Acquiring Critical Thinking and Decision-Making Skills: An Evaluation of a Serious Game Used by Undergraduate Dental Students in Dental Public Health

Abstract

© 2017, The Author(s). Serious gaming claims to provide an interactive and motivational approach to learning; hence, it is being increasingly used in various disciplines, including dentistry. GRAPHIC (Games Research Applied to Public Health with Innovative Collaboration)-II, a serious game for dental public health, was used by dental undergraduates at King’s College London, in the 2013–2014 academic year. The aim was to explore the use of GRAPHIC and student perspectives on the game. Students were divided into two groups with 79 students in each group, based on timetabling schedules to use the game as part of their learning. The average number of submission attempts by students in group 1 and group 2 used to complete the game was 18.3 (SD = 14.45) and 8.9 (SD = 16.80), respectively (p < 0.001). Logged data also showed that more students in group 2 completed the game with only one attempt (n = 23), compared with group 1 (n = 4). Amongst these students there were four different patterns of satisfactory answers which constituted their chance to ‘win’ and a range of times. Across the two groups, a number of students completed the game with a high number (>30) of attempts (n = 18). These findings suggest that whilst some students may have completed the game using a collaborative approach, others may have used a random approach to complete the game. These two strategies are considered to hinder students from achieving learning outcomes within the game, and may be related to the limitations of the game in managing the role of failure. Feedback from students towards the game was positive overall with further development suggested. In summary, GRAPHIC contributed to dental public health education, and the logging system of gaming activities can be considered as a helpful feature of serious games, to permit academic staff to identify and assist students in achieving learning outcomes, and inform future game refinement.