COULD A DENTAL PUBLIC HEALTH GAME BE EFFECTIVE FOR DIFFERENT LEARNING CULTURES?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore how a serious game, GRAPHIC (Games Research Applied to Public Health with Innovative Collaboration), could be effective for students from different learning cultures.

Methods: Final-year undergraduate students (2015/16) from Kings College London [KCL] and Mahidol University [MU] were invited to use GRAPHIC in their own language; however the scientific evidence was available in English only. GRAPHIC requires students studying Dental Public Health (DPH) to read information of a town and then select the best five oral health promotion programmes to improve oral health of a population in the town. GRAPHIC-IV was developed to enhance aspects of pedagogy and entertainment. The game engine logged the number of submission attempts and the results of the pre- and post-test assessments. After game completion, each student completed a feedback questionnaire. Statistical analysis involved independent t-test of the number of submission attempts between institutions; paired t-test was used to analyse pre- and post-test score differences. Descriptive analysis was used to present the feedback questionnaire data. Ethical approvals were obtained from KCL (BDM/14/15-27) and MU (COA.No.MU-DT/PY-IRB 2015/002.1901).

Results: 151 KCL and 115 MU students used GRAPHIC, of which 146 (96.7%) and 111 (96.5%) respectively completed the game including pre- and post-tests. The average number of attempts for successfully completing students was 6.9 (SD=4.9) for KCL and 15.1 (SD=4.1) for MU (p<0.001). Post-test scores were significantly higher than pre- test at KCL [16.7 (SD=2.5) CF 16.2 (SD=2.3); (p<0.05)] and MU [17.1 (SD=2.2) CF 16.3 (SD=2.4); (p<0.001).

Overall 140 (90.3%) KCL and 109 (94.8%) MU students completed questionnaires: 83 (59.3%) KCL and 55 (50.5%) MU students reported that GRAPHIC could help them understand the content of designing oral health promotion. Although 63 (45.0%) KCL and 38 (34.9%) MU students felt more confident with DPH work, less than one fifth disagreed [25 (17.9%) KCL; 18 (16.5%) MU]. Almost one half of students recommended the development of more scenarios for use with GRAPHIC [65 (46.4%) KCL and 53 (48.6%) MU].

Conclusion: There was a gain in knowledge in students from two learning cultures and there was evidence that the game helped some students with understanding DPH at undergraduate level; however, the use of the game differed in the two institutions.