concept of gamification to engage and empower youth.

Methods: The Web Application Co-Creation Group adopted a “Play and Create” concept to facilitate focus groups with youth aged 12-17 in a Western province of Canada. We recruited youth from diverse backgrounds to the groups. The Play component of the group involved rapport building activities and testing of two existing web applications followed by feedback on what were good and poor features. Group members were then divided into small groups and asked to Create a new web application for the project. Participants engaged in brainstorming useful and appealing features and layouts for a youth audience. Next, participants developed a sketch on what the new web app would look like. Post session qualitative feedback was gathered on the group experience.

Results: Twenty-nine youth participated in the web application co-creation groups. Among these youth, 62% were visible minorities; while the remaining identified as White/Caucasian or mixed racial backgrounds. Approximate one-third (31%) came from remote-north communities, and the remaining from urban centres. Slightly above a quarter (28%) of the youth identified themselves with the LGBTQ2S+ community, and 72% self-identified as female or male. Qualitative feedback revealed very positive experiences to the “Play and Create” design of the Web Application Co-Creation Group. What these participants liked the most is “the conversations,” “sharing of ideas,” “working together to create the app,” “putting something into practice,” “teamed with favorite people,” “meeting new friends.” Feedback by participants reflected that the web application groups not only a memorable experience for the youth who participated the groups, but also creating something meaningful and useful for the targeted users of the web app.

Conclusions and Implications: Social workers aim to deliver evidence-informed practice. Programs that are fun, close to the participants’ daily life, and which facilitate creation and collaboration are foundations for building social connections, self-efficacy, and sense of ownership. Outcomes from this Web Application Co-creation Group Project support that engagement through intentional games and created meaningful and empowering experiences to youth.