Levelling up – gamification approach to improve biosecurity engagement

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Article written by Biosecurity Innovation team, Biosecurity Implementation branch

Mario Kart captured the hearts and minds of a generation. Candy Crush was an addiction, and Pokémon GO caused several frenzied stampedes. People love games. So how can we use them to improve engagement with biosecurity?

At the inaugural Biosecurity Innovation Exchange 2018, the Australian and New Zealand governments committed to holding a series of innovation workshops to define and progress initiatives based on four key themes, including gamification and citizen science.

Gamification harnesses the power of games to increase user engagement with real world topics, such as biosecurity. As well as engaging an audience, gamification can be used to encourage the community to collect useful biosecurity data and information at the same time – this is called citizen science.

In May and June 2018, the department held two workshops focussed on gamification and citizen science. The workshops explored the use of games to:

  • increase public awareness and engagement with biosecurity and encourage identification and reporting of biosecurity threats

  • support staff learning about the biosecurity system and the various roles and responsibilities.

We’ll keep you updated as these gamification and citizen science initiatives progress.
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