The Effectiveness of Gamification vs. Traditional Teaching in Undergraduate Medical Education

August 24, 2025 updated by: Iran University of Medical Sciences

The Effectiveness of Gamification-Based Learning Versus Traditional Classroom Teaching in Acute Cholecystitis and Pancreatitis Education Among Medical Students: A Quasi-Experimental Study

This study will evaluate the effectiveness of a gamification-based learning method (board game) versus traditional teaching (lecture) in enhancing the knowledge of acute cholecystitis and pancreatitis among medical students in the general surgery ward at Rasoul Akram Hospital. This study will be conducted as an extra-curricular program, using pre- and post-tests to determine the effectiveness of gamification in general surgery learning within undergraduate medical education. The board game will incorporate innovative educational strategies to engage students in learning about acute cholecystitis and pancreatitis

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

30

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Iran
    • Tehran Province
      • Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran
        • Iran University of Medical Sciences

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Medical students in their clinical externship in the general surgery ward.
  • Willingness to participate voluntarily.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Previous knowledge or exposure to acute cholecystitis and pancreatitis.
  • Lack of consent or inability to attend the sessions.
  • Medical students not currently assigned to general surgery clinical rotations.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Gamification group
The gamification group will consist of teams of three to four members, who will engage in the board game under the supervision of the supervising investigator for one hour.
Other: Gamification ( Board game )
A three- or four-player board game will be designed to teach acute cholecystitis and pancreatitis. The game has two stages: educational (houses 1-9) and reinforcement (houses 10-30). Players roll dice and move their pieces to answer various questions such as multiple-choice, true/false, matching, puzzles, and scenario-based problem-solving. Each player starts with three hearts, and if they land on one of the three red "trap" spaces and answer incorrectly, they lose one heart. Yellow spaces introduce random events like gaining or losing hearts. One space features a general knowledge question for variety. Players must achieve a point threshold in the educational section to move to the reinforcement section, and the highest scorer at the end of the hour wins. Groups of 3 or 4 students will play for one hour under the supervision of the investigator.
Active Comparator: Class group
The class group will consist of individuals who will attend a one-hour traditional, lecture-based session led by a faculty member in general surgery
Other: Traditional lecture-based teaching
Students will attend a standard one-hour lecture delivered by a general surgery faculty member, covering the same topics. PowerPoint presentations prepared by the research team will ensure consistency with the game content.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in knowledge of acute cholecystitis and pancreatitis
Time Frame: Baseline (pre-intervention) and immediately after the intervention
Change in Test Scores from Pre-test to Immediate Post-test, Containing 20 Multiple-Choice Questions and 10 Short-Answer Questions, Assessing Knowledge of Acute Cholecystitis and Pancreatitis: A Comparison Between Two Groups
Baseline (pre-intervention) and immediately after the intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Retention of knowledge on acute cholecystitis and pancreatitis
Time Frame: 6 weeks after the intervention
Retention of Knowledge Assessed by Test Scores 6 Weeks Post-Intervention, Containing 20 Multiple-Choice Questions and 10 Short-Answer Questions, on Acute Cholecystitis and Pancreatitis: A Comparison Between Two Groups
6 weeks after the intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Iran University of Medical Sciences

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 15, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 15, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

May 30, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 3, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 3, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

January 8, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

August 29, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 24, 2025

Last Verified

August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IR.IUMS.REC.1403.896

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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