Leveraging game-informed healthcare education

Abstract

The perceived potential of computer games to afford healthcare teachers new, innovative approaches to designing compelling experiential learning activities continue to grow apace. This paper considers the current 'state of play' with regards to the introduction of game-based learning activities into healthcare education. Game-based learning invites opportunities for richly immersive learning activities, but is expensive to implement, and time consuming to develop. There are also significant risks inherent in attempting to embed learning activities within recognizable game frameworks and genres. This work, therefore, attempts to establish a clear differentiation between game-based and game-informed learning. Where game-based learning attempts to situate learners as players and provide learning activities within a recognisable game delivery model, game-informed learning suggests that it is possible to make teaching practices more game-like by applying the principals of game play without necessarily having to be committed to developing a game to produce the same compelling, immersive learning experiences.