Background and objective

The workings of medical educational tools are implemented using a myriad of approaches ranging from presenting static content to immersing students in gamified virtual-reality environments. The objective of this paper is to explore whether and how different approaches for designing medical educational tools affect students’ learning performance.

Materials and methods

Four versions of an educational tool for the study of clinical cases were implemented: a 2D version, a gamified 2D version, a gamified 3D version, and a gamified immersive-virtual-reality version. All complying with the same functional requirements. Each version was used and evaluated by an independent group of students. The participants (n = 78) evaluated the applications regarding usefulness, usability, and gamification. Afterward, the students took an exam to assess the retention of information on the clinical cases presented.

Results

One-sample Wilcoxon signed-rank tests confirmed that the participants perceived that it was at least quite likely that gamification helped improved their learning. In addition, based on the participants’ perception, the gamification of the immersive-virtual-reality version helped the most to improve their learning performance in comparison with the gamified 2D and 3D versions.

Conclusions

Regardless of whether different versions of a medical educational tool (complying with the same functional requirements) are perceived as equally useful and usable, the design approach (either 2D, 3D, or immersive-virtual-reality with or without gamification) affects students’ retention of information on clinical cases.

中文翻译：

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2D，3D和沉浸式虚拟现实应用程序用于医疗保健教育的比较案例研究。

背景和目标

医学教育工具的工作采用多种方法来实现，从呈现静态内容到让学生沉浸在游戏化的虚拟现实环境中，一应俱全。本文的目的是探讨设计医学教育工具的不同方法是否以及如何影响学生的学习成绩。

材料和方法

实施了用于研究临床病例的教育工具的四个版本：一个2D版本，一个游戏化2D版本，一个游戏化3D版本和一个游戏化沉浸式虚拟现实版本。全部符合相同的功能要求。每个版本均由独立的学生小组使用和评估。参与者（n  = 78）评估了有关有用性，可用性和游戏化的应用程序。之后，学生参加考试以评估所呈现的临床病例信息的保留性。

结果

一样本Wilcoxon签名秩检验证实了参与者认为游戏化至少有可能改善了他们的学习。此外，根据参与者的看法，沉浸式虚拟现实版本的游戏化与2D和3D游戏化版本相比，最大程度地改善了他们的学习表现。

结论

无论是否将医学教育工具的不同版本（符合相同的功能要求）视为同等有用和可用，设计方法（2D，3D或具有游戏化或无游戏化的沉浸式虚拟现实）都会影响学生的保留率有关临床病例的信息。