When it’s all fun and games: gamification of child abuse medical education

Abstract

Background and Objective Game-based learning has been used in medical education, but there are limited studies to date addressing the use of gamification in child abuse education. Child abuse is a content area that is undertaught in medical schools. This study aimed to explore the feasibility, acceptability, and perception among medical students of the online game-based platform Kahoot! for learning about child abuse. Materials and methods Kahoot! was utilized to deliver a 1-hour child abuse education session to 10 groups of medical students on their pediatric clerkship between 2021 and 2023. At each of the game-based sessions, medical students were asked whether they had used Kahoot! before, whether they preferred Kahoot! to a traditional lecture style, and whether they would like Kahoot! to be utilized for their education in other specialties. They were asked to describe this format of education in 20 characters or less and were given the opportunity to provide both quantitative and qualitative feedback through routine medical school course evaluations. A secondary outcome of this study sought to assess the enthusiasm of physicians in the field of child abuse for use of Kahoot! in medical education. We report descriptive statistics for the quantitative measures and a narrative summary supplemented by a visual representation of the qualitative feedback. Results A total of 346 students participated in the game-based education sessions. Ninety-three percent of participants preferred the game-based education compared to a traditional lecture format, and 90% wanted gamification to be utilized by other specialties. Qualitative feedback from the students described the format as engaging, fun, and interactive. Of 165 physicians in the field of child abuse who were surveyed about their interest in using Kahoot!, 159 (96%) responded affirmatively that they would consider incorporating it into their teaching regimen. Conclusion Our findings suggest the use of gamification was feasible and acceptable to medical students as well as physicians in the field of child abuse. Most medical students preferred the use of game-based education to traditional lectures and found the content to be fun, engaging, and interactive.