Kuopio city museum network is utilising digital learning environments for public engagement. Gamification platform Seppo.io has been chosen for use across our museums. The platform has been easy to adopt, as students are already familiar with the game from the school environment and the game is tried and tested. 

Kuopio City Museums’ public engagement 

Kuopio city museums offer a diverse range of culture, art and nature information centres around Eastern Finland. The Kuopio Museum host exhibitions on both natural and cultural history. Kuopio Art Museum features local visual arts and the Old Kuopio Museum is dedicated to the history of the city. The museums also host temporary exhibitions. The J.V. Snellman Home Museum features the Kuopio years of philosopher and statesman Johan Vilhelm Snellman (1806-1881). 

Many games support the themes of both the permanent and temporary exhibits. Some of the most popular have been Jännäri Kuopio [Kuopio thriller], a game played around the city of Kuopio exploring the witchcraft trials, and Kuopio 1918, a game based on the Finnish Civil War. Through these games, it is possible to approach challenging topics such as death and war. 

In 2021, Kuopio Museum and Kuopio Main Library came together to form Kantti, a cultural quarter bringing together knowledge and stories and incorporating jointly planned facilities, content and events. 

Collaborations with educational institutions and programme packages for special groups are a key and established form of audience development. We collaborate extensively with local organizations on events. Each museum has a regional development mission in the North Savo and Eastern Finland areas. We work with educational institutions, special groups and organizations throughout the region. 

The wellbeing angle 

Kuopio city museums form part of the city’s wellbeing services, alongside sports and fitness services, libraries, adult education centres and arts services (theatre and music). The wellbeing services’ public engagement projects are designed to support the wellbeing of customers, and the services are customised to ensure their accessibility for different customer groups. Learning games are part of the marketing of Kuopio City’s wellbeing services and other services. A game offers natural way to link services and introduce customers to new places, even on the move. 

The benefits of gamification in public engagement  

Gamified public engagement is carried out with many different target groups. The games provide welcome information about the history, nature and built environment of the local area to students, daycare groups, tourists and residents of the city and the surrounding areas, new and old alike. The games can be played anywhere. They are designed for museum exhibitions, libraries, other wellbeing services, cities and the whole region. Some of the games can be played on the ground with a map. Others you can access from the comfort of your own sofa. They can provide a pathway between various services and support the services in engaging with customers. 

For students and other learners, mobile games are particularly useful in supporting phenomenon-based and life-long learning. A mobile game is an entity, at its best breaking down the traditional barriers between school subjects, combining resources into a meaningful whole. 

Gamified learning environments provide the opportunity to learn about history and phenomena in a broad way and to experience life through stories, photographs, audio and video recordings. They can also help individuals explore services and service packages and help them connect with services. 

Joint games have been produced by Kuopio City’s wellbeing services – including museums, libraries, adult education centres, sports and fitness, general cultural affairs and the city’s marketing and communications division. There have also been collaborations with youth services, educational institutions, organisations, North Savo wellbeing services county health and social welfare, the Family House network, which supports families with children, youth centres, community centres and parishes. 

Instructions for seppo.io games can be found from Kuopion Museon verkkosisältöjä  (in Finnish) 

Have fun exploring Kuopio and its surrounds! 

Author Sanna Reinikainen is a museum educator at Kuopio City Museum Centre.