Digital escape room as an instrument for the acquisition of specific knowledge in basic biomedical sciences

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic turned the world towards digitized learning. In the present day, the increased demand for online education produces an even greater request for quality courses and well-established processes for teaching relevant contents. Simultaneously, modern pedagogical trends promote the application of gamification as a tool for improving motivation, developing new skills and strengthening knowledge retention. In this context, Digital Escape Rooms have become an educational tool of great interest, in terms of new approaches to game-based learning.

Objective: The general objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of a Digital Escape Room to facilitate the acquisition and the maintenance of students' knowledge applied in Biomedical Sciences.

Methods: An educational game, the Genetics Escape Room, will be created with Genially. It will be based on 4 contents: genome, mutations, polymorphism and genetically transmitted diseases. The participants will consist of ca. 240 first year students enrolled in “Cellular Biology and Human genetics” in Dentistry Degree. They will be divided into an experimental group that will play Escape Room, and a control group that will visualize a virtual master class about the same 4 contents of the Escape Room. To evaluate students´ knowledge, all participants will complete a 20-question test (5 questions for each content) performed at three different time points. Firstly, two weeks before the experiment as pre-test, to assess students’ previous knowledge, secondly at the end of the gamification or the virtual class (post-test 1), and finally in two weeks’ time to evaluate knowledge retention when compared the two methods (post-test 2).

To evaluate students’ opinion about the experience, a perception survey will be completed.

Hypothesis: The following hypotheses are going to be considered: - We expect that the use of the escape room may well be equally as effective as a master class in increasing student knowledge and understanding. - A higher degree of retention of knowledge for lifelong learning is expected among students who play escape room. - We expect a higher motivation and an increase in the appreciation of Human Genetics subject among students who take part in the escape room.