Accelerating the Development of a Gamified Educational App Through Early Stakeholder Engagement

Pollution has become increasingly worse on a worldwide scale. Various governing bodies have employed legislature to try and mitigate waste production, but none have had lasting impacts. With the growth in the popularity of technology, a new opportunity presents itself in the form of gamified educational platforms. Gamified phone applications can be used to convey knowledge to users more efficiently, and repetition of curriculum can reinforce habits. Save Tuba is one such gamified educational application that leverages engaging gameplay to create sustainable habits within school children. This app is tailored to the Kazakhstan school curriculum for environmental science so that students in grades two through five gain a deeper understanding of the environment around them and how they can practice sustainability in their homes. The Save Tuba research team conducted focus groups with teachers in Kazakhstan in May 2022 to receive feedback on their app and how they could proceed. The team learned that to create an effective gamified educational platform, app navigation, content comprehension, long-term engagement, and large-scale implementation are crucial to success. This manuscript concludes with recommendations for app developers on how to increase the effectiveness of gamified educational platforms.