1Instructor, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok-10330, Thailand
2Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok-10400, Thailand
*Email: thira.w@chula.ac.th
Online published on 3 August, 2013.
In the era of seeking how to make humanised health professionals, traditional learning environments are at increasing risk of failure due to changing patterns of the learners. Gamification is defining as a concept that is composed of reward, competition and motivation strategies, which have been popular among business sector.
A total of 321 first-year medical students were included into the gamification activity sessions in the Doctor and Society course in 2011. Four preset learning objectives were provided. Term group project was assigned with clouding technologies. Participatory evaluation was done to assess the deliverables and the attitude towards gamification method.
All students and 50 external evaluators added friend via their Facebook account to the Docsoc2011 page. Nineteen out of twenty (95%) groups fulfilled all objectives. Females rated higher score for gamification sessions than males (P<0.001). We found statistically significant differences between lecture-based sessions and field visit sessions as well as gamification activity sessions and other types (P<0.01). These results were consistent in both male and female groups.
Gamification method is well accepted with higher satisfaction than other types of teaching. Public health mind and social determinant of health can be learned through the activities, and might be additional drivers for humanised health professionals.
Gamification, Medical education, Medical teaching, Social network, Public health
