Department of Operative Dentistry, Periodontology, and Preventive Dentistry, RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Aachen, Germany.
Audiovisual Media Center, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
BMC Med Educ. 2024 Aug 21;24(1):902. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-05884-3.
The use of serious games in medical education provides a bridge between rapidly developing technology and traditional health-care teaching. Building on a promising web-based serious game for reviewing and acquiring factual knowledge in dental education, the present study investigated the benefits of a dual-player mode and various game options for enhancing knowledge gain and study motivation.
Before the intervention, students' dental knowledge and game experience were assessed using a pre-knowledge test and questionnaire-based self-assessment. Students in the clinical study phase (n = 57) were stratified based on prior knowledge and gender and then randomly assigned to two groups, with two player modes: single player (SP) and dual player (DP). In the SP group, each participant played alone, whereas in the DP group, the participants played against a previously determined peer. For a period of 4 weeks, the students were able to playfully acquire knowledge from the field of operative dentistry using METIS, a serious game application with three different game options (Marathon, Sprint, and Time). After the intervention phase, both groups completed a post-knowledge test. The usability of the serious game was evaluated with a self-assessment questionnaire.
The competitive game mode (DP mode; M = 8.92, SD = 1.85) resulted in an increase in the factual knowledge test that was a mean of 2.49 points higher than the SP mode (M = 5.89, SD = 2.19; p < 0.001). The DP group also found the game significantly more helpful for learning (p = 0.04) and engaged more with the teaching content because of the app (p = 0.04). Overall, the usability of METIS was rated as excellent, and students successfully improved their knowledge of dentistry after game play with both game modes (SP, DP, p < 0.001), with the game option "Marathon," which involves playing the largest number of questions, being the most preferred.
These results suggest that serious games such as METIS are a suitable educational medium for increasing students' knowledge and interest in the field, and that competition with peers provides even greater motivation to engage with the learning content.
在医学教育中使用严肃游戏为快速发展的技术和传统的医疗保健教学之间架起了一座桥梁。本研究在一个有前途的基于网络的严肃游戏的基础上，该游戏用于审查和获取牙科教育中的事实知识，研究了双人模式和各种游戏选项对提高知识获取和学习动机的好处。
在干预之前，使用前知识测试和基于问卷的自我评估来评估学生的牙科知识和游戏体验。在临床研究阶段（n=57），学生根据先前的知识和性别进行分层，然后随机分为两组，有两种玩家模式：单人模式（SP）和双人模式（DP）。在 SP 组中，每个参与者独自玩，而在 DP 组中，参与者与之前确定的同伴对抗。在 4 周的时间里，学生可以使用 METIS 游戏来轻松地从口腔修复学领域获取知识，METIS 是一个严肃游戏应用程序，有三种不同的游戏选项（马拉松、冲刺和计时）。干预阶段结束后，两组都完成了后知识测试。使用自我评估问卷评估严肃游戏的可用性。
竞争游戏模式（DP 模式；M=8.92，SD=1.85）导致事实知识测试增加了 2.49 分，比 SP 模式（M=5.89，SD=2.19；p<0.001）高。DP 组还发现该游戏对学习更有帮助（p=0.04），并且由于该应用程序（p=0.04），学生对教学内容的参与度更高。总体而言，METIS 的可用性被评为优秀，学生在使用两种游戏模式（SP、DP，p<0.001）后成功提高了他们的牙科知识，其中涉及玩最多问题的“马拉松”游戏选项最受欢迎。
这些结果表明，像 METIS 这样的严肃游戏是增加学生对该领域知识和兴趣的合适教育媒介，与同龄人竞争甚至可以提供更大的动力来参与学习内容。
