The study explored the challenges and potential of online gamification to develop actionable recommendations for entrepreneurship pedagogy in the phase of ‘new normal’. This study applied an experimental game which the authors developed, and a mixed method was applied to the data sets collected from the students: an open-ended survey of 91 students and in-depth interviews with 23 students. It has been found that the students perceiving activities with gamifications are good learning stimuli in entrepreneurial classrooms as a first step; then, they found it effective to learn and deepen their understanding of theories and models as a second step after the gaming activities, which is a reverse approach from a traditional business education approach. Gamification enables students to think critically on game scenarios via participation in gamifications, which can be strengthened and embedded in their mind by theoretical learning which follows the gaming activities. The findings of the study provide a practical guidance for entrepreneurship pedagogists with ‘activities first’ which will be followed by theoretical learning.

Gamification in education has been discussed with potential for further implementation at universities; however, practical suggestions concerning which key issues educators need to consider has far not been shared in academia. This study applied a qualitative approach using interview data with 24 students who participated in the business class with games as learning measures. It has found that most of them believed that gamification could be useful in reinforcing key themes and topics after having learnt them through traditional means: They appreciated the games as a supportive measure to ‘glue’ key knowledge to their learning. A significant drawback that they emphasised was that taking notes is not easy while they are involved in games, which made them unconfident and uncertain about the learning outcome. As a result, a conceptual framework for pedagogy stakeholders was proposed for further discussion of how to design a gamification-based curriculum effectively.

BackgroundHealth care is generally considered to be more highly valued in urban areas than in rural areas. However, studies have reported that there is no difference in the health care values of urban and rural areas in the Kingdom of Thailand, with some studies even indicating that these values are stronger in rural areas. We, therefore, conducted interviews and implemented a qualitative investigation and analysis aimed at elucidating ideals relating to the medical environment among the Kingdom’s urban and rural citizens.MethodsThe study targeted Thai citizens residing in urban and rural areas. The city of Khon Kaen, located in Khon Kaen Province in northeastern Thailand, was selected as the urban area for the study. We selected Donyang village, located in the same province, as the rural study area. In July 2014, we conducted semi-structured group interviews, applying the Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) analytical approach.ResultsWe interviewed ten people in Khon Kaen (the urban area) and seven people from Donyang village (the rural area). Five major and distinctive themes emerged from the interviews. These were: locally appropriate standards of medical care, support for local lifestyles, satisfaction with local medical personnel, healthy lifestyles that do not rely on medical services, and desire for regional autonomy/desire to serve the region in terms of medical care. All of these themes were evident in both study areas. Thus, rather than relying on advanced medical services, both urban and rural Thai citizens expressed the desire to continue living within communities (considered as “families”), contributing to them, and tending to all of their health care needs within their communities.ConclusionsThis study revealed five common themes relating to forms of medical care regarded as ideal among urban and rural citizens of Thailand. Its findings could potentially have important implications for areas characterized by urban–rural inequities relating to the accessibility and utilization of medical services.

This study aims to develop a discussion framework regarding the applicability of online games in higher education institutions for enhancing the understanding of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. A typology of online games is discussed, and games are categorised into three types: knowledge education, survival simulation experience and urban design simulation. A quantitative method was applied in this study, with data being collected from game participants who played games of the three types. Ten game attributes were used as potential independent variables to estimate the dependent variable of the participants’ understanding of the SDGs, using structural equation modelling. The developed and verified models indicate that each type of game had a unique impact on the participants’ perceptions of the SDGs based on various factors. This information could be useful as a guide for pedagogists aiming to enhance students’ awareness and understanding of the content and contexts of specific SDGs.

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