Evaluation of students' motivation during the gamification of electrocardiogram interpretation learning

Abstract

Introduction: The quality of the training of medical students is one of the guarantors of the proper functioning of our health system. Gamification is an innovative educational pedagogical method that stimulates the pleasure of learning and encourages learner motivation.
Aim: To evaluate the subjective and external motivations and academic self-efficacy of DCEM1 students by playing with TD sessions designed to learn the systematic interpretation of rhythm disorders on surface ECGs using playing cards.

Methods: It was a descriptive, cross-sectional study. Three successive groups of 25 students each took part in this study which took place at the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis. Each group was subdivided into 5 subgroups. During the TD session, the same 18 playing cards are distributed to each subgroup, and various wide and thin QRS tachycardia ECG plots are projected successively. Each subgroup should collect playing cards related to the methodical interpretation of each ECG trace and establish the final diagnosis of rhythm disorder. At the end of the pedagogical training, an anonymous self-assessment questionnaire to measure the types of motivation and academic self-efficacy was submitted to the students.

Results: Seventy-five students participated in our study. They were mostly female (sex ratio = 4). Gamification learning using playing cards has generated learners' intrinsic motivation (5.89 ± 0.97), allowing them to feel more confident in themselves, capable of acquiring new skills. Regarding extrinsic motivation, having good results on the exam was not their main concern (4.34 ± 1.23). This learning method has created a feeling of self-efficacy among our learners (5,004 ± 0,98). Indeed, they proved to be able to assimilate the fundamental notions of the course (5.86 ± 1.26), to understand the most complex material of the course (5 ± 1.55) and to acquire the competences targeted by this course (5.41 ± 0.5 ). Finally, all learners were satisfied with the method of gamification learning using playing cards. They recommended that this method be generalized throughout all ECG sessions.

Conclusion: Gamification learning seems to be an effective and appropriate approach to teaching in the medical field since it allows to associate the notion of pleasure and the act of learning and stimulating motivation and self-efficacy learners.