UPmémoires

English

Introduction

Game based learning is a concept used in educational science. Public health games are gradually developing to provide a positive and accessible view of health. They are mainly used in children's education for their social and pedagogical virtues, but suggest that they could be a method to integrate into the educational pathways of older students. The objectives of this study were to create a fun learning game on the theme of contraception and then to compare its effectiveness in terms of know ledge and satisfaction among midwifery students in Poitiers.

Method

Two randomized experimental studies were conducted. The first one concerned voluntary students of L2Ma and L3Ma. They were randomly divided into two groups. Students in the first group participated in a one hour educational game while students in the second group revised individually with handouts. At the end of the session, all students completed the same knowledge and satisfaction questionnaire.

The second study involved the final year student volunteers. The same knowledge questionnaire was given to them before and after a one hour educational game session.

Results

In this study, 40 students participated in the first phase and 14 in the second. Our results show that students achieve the same level of knowledge whether they play the game for an hour or review it individually. All students improve their score, with a 1.9 point gain on the knowledge questionnaire for students in their final year. The level of satisfaction is higher while playing (100% are satisfied while playing against 40% in the other group). Thanks to the game, all students feel they retain information over the long term, compared to 40% who review the information individually. Finally, 40% of the students in the game group (no students in the handout group) wanted to study for longer.

Conclusion

It seems that the interest of the pedagogical game is linked to learning but especially to its capacity to motivate and stimulate students. It would be interesting to test this kind of revision session several times on the same group of students to evaluate if their level of knowledge and satisfaction evolves.

Keywords : educational game, play, revisions, playful, contraception, knowledge, satisfaction.