Conference proceeding
Digital Gaming: The HIV Replication Cycle and Biomedical Graduate Education
European Conference on Games Based Learning, p75
01 Oct 2016
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Despite advances in scientific discoveries and in pedagogy, how we teach complex concepts to post-secondary (i.e., graduate) students about human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), other topics in infectious, inflammatory, and oncogenic disease and other areas of medicine has remained in essence unchanged: lectures and reading of textbooks and/or primary literature. While students thrive in our graduate programs, we hypothesize that we can improve learner experience and outcome by introducing 3D digital games. Our first attempt will be a 3D digital game about how HIV invades human cells and replicates in them. In order to replicate, viruses must hijack a specific target cell in the host and use its machinery to create progeny viral particles. The HIV replication cycle can be organized into basic seven steps, and their complexity increases if viewed from the cellular to the molecular level of resolution. Our proposed game will showcase these seven steps at the cellular (basic) and the molecular (advanced) levels. Since the advanced level builds upon the basic level, the first planned prototype that can be used to test our hypothesis is a basic-level Adventure game for touch screen devices or computers, in which students play as a viral particle that must replicate in a human host. Players will need to complete seven basic missions based on each of the steps in the HIV replication cycle. The missions will showcase the specific processes and components involved at each step, and will encourage students to think logically and apply their background knowledge of cellular biology to the game mechanics. Upon completion of each mission, players progress to the next mission/step of the infection cycle. The individual behaviour of each player will result in unique scoring, that will be determined by accurate game-play (i.e., players using the correct cellular components to complete each mission/step), game precision and answering of learning questions. Our plans of designing, developing, implementing and assessing this novel 3D digital game to educate graduate students on the replication cycle of HIV are discussed.
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Details
- Title
- Digital Gaming: The HIV Replication Cycle and Biomedical Graduate Education
- Creators
- Carla Brown - Drexel UniversityAroutis Foster - Drexel UniversityBrian Wigdahl - Drexel UniversitySandra Urdaneta-Hartmann - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- European Conference on Games Based Learning, p75
- Publisher
- Academic Conferences International Limited
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- School of Education; Microbiology and Immunology
- Identifiers
- 991019170590704721
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