Stakeholders

Local council in inner Melbourne

Learners

Inner Melbourne council area residents

Problem
A survey of 79 Victorian councils found a key challenge for recycling performance is '...residents’ inability to correctly classify materials as recyclable or non-recyclable' (Argwal, Werner, Lane, Lamborn 2020)

Aims  

• Use novel methods to increase community awareness of what goes into which bins as a new bin system is introduced

• Initiate community conversation and engage people's interest in recycling

• Boost recycling behaviours 

Desired outcomes 

• More residents learn how to separate waste effectively and are motivated to recycle

• Waste contamination is reduced

•  a series of short, simple games with multiple levels and inbuilt quizzes at the end of each level, accessible through the council's webpage, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sites.  

• a chat bot to enable fast, simplified access to FAQs.

Use of these tools is intended to engage intrinsic motivation via a sense of novelty and curiosity, because we cannot leverage extrinsic motivators such as good grades or improved job prospects in this case. 

This strategy is supported by Papadakis and Kalogiannakis (2017), whose research results on gamification “...showed that using gamification can positively contribute to students’ attitudes as they develop more agreeable feelings and have more enjoyable experiences in the learning process, compared to traditional approaches”, by Zainuddin, Shujahat, Haruna and Chu, who suggest that "An advantage of gamification is that it makes learning fun through friendly competitions, challenges, and rewards" and by Brandtzaeg and Følstad(2017), who note that some of the key reasons people are motivated to use chatbots are for "quick and consistent feedback"  and for "novelty".

• Non-captive, voluntary participation. 
• Tools and content need to be engaging, easy to use, easy to share, broadly accessible and fun
• Note that this project is not expected nor intended to reach the full spectrum of council residents. Rather, it is to compliment existing forms of communication and extend them, specifically leveraging school and family community connections to generate conversation and interest

• to be implemented in conjunction with roll out of new bin system

• low to medium
• could be supported with involvement and sponsorship from parties such as waste management companies and product manufacturers who use recycled materials

• leader boards that rank individual users and peer-group progress and achievements, creating competition;
• a points system to inform users of their levels and to reward progress and continue engagement; 
• rewards, either real or virtual, achieved by reaching certain mile- stones; 
• challenges and quests motivating users to continue engaging; and, 
• social connectedness and peer pressure through team challenges and/or the sharing of information via social media.

• Victorian Curriculum links with teacher guides to using the games in primary and secondary school education will be a key aspect. Teacher adoption of games in classrooms will be an important dissemination strategy, the intention being that students will share the games with their families and friends.

• An in-depth study of consumer behaviour using six case studies demonstrated that a significant increase in recycling of waste products can be obtained  “simply by incorporating information regarding the transformation of a recyclable into a new product in recycling messaging” (Winterich, Nenkov, Gonzales 2019). This effect could be utilised by including the transformation of waste into a desirable product as a part of the game narrative, with the game reward being the creation of a new, recycled product at the end of each game level.

• Zainuddin, Shujahat, Haruna and Chu (2020) state that in their study, 'gamified e-quiz applications' were effective in 'evaluating students’ learning performance' and that 'gamified e-quiz exercises work positively to engage students in learning by involving game principles such as points, progressions, badges, competitions, certificates, memes, and leaderboards.'
• Based on this, assessment of learning will be integrated into the game design, including quizzes at the beginning and the end of each level, and/or survey prompts as the user exits. 
• To utilise mastery learning and repetition for learning, visual identification of waste items and correct bins will be repeated throughout the game, with larger numbers of frequently misplaced items of waste over ascending levels of the game. Players will master specific recycling knowledge in order to progress to each new level.

• Written transcripts for audio and video elements
• Captioning compatible with screen readers
•  Options for textual descriptions
• Mechanisms to pause, stop or adjust volume
• No reliance on colour to convey instructions, indicate an action or prompt a response
• Use of combined auditory and visual cues
• No speech enabled features

•  Identify the types of resources (natural, human and capital) and explore the ways societies use them in order to satisfy the needs and wants of present and future generations' (VCEBR003) 
• Consider the effect that consumer and financial decisions of individuals may have in themselves, their family, the broader community and the natural, economic and business environment. (VCEBC005)

• Some of Earth’s resources are renewable, but others are non-renewable (VCSSU100)
• Earth’s resources are used in a variety of ways (VCSSU047)

• The challenges of managing and planning Australia’s urban future (VCGGK126)

• Explore needs or opportunities for designing, and the technologies needed to realise designed solutions (VCDSCD018) 
• Identify how people create familiar designed solutions and consider sustainability to meet personal and local community needs (VCDSTS013)
• Evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions against comprehensive criteria for success recognising the need for sustainability (VCDSCD063)