Abstract:

Gamification is understood as the use of game principles and elements in a non-game related environment, using the thought process in games and its mechanisms, to attract users and solve problems. Among the other elements, this strategy uses the design of goals and objectives, rules that limit actions, creating a narrative to contextualize the participants, freedom of choice and error and immediate feedback. It has been seen that this strategy can be carried out remotely, in the case of medical education, various benefits are identified that differentiate it from the real world practice, highlighting that the technology of educational games provides a safe environment in which students can obtain skills, experience, and correct mistakes during practice. Although extensive research has been carried out on the application of online gamification in medical education, there are still few studies that address the impact on learning. This research aims to evaluate the impact on learning through gamification in the Emergency Medicine course of medical students at undergraduate level. Methodology: A randomized controlled study will be carried out with volunteer participants. These are students who will attend a virtual lecture of the Emergency Medicine course delivered through the video communication app Zoom. This lesson will be guided by a lecturer, who will present the learning results on Resuscitation and Shock from the course. Later, the participants will be randomly assigned into two virtual learning modalities in Zoom plataform: a control group where students will attend a discussion session of clinical cases, while the second group will attend a lesson with gamified methodology. In the gamified session the lecturer will divide the students into groups of 4 participants who will solve clinical cases with the construction of a gamified story: they will simulate working in a Hospital Emergency Service with the case of a multiple-vehicle collision, and the patients are on the way. Participants will then access a series of Google Forms, where they will be handed 4 cases sequentially which will increase in difficulty and will be able to access depending on the result of the previous case. The gamification elements incorporated in the modality are the following: narrative, rules of the game, freedom to choose options, time restriction, progress, feedback, freedom to make mistakes, visible status, cooperation, competition, and surprise. Both groups will carry out the activities in parallel for 60 minutes and then will answer a final evaluation of 20 multiple choice questions, from which the learning level achieved from both methodologies will be measured. Expected results: It is expected that those students who have participated in the gamified activity will achieve better learning results compared to the control group.

Keywords:

Gamification, Emergency Medicine.