Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May 4;32(3):649-655.
doi: 10.1007/s40670-022-01552-7. eCollection 2022 Jun.

Leveraging Technology and Gamification to Engage Learners in a Microbiology Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education

Jeremey Walker  1 , Jose Pablo Heudebert  2 , Mukesh Patel  1   3 , John D Cleveland  4 , Andrew O Westfall  4 , Donald M Dempsey  5 , Alfredo Guzman  1 , Anne Zinski  6 , Monica Agarwal  1 , Dustin Long  4 , James Willig  1 , Rachael Lee  1   3
Affiliations

Leveraging Technology and Gamification to Engage Learners in a Microbiology Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education

Jeremey Walker et al. Med Sci Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Microbiology is a critical and expansive topic that many medical schools' curriculum must teach in a constrained time frame. We implemented a microbiology question bank smart phone app enhanced with game elements and clinical pearls during a microbiology course for first-year medical students. We hypothesized that these enhancements and clinical pearls would engage the students meaningfully and increase their knowledge base.

Methods: Though use was optional, students' game play was recorded through the app, which was compared to test grades retrospectively. A player efficiency rating (PER) was calculated as a function of question response, accuracy, and engagement. Students were separated into tertiles of PER and median exam grades were compared using a non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis (KW) test. An anonymous satisfaction and usability feedback survey was also administered.

Results: One hundred eighty-one of the 189 students (96%) answered at least one question, and 165 (87%) completed all 56 questions. The average PER was 84.75. We received feedback surveys from 61 (34%) students in the course, with positive responses regarding the perceived impact on learning microbiology. The KW test found a positive correlation for median exam scores of the player groups when divided into tertiles by PER (p = 0.0002).

Conclusions: We leveraged gamification and clinical pearls to design a supplemental microbiology question bank. We found high engagement overall and higher class exam scores associated with greater use of the question bank.

Keywords: Curriculum; Gamification; Microbiology; Undergraduate medical education (UME).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of InterestsWe received grant support as acknowledged above to support our application. None of our authors has any conflicts of interests to report. Our study was approved by our institutions Internal Review Board and permission granted through the Office of the Registrar. The datasets generated during and analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Game timeline with questions answered overlay
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Overall exam average by PER tertile
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Melber DJ, Teherani A, Schwartz BS. A comprehensive survey of preclinical microbiology curricula among US medical schools. Clin Infect Dis. 2016;63(2):164–168. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciw262. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Jayakumar KL. Applying feedback lessons to online medical question banks. J Grad Med Educ. 2018;10(1):109. doi: 10.4300/JGME-D-17-00621.1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Finnerty EP, et al. Flexner revisited: the role and value of the basic sciences in medical education. Acad Med. 2010;85(2):349–355. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e3181c88b09. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chandrasekar P, Havlichek D, Johnson LB. Infectious diseases subspecialty: declining demand challenges and opportunities. Clin Infect Dis. 2014;59(11):1593–1598. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciu656. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Walsh JL, et al. Formative student-authored question bank: perceptions, question quality and association with summative performance. Postgrad Med J. 2018;94(1108):97–103. doi: 10.1136/postgradmedj-2017-135018. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources