Serious Gaming as an Additional Learning Tool for Medical Education
Background Computer-based learning methodologies have become more prevalent in the last decade. Web based serious gaming and virtual patients are novel in medical education, which have the potential to become important tools to improve today's medical students' knowledge and performance.Methods A total of 81 medical students participated in our study. They were either assigned to an intervention group or a control group . The intervention group completed a serious game module designed for Basic Life Support education. The control group received a theoretical lecture on the same content. On the next day both groups received simulation-based hands-on training for BLS using the same criteria. All students were assessed with an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) the following week. Results There was no difference between the intervention group that used a web based serious game module for BLS and the control group that received a standard theoretical lecture from the faculty. Discussion and Conclusion Computer based interactive serious games seem to present a favourable additional tool for medical education. OSCE results imply, that the use of serious games as a self-learning strategy can be as useful as theoretical lectures; which means that it is saving time of learners and educators