Medical Students’ Perceptions of Play and Learning: Qualitative Study With Focus Groups and Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Background In times where distance learning is becoming the norm, game-based learning (GBL) is increasingly applied to health profession education. Yet, decisions for if, when, how, and for whom GBL should be designed cannot be made on a solid empirical basis. Though the act of play seems to be intertwined with GBL, it is generally ignored in the current scientific literature. Objective The objective of our study was to explore students’ perceptions of play in leisure time and of GBL as part of a mechanistic, bottom-up approach towards evidence-informed design and implementation of GBL in health profession education. Methods We conducted 6 focus group discussions with medical and dentistry students, which were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results A total of 58 students participated. We identified 4 major themes based on the students’ perception of play in leisure time and on the combination of play and learning. Our results indicate that, while play preferences were highly various in our health profession student cohort, pleasure was the common ground reported for playing. Crucially, play and the serious act of learning seemed paradoxical, indicating that the value and meaning of play are strongly context-dependent for students. Conclusions Four key points can be constructed from our study. First, students play for pleasure. Perceptions of pleasure vary considerably among students. Second, students consider play as inefficient. Inefficiency will only be justified when it increases learning. Third, play should be balanced with the serious and only be used for difficult or tedious courses. Fourth, GBL activities should not be made compulsory for students. We provide practical implications and directions for future research.

Gamification for the Win in Internal Medicine Residency: A Longitudinal, Innovative, Team-Based, Gamified Approach to Internal Medicine Board-Review

“…They developed cheers that were heard while waiting for conferences to begin. Literature supports that game-based learning positively impacts team building and comradery, and we noticed this with our program [1,2,[6][7]9]. We observed that residents would attend in higher numbers, even when they were on busy inpatient services.…”

“…Gamified systems have the potential to significantly positively impact learning climate, learner engagement, and relatedness [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. We believe the "Cohort Cup" accomplished this mission by appropriately facilitating a competitive environment to harness the potential of game-based learning.…”

“…Overview: Any number of teams: Works best in large teams (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10). Teams send a "tribute" to the center where there are different category cups filled with slips of paper that each has one question written on them.…”

“…Given the basis for gamification as a useful learning technique, the value and perception of game-based learning have been described with an emphasis on engagement, learning climate, and learner perspectives 2 2 [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Studies have shown modest improvements in knowledge and surgical skills with respect to gamified educational systems; most of this work has been done in subspecialties within Internal Medicine and Surgery [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”

Identifying Player Types to Tailor Game-Based Learning Design to Learners: Cross-sectional Survey using Q Methodology

“…Although there are myriad ways to design game-based learning strategies [ 2 - 4 ], there is little good-quality evidence to guide the choice of the most effective game-based learning design in a given educational context [ 1 ]. This, in turn, may increase the likelihood of choosing suboptimal or even counterproductive game-based learning strategies [ 5 ]. Hence, there is a need for empirical research to inform future game-based learning design [ 1 ].…”