Gamified Learning Effectiveness Model

Introduction

The incorporation of gamification technology into the medical education curriculum is a dynamic and innovative way to enhance preclinical and clinical learning outcomes (McCoy et al., 2016). Gamification can be used as a holistic teaching, learning and assessment intervention to maximise the learning opportunity for all learner (Buckley & Doyle, 2017). A quasi-experimental study conducted by Ohn MH et al. (2019) revealed that digital online gamified learning is more effective than conventional electronic learning (e-learning) in undergraduate medical learning. It was found that the dropout rate of learning without gamification was 1.5 times higher than learning with game elements (Sousa-Vieira et al., 2021). Patrício et al. (2021) mentioned that gamification promotes achievement of specific goal directed learning intervention and idea development among learners in a structured and relaxed learning environment. Gamification also encourages teamwork spirit, knowledge transfer among team members, social character building, creativity, and productivity (Patricio et al., 2018). Campillo-Ferrer et al. (2020) highlighted that gamification encourages creativity, minimises distraction, and improves social, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) competencies. Özdener (2018) also uncovered that gamification increases learner engagement and participation as it was found that learners view more pages if existing of gamification elements. According to Huang & Soman (2013), gamification is perceived to play a vital role in the motivation of students and the enhancement of positive learning attitudes and behaviors. As a result, there has been an increasing interest in the use of gamification technology in medical education. Gamification provides a learning environment that provides instant gratification as well as fosters motivation and engagement in learners. Furthermore, gamification eliminates the negative feelings (such as frustrations or cynicism) that are present in traditional learning environments. Based on the existing literature, gamified learning can be infused into the medical curricula to improve learning outcomes (Akl et al., 2010; Bateman et al., 2013; Courteille et al., 2008) and the level of engagement of learners (Freeman et al., 2014; Ortiz-Rojas et al., 2017; Pettit et al., 2014). However, there is little to no available evidence of how the use of gamification impacts learning achievement for medical students (Akl et al., 2013). Thus, there is a need to conduct further research studies to evaluate the effectiveness of gamification in medical education.