Gamification in the Teaching of Embryology for the Medical Curriculum: Application and Evaluation of a Game

Abstract

The increasing number of studies on the use of active methodologies has promoted the application of such resources by professors in the field of morphology. Gamification has been the focus of increasing attention since the beginning of the last decade, its central idea is to take advantage of the motivational potential of games for the classroom environment. This work sought to verify the reliability of an evaluation scale for educational games and the effectiveness of a board game as an active tool for teaching embryology. The potential and limitations of the scale used were also studied. To achieve this objective, an active practical class was held with medical students from a Brazilian higher education institution. The study included 215 students, of legal age, enrolled in the first to eighth phases of the course. The content addressed during the intervention referred to the period from the first to the eighth week of embryonic development, addressed through a board game. At the end of the activity, students were invited to answer a questionnaire to evaluate educational games. After data collection, exploratory factor analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS® Statistics 22.0 software. It was observed that the assertions Relevance3, Confidence4, Satisfaction3, Immersion1, Challenge2, Skill1, Social Interaction3 and Fun5R had the most significant factorial load. The results suggest that gamification can bring important benefits when well used.