The Pedagogical Impact of Board Games in Public Health Biology Education: The Bioracer Board Game

Abstract

ABSTRACT We developed an analog board game, BioRacer to further student learning in the field of public health biology and assessed its impact on learning by conducting a mixed method study. The purpose was to ascertain whether and how gaming could be a valuable learning experience for students in a lower year level undergraduate course in public health biology. The quantitative data were collected through pre- and post-tests in class sessions, which were analysed through a mixed-design Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) conducted in R (version 3.3.1). Qualitative data was gathered through six focus groups where an inductive coding strategy was used to analyse the transcriptions. The result of mixed-design ANOVA revealed slightly significant improvement in students’ post-test scores in the teaching intervention group that incorporated the use of the board game. Three major key themes emerged from the focus group interviews: engagement; memory retention; and teamwork. Overall, the results of this study showed that students found the board game helpful in facilitating their learning of course content. Based on the results of the study, we discuss the implications of utilising educational analog board games in public health biology pedagogy to enhance the learning experience of students.