Effectiveness evaluation of a serious game for dental lost wax casting training

A serious game module called "D-Casting" was developed in the previous study. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the D-Casting module.

The experiment consisted of two parts: construct validity assessment and skill transfer assessment. Eligible participants, who were students majoring in dental and dental technology, were recruited from the Stomatology College of Chongqing Medical University. The intervention was designed based on the serious games assessment framework.

The construct validity assessment recruited a total of 145 participants (100% response rate). The results suggested that D-Casting module could effectively distinguish novice and experienced students (86.67[15.832] vs. 88.62 [11.252] vs. 82.24 [15.674] vs. 96.39 [8.419]; P < 0.001). The skill transfer assessment recruited a total of 78 participants (100% response rate). This assessment showed that the group combined with D-Casting for teaching and learning performed better than the control group in the casting process (82.26[13.711] vs. 89.64[6.796]; Z = -2.033; P = 0.042). The simple mediation analysis showed that the direct effect from the instructing method to the scores of the casts was not significant (95% CI - 3.45 to 2.98), but the indirect effect (95% CI 3.42 to 12.39) and total effect from the instructing method to the scores of the casts (95% CI 2.50 to 12.27; P = 0.004) were significant.

This study determined construct validity and the skill transfer situation for the D-Casting module. Further multi-center experiments should be conducted to determine how skills are transferred through serious games.