Career XRcade uses embodied role-play, narrative, and game-based learning to make future careers tangible, giving students a space to rehearse possible selves and develop confidence in their creative capacity.
Introduction: Making Future Work Thinkable and Feelable
Career exploration is often reduced to information about occupations. Career XRcade instead asks students to inhabit professional roles, make choices, and experience how creative and technical work can feel in practice. The platform is designed to support two capacities that matter in an uncertain future of work: imagination and creative self-efficacy.
System Architecture: A Hub of Career Exhibits
Career XRcade: Esports Land uses a central hub connected to distinct Career Exhibits for game design, game development, team management, esports marketing, and content creation. The hub supports orientation and learner-directed exploration; each exhibit turns an abstract job description into a focused, hands-on scenario.
Design Principles: Narrative, Embodiment, and Play
The system combines narrative framing, embodied interaction, and game-based learning. Learners become protagonists in professional missions, perform simplified versions of job-relevant tasks, and receive immediate feedback through low-stakes challenges, creating repeated opportunities for agency and mastery.
Results: Additional Gains Through Immersive Role-Play
A mixed-methods pilot evaluated a lecture followed by a VR session. For students who completed both interventions, the VR experience produced additional gains in creative self-efficacy and career interest on consistent measures. Qualitative responses also described the immersive format as more tangible for visualizing possible careers and building confidence.