Evaluation of an educational game for health sciences students

An educational game was developed to promote student problem solving in the context of small group, problem-based learning (PBL). This study evaluated the game's effects on hypothesis and issue generation in PBL. Students in the Year III PBL course of a BScN program (N = 131) were stratified by program status and then randomly assigned to groups of 9 to 11 people per group. Half of the groups were randomly assigned to use the game (G); the remaining groups used the conventional method (CM) of generating issues and hypotheses. The G and CM groups crossed over for Term II. A Term I posttest demonstrated G groups had a higher proportion of accurate responses (85%) than CM groups (74%). A Term II posttest demonstrated no important differences between G and CM groups, suggesting the educational impact of the game persisted after students stopped using it. Strengths and limitations of the game as a learning aid also are addressed.