GAME-BASED TEACHING IN OPHTHALMOLOGY: A PILOT EXPERIMENT

*Rihab Ghanma, MD, FRCS and Khalil Rawashdeh, MD.

ABSTRACT

Aim: To evaluate effectiveness and usefulness of game-based learning in ophthalmology teaching hospital. Methods: This is a retrospective evaluation of an experiment of game-based learning. It was applied in the department of ophthalmology at King Hussein Medical City in Amman/Jordan. Adopted competitive group game and modified to fit the target of the trial. One week after, a survey was sent anonymously to the attendants. The results were analyzed and expressed in percentages. Results: The number of attendees were 100 ophthalmologists, 65% were ophthalmology residents. Three teams were formed, with four residents in each. The respondents were 44 in number: a quarter were senior residents; another quarter were juniors. More than 80% gave a score of 5 (very enjoyable), The attention during the whole period of the event scores were 81.8% replied by “more than 80% of the time”. The remaining 18.2% replied by “50% -70%”. The responses described the trial as “informative” (76%), “fun” (77.3%), while 2.3% was given to “stressful”. Hundred percent of responders asked for the trial to be repeated. Compared to a lecture format, 81.8% responded that the competition was a better way to retain information. Conclusion: Game-based teaching trial was considered a very informative source of information yet highly enjoyable. We believe it is a needed teaching model, especially in highly competitive and stressful workplace.

Keywords: Game-based teaching, lectures, attention span, ophthalmology.