Serious game based on Clinical cases: A multidisciplinary Approach for Self-assesssment in Dental Education

Abstract

Serious games have taken up an important place in the field of health. The aim of this work was to design and to develop a serious game for students in Dental Education. The interest is to perform a multidisciplinary approach of patients. Several clinical cases are available online and each of them concerns patients treated by students in Dental Hospitals. After choosing the e-patient, the serious gamer progresses in the game step by step. The game-play simulates the similar methodology as a dental practitioner in clinical reality. E-learners have to make a diagnosis in a limited time. Finally, the goal is to treat the epatient deciding the ideal treatment plan. The collaborative network between students and teacher(s) achieves an interactive learning and improves the quality of undergraduate Dental Education. The perspective is to promulgate dental education and to train young practitioners giving better dental care to patients after dental studies.

Serious Games and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Dental Education: An Integrative Review of the Literature

“…The fifteen articles included in this review comprised seven journal articles [23][24][25][26][27][28][29], three conference papers [30][31][32], four book chapters [33][34][35][36], and one master's thesis [37], including 11 serious games in dental education. Three serious games (reported in four articles) were designed for pre-clinical dentistry with a focus on tooth morphology in 2014 and 2017 [30,37], histology in 2019 [28], and skull anatomy in 2020 [36].…”

“…Three serious games (reported in four articles) were designed for pre-clinical dentistry with a focus on tooth morphology in 2014 and 2017 [30,37], histology in 2019 [28], and skull anatomy in 2020 [36]. Eleven articles were relevant to clinical dentistry, including dentin bonding for operative dentistry in 2011 [23], alginate mixing in 2013 [24], diagnosis and treatment planning in virtual dental patients in 2013 [33], dental public health in 2013, 2016 and 2017 [25,26,34], biosafety in 2018 and 2019 [27,35], dental anesthesia in 2019 [31], diagnosis in virtual endodontic patients in 2019 [32], and clinical skill assessment in 2020 [29]. These serious games and their details are presented in Table 1.…”

“…Seven of the eleven identified serious games in dental education enabled learning activities to be conducted online [23,[25][26][27][28][29][32][33][34][35][36]. With these online serious games, asynchronous distance learning can be considered as an important strength in this COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Instant feedback and immediate response appeared to be available in all included serious games in either formative or summative format [23,24,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]36]. The formative feedback allowed students to learn from their mistake [23,26], enabling them to improve their knowledge and skills.…”

“…Serious games can simulate a learning environment where students can experience dental practice safely. Dental students could be exposed to simulated patients in serious games, instead of 'real' clinical settings, to initially develop competences in oral diagnosis and treatment planning [32,33], as well as in local anaesthesia of the maxillofacial region [31]. This could minimise the risk of COVID-19 infection, whilst developing their skills in preparation for further training in clinical settings when possible.…”