An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Educational Gaming as a Teaching Method for Therapists
This article describes an experimental study that examined the cognitive gain of occupational therapy students following either a traditional lecture method or an active gaming session. The students completed an identical pre-test, post-test and follow-up test in order to assess learning scores. They also rated their enjoyment of the intervention. At post-test, the lecture group showed superior cognitive gains. However, at a subsequent follw-up test after a number of weeks there were no significant differences, indicating that recall was the same for both the lecture and the game. A significant difference was observed in the interest and enjoyment value of the intervention, in favour of the game group. Finally, consideration of the confounding variables experienced in this study provides an insight into the difficulties of executing valid experimental research in the field of education.