Designing of a game-based learning framework for training pharmacy students

Abstract

Schooling pharmacy undergraduates need to concentrate not only on the basic knowledge of pharmaceutics but also on pharmacy technical skills delivered to the students. There are several reasons that obstruct raising pharmacy students to achieve lecturer expectations which results in pharmacy graduates' lack of skills needed for the market. One of the real reasons which is focused in this research is students get bored in class. Game-Based Learning (GBL) is one of the assistant systems for improving the students such as acquisition, training and learning skills. Additionally, games can provide immediate feedback, situated learning without risk, high motivation and enjoyment for learning. The aim of this paper is to design a game-based learning framework for training pharmacy students, where the unity game engine has been used to develop the game-based learning system and the knowledge engineering techniques have been used to capture pharmaceutical knowledge from experts such as suggestion information, drug information, communication practice, etc. In order to measure student skill development, the system was designed to evaluate student achievement and also provide them immediate feedbacks. Finally, the preliminary result shows the user satisfaction survey demonstrating impact of the game-based learning system on pharmacy education which could facilitate positive pharmacy undergraduates' experiences before they graduate.