"Pharmacotrophy": a playful tournament for game- and team-based learning in pharmacology education - assessing its impact on students' performance

Abstract

Background: At the Faculty of Pharmacy of Paris, we conducted a pharmacology tournament in 2021 and 2022, named "Pharmacotrophy", to offer a game-, team- and competitive-based learning innovation based on fun and challenge. This article aims to (1) provide a detailed overview of the organisation of "Pharmacotrophy," (2) present and compare feedback from both students and teachers, and (3) assess the impact of student participation on their exam marks.

Methods: "Pharmacotrophy" took place in 2021 and 2022 over a two-week period at the beginning of the exam revision phase. It involved a combination of remote matches using the online quiz creation tool Kahoot!® and in-person matches. Teams, consisting of three students from the 4th or 5th year, participated in several selection rounds leading up to the final match. The questions covered various topics from the pharmacology curriculum. Using an anonymous online survey, we collected the feedback from students and teacher regarding the organisation of the tournament and the interest and difficulty of the different type of questions. We retrospectively compared the exam marks of 4th year students who took part in "Pharmacotrophy" (n₂₀₂₁ = 19 and n₂₀₂₂ = 20) with those of the rest of the 4th year (n₂₀₂₁ = 315-320 and n₂₀₂₂ = 279-281), both in the year before "Pharmacotrophy" and just after the tournament.

Results: Students highlighted the educational benefits of team-based and game-based learning. This novel approach positively and constructively motivated students to review pharmacology. Additionally, students appreciated the establishment of a trust-based relationship with their teachers. All students had a similar pharmacology level based on their exam results in the year before "Pharmacotrophy." After the tournament, participants had marks 20.1% higher in pharmacology questions compared to non-participants (p = 0.02), while they had comparable overall levels, as evidenced by their final grade averages and marks in non-pharmacology questions. Moreover, participants who advanced further in the competition achieved higher marks in pharmacology questions compared to those who were eliminated early in the tournament.

Conclusion: The implementation of "Pharmacotrophy" provided students with an enjoyable way to review pharmacology coursework and revived the interest in pharmacology for some. Specifically, participating in "Pharmacotrophy" led to an increase in pharmacology marks for students who were not among the top performers in the class or did not excel in pharmacology in the previous year. This study quantified the pedagogical value of this innovative curriculum in terms of knowledge acquisition.

Keywords: Competition-based learning; Education research; Game-based learning; Pedagogical innovation; Pharmacology education; Pharmacotrophy.

Fig. 1

2022 “Pharmacotrophy” overall design

Fig. 2

Students’ evaluation of the overall organisation of 2022 “Pharmacotrophy” (n = 28)

Fig. 3

Pedagogical interest and perceived difficulty for students and teachers in different question types (n = 10) in 2022 Each plot corresponds to the mean score for a type of question. Correlations were made using Pearson’s correlation test. A: r = − 0.2762, p = 0.0375; B: r = 0.7296, p = 0.0166; C: r = 0.5659, p = 0.0881; D: r = 0.2158, p = 0.5494

Fig. 4

Ratios of the individual mark to the class mean in the PNEDI exam, depending on the progression in “Pharmacotrophy” Final-stage reached detailed (A) or pooled (B). “Overall mean” correspond to the overall PNEDI mark, which combines the mark for the pharmacology and non-pharmacology questions. Means are indicated by a horizontal bar or “+”. Comparisons were performed using Kruskal-Wallis test. n_{Group stage}= 10, n_{Quarter-final}= 13, n_Semi-final= 9, n_Final= 7, n_{Final stage}= 29, n_{Non-participants}= 596-599.**p < 0.01