OKO or Object Competencies Online is an educational game available on the internet for everyone. Through it, individuals can educate themselves in various areas that are relevant to children, parents, volunteers, and the general public. In the game, players choose how they would likely react in model situations, and the result is developmental feedback and links to complementary information and verified sources on the topic.

 

The development of this game began in 2015, initially aimed at bringing the idea of volunteerism and the benefits of working with youth closer to students, volunteers, and supporters. Today, it has become a successful concept for approaching various current topics related to our work. We have gradually expanded its content to include new simulations and episodes, with currently four available. During their creation, we collaborated with partners such as the Slovak Scouting, Inex Slovakia, the Association of Low-Threshold Programs for Children and Youth, Luducrafts, and IPčko.

 

The first episode, “Volunteer,” was created as a tool for spreading the idea of volunteering and the benefits associated with working with children and youth. In this episode, the player can experience the role of a worker in youth work, testing and verifying their skills and abilities in simulations of specific and real situations.

 

In 2016, we created the second game episode, “Project Coordinator,” where the player solves situations when organizing events such as tournaments or trips for children and youth. The episode is aimed at developing organizational skills, project management, and critical thinking.

In 2018, we focused on parents and adults working with children and youth, bringing them an educational game called “Let’s Talk About Alcohol.” The content of this episode includes situations that one may encounter in everyday life, such as family celebrations, encountering an intoxicated neighbor or homeless person, or situations when a teenager comes home under the influence of alcohol.

 

The latest expansion was the fourth episode, focused on the topic of internet safety. By creating this episode, we responded to what we see every day – people lacking information, often believing in various hoaxes, or having their lives negatively influenced by the internet. Internet use can be developmental, but also pathological. It mainly concerns social media activities, publishing various content and personal information, hoaxes, making contact with strangers, and cyberbullying. Through the game, parents and workers with youth can test their knowledge and skills in this topic, gain interesting information and resources, and receive new stimuli on how to react in situations related to the use of internet technologies.

 

The game can be found on the KASPIAN website or directly at https://www.objavkompetencieonline.sk/. Alternatively, it can also be found on the organization’s Facebook page by searching for “Objav kompetencie online.”

 

Currently, we are preparing materials to expand the fourth episode. During the development of the game, we realized that it is essential to divide the internet game by age. Not only because children and young people “operate” with the internet differently in various age groups, but also because working with different age groups requires different forms of communication. Since even 3-year-olds regularly have contact with phones/PCs and the internet, the scope of the topic is enormous. Therefore, the first part of the fourth episode is focused on children up to 10 years old. We are currently working on expanding the game with subchapters that would enrich the simulations for age categories 11-15 years and 16 years and above, and we are looking for a sponsor to finance a game programmer.

 

Through this game, we aim to support parents and workers with youth to be open and talk to children and young people about topics in which they may not always feel comfortable. Because what we can all do in preventing pathological phenomena is to take an interest in the world of children and youth and communicate with them about things that interest them and that they live with.

 

 

Finally, here are some current statistics for the game in 2021:

Game Statistics 2021 Number of games played Number of games successfully completed

1. Coordinator      4550          1721

2. Volunteer         11075         5546

3. Alcohol             876            371

4. Internet            1426          688

Total                     17927        8226