Outcomes of the implementation of game-based anatomy teaching approaches: An overview

We aimed to investigate to what extent the literature supports that game-based learning (gamification) could play a significant role in anatomy education.

PubMed, Education Resources Information Center and Cochrane Databases were searched for papers with purpose to investigate the educational outcomes of game-based anatomy learning. We extracted from each paper the number of participants, type of study (comparative or not), level of evidence according to Kirkpatrick hierarchy, possible evaluation of statistical significance, method which was implemented, academic performance of participants after the educational intervention, perceptions about the effectiveness of game-based approach and its impact on motivation to learn.

Eight papers were included. Six of them were comparative, comprised assessment of students' examinations results and showed that those results were generally improved after exposure to game-based methods, in comparison with non-game-based ones. There is lack of evidence that the intensity of competition is correlated with the educational outcomes and that game-based approaches motivate students to a greater extent in comparison with other teaching methods.

Game-based methods could obtain a remarkable supplemental role in the blended learning approach, which is applied by anatomy educators. Further research is needed to shed light on the characteristics of game-based methods which are more useful and should be adopted.