Introduction

The incorporation of serious games in higher education has shown improvement in student engagement and motivation to learn. Research that explores local pharmacy student preferences of gamification aspects of serious games is scarce. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate local pharmacy student experience, preference, and perceptions of gaming and game-based learning.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted by distributing self-administered questionnaires among pharmacy students in Malaysia. Descriptive statistics, the Mann–Whitney test, the Kruskal–Wallis test, and the Spearman's correlation test were used for analysis.

Results

A total of 328 pharmacy students enrolled in this study, and 84.1% (n = 276) had video game experience. Students usually played video games using mobile phones (n = 231, 70%). Pharmacy students showed positive perceptions regarding serious games with a mean score of 3.69. However, limited awareness and knowledge of serious games was observed among pharmacy students. The most preferred game genres were role-playing and strategy (n = 174, 53%). Pharmacy students also preferred playing a cooperative game style (n = 113, 34.5%) with scores as a reward system (n = 204, 62.6%). Over three quarters (n = 292, 89.3%) wanted to see the results of the assessment after the game.

Conclusions

This research provided information on serious games preferences of local pharmacy students. Further study should evaluate the acceptance and effectiveness of the implementation of serious games among pharmacy students in Malaysia.

中文翻译：

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药学学生对游戏和基于游戏的学习的体验、偏好和看法

介绍

将严肃游戏纳入高等教育已显示出学生参与度和学习动机的提高。探索当地药学学生对严肃游戏游戏化方面偏好的研究很少。因此，本研究旨在调查当地药学学生对游戏和基于游戏的学习的体验、偏好和看法。

方法

一项横断面研究是通过在马来西亚的药学学生中分发自我管理的问卷来进行的。描述性统计、Mann-Whitney 检验、Kruskal-Wallis 检验和 Spearman 相关性检验用于分析。

结果

共有 328 名药学学生参加了这项研究，其中 84.1% ( n  = 276) 有电子游戏经验。学生通常使用手机玩电子游戏 ( n  = 231, 70%)。药学学生对严肃游戏表现出积极的看法，平均得分为 3.69。然而，药学学生对严肃游戏的认识和知识有限。最受欢迎的游戏类型是角色扮演和策略 ( n  = 174, 53%)。药学学生也更喜欢玩合作游戏风格 ( n  = 113, 34.5%)，以分数作为奖励系统 ( n  = 204, 62.6%)。超过四分之三（n  = 292, 89.3%）希望在赛后看到评估结果。

结论

这项研究提供了有关当地药学学生严肃游戏偏好的信息。进一步的研究应该评估马来西亚药学学生实施严肃游戏的接受度和有效性。