Gamification of health education

Abstract

Purpose-The use of modern technology has many challenges and risks. However, by collaborating with schoolchildren, ideas to effectively promote health and learning in school can be identified. The purpose of this paper is to examine how a participatory approach can deepen the understanding of how schoolchildren relate to and use gamification as a tool to promote physical activity and learning. Design/methodology/approach-Inspired by the concept and process of empowerment and child participation, the methodological focus of this study was on consulting schoolchildren. During a two-month period, 18 schoolchildren (10-12 years old) participated in workshops to create game ideas that would motivate them to be physically active and learn in school. Findings-The phenomenological analysis resulted in one main theme, "Playing games for fun to be the best I can be." This consisted of four themes with two sub-themes each. The findings offer insights on how to increase physical activity and health education opportunities using serious games in school. Originality/value-The knowledge gained provides gamification concepts and combinations of different technological applications to increase health and learning, as well as motivational aspects suggested by the schoolchildren. The findings are discussed with health promotion and health education in mind.

Gamification, a Successful Method to Foster Leptospirosis Knowledge among University Students: A Pilot Study

“…The findings of the current study showed a significant increase in the knowledge of the students regarding leptospirosis following health education by gamification ( p < 0.01). The success of using gamification as a tool to promote health education by involving the participants in various physical activities was also demonstrated in earlier studies [45,58]. Gamification is a promising activity that helps people maintain and recall knowledge in interactive ways due to increased attention, commitment, and motivation.…”

“…Most of the respondents obtained good scores for the knowledge on disease treatment and prevention. This is not surprising, as most people believe that maintaining personal hygiene can prevent all types of infections [52,56,57,58].…”

Escape Room “Coronavirus COVID-19” en escolares de Educación Primaria

“…En este sentido, un meta análisis sobre la efectividad de la gamificación ha identificado resultados positivos del método de gamificación para niños de 6 a 10 años en diversas disciplinas y otros aspectos del desarrollo, mostrando que la efectividad del diseño posterior a la prueba muestra que el método de gamificación puede mejorar las habilidades cognitivas, actitud, lenguaje, salud y habilidades socioemocionales (Fadhli, Brick, Setyosari, Ulfa, y Kuswandi, 2020). Aspecto en sintonía con un estudio en escolares de 10 a 12 años que proporciona conceptos de gamificación y combinaciones de diferentes aplicaciones tecnológicas para aumentar la salud y el aprendizaje, así como los aspectos motivacionales sugeridos por los escolares (Kostenius, Hallberg y Lindqvist, 2018). En esta línea, encontramos experiencias exitosas en escolares de primaria (Jiménez, Navas-Parejo, Villalba, et al, 2019) de matemáticas (Claudio, Machancoses, y Piqueras, 2019) en educación secundaria obligatoria (Monguillot-Hernando, González-Arévalo, Zurita-Mon, et al, 2015) y adultos (Aguilar, 2019;Prieto-Andreu, 2020;Kinio, Dufresne, Brandys, y Jetty, 2019).…”

“…En concreto, el estudio de la gamificación en el área de la salud es reciente (Kostenius, Hallberg y Lindqvist, 2018), así como en la promoción de hábitos de vida saludables (Ferreira, 2019;Hortigüela-Alcalá, Hernando-Garijo, y Pérez-Pueyo, 2018) en términos del conocimiento de actividad física (Monguillot Hernando, González Arévalo, Zurita Mon, Almirall Batet, y Guitert Catasús, 2015), una nutrición saludable y su adherencia a la dieta mediterránea (Gómez del Río, González-González, Martín-González, Navarro-Adelantado, Toledo-Delgado, y García-Peñalvo, 2019).…”

Results of a postural education program, with a gamified intervention vs traditional intervention

“…Actually, Werbach and Hunter (2012), showed how gamification can generate in the students a significant segregation of dopamine, which intensifies neurological activity, increases the motivation, cognition, attention and the sense of the learning process. Gamification seems to be an effective tool for the promotion of physical activity, sports and other healthy lifestyle habits in the school environment (Kostenius, Hallberg, & Lindqvist, 2018;Martín-Moya, Ruiz-Montero, Chiva-Bartoll, & Capella-Peris, 2018;Monguillot, González-Arévalo, Zurita, Almirall, & Guitert, 2015), university (Pérez-López, Rivera-García, & Delgado-Fernández, 2017), and non-school spaces (Johnson, Deterding, Kuhn, Staneva, Stoyanove, & Hides, 2016). Instead, the practice and teaching of activities related to fitness and health should be done through fun and motivational activities.…”