The use of web-based classroom gaming to facilitate cognitive integration in undergraduate nursing students: A mixed...

Classroom gaming is a promising teaching and learning strategy that has been shown to facilitate engagement and meaningful learning. This paper aimed to determine whether classroom gaming using a web-based platform can facilitate cognitive integration to prepare undergraduate nursing students for clinical practice.

A sequential explanatory design mixed-methods study was conducted. A randomized controlled design study, with knowledge and simulation performance as outcome measures, was conducted. This was followed by focus group discussions.

There is a significant improvement in pre- and post-test scores (t=-4.47). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the pre-test scores (t=1.50) of the intervention group and those of the control group. Similarly, the post-test scores of these groups were also not significantly different statistically (t=-0.15). Skills assessment results also showed no difference between the scores of those in the intervention group and of those in the control group (t=1.19). Themes generated were: useful for revision, linking of concepts, and gaming as a challenge.

The use of classroom gaming to facilitate integration of knowledge based on knowledge and performance tests did not yield positive results. However, focus group interviews demonstrated that the study's participants perceived strategy to be helpful in their learning.