Abstract:

Purpose:
To assess the use of gaming in learning clinical psychophysics

Methods:
45 students of the subject ‘Clinical Examination Methods’, belonging to the fourth year of the degree in Optics and Optometry, participated in the gymkhana.
The students, working in groups of five, had to solve six tasks involving fundamental clinical psychophysics concepts (psychophysical methods, anomalous color vision, perimetry maps and contrast sensitivity), for which they were awarded different badges. This activity counted as an additional point in the student’s final marks, at 0.15 points per completed task. Students where issued a map and a sheet indicating where and when to find each task. We used different spaces in the campus (labs, gardens, the library…).
The gymkhana took 2 hours. Students were allowed to use their notes and internet resources, through computers placed at some points of the itinerary or through their mobile phones.
After completing the gymkhana, the students presented their result sheets and assessed the activity by answering a 5-point rating questionnaire. In their final exams, one month afterwards, we included four questions similar to those in the gymkhana. Results were analysed to assess the potential benefits of the activity for the acquisition of fundamental concepts and to determine which aspects of this project might be improved.

Results:
Although only 27.3% of the teams successfully completed all the tests, the majority (54.5%) failed just one. The remaining 18.2% failed 2 (9.1%) or 3 tests (9.1%). The tasks with worse results were those requiring some kind of calculation.
The 28 participants answering the survey considered the activity funny (3.9+1.1), original (4.1+1.1), interesting (3.8+1.0) and innovative (4.0+1.1). Students concluded that they had improved their knowledge (3.1+1.3), and that this activity should be introduced in other subjects of the curriculum (3.2+1.5).
Unfortunately, the perceived improvement in knowledge did not correlate with the exam results. Although 9 teams successfully identified images perceived by dichromats, only 16.1% of the students were able to describe correctly in the exam the color gamut perceived by these subjects. A modified binary search was correctly implemented by 8 teams but only by 3.6% of the students in the exam. Finally, all groups were able to complete a task about the pattern difference map and 9 groups completed a task based on analysis of the contrast sensitivity function, but the corresponding questions in the exam were answered correctly by 3.1% and 33.9% of the students, respectively.

Conclusions:
The gymkhana was a nice event for the students, but we must reconsider its potential benefit as a means to improve knowledge of the subject. Students did not use the internet to access information but to share their solutions. In fact, the only test where this was not possible was the one with worse results.
After the poor final exam results, the activity must undergo significant modifications. Though students perceived it as a welcome change and as both challenging and fun, whatever the students did learn, was learnt too superficially to leave a lasting effect.

Acknowledgements:
This project was granted by the Innovation Projects Call from the Vicerrectorado de Ocupación y Programas Formativos, University of Valencia, under grant number UV-SFPIE_PID19-1097715.

Keywords:

Gymkhana, psychophysics, funny learning.