Serious Games on the Lived Experience of Dementia as Learning Tools in Pharmacy Education

Dementia is a stigmatized and often ‘invisible’ condition which requires clinicians to have a nuanced understanding of the lived experience to build trust and provide better quality of care. Pharmacists are at the frontline of care for patients who may have dementia and there is a need for effective and engaging learning opportunities to prepare them for caring for patients living with dementia. Serious games have gained popularity for their potential in facilitating safe and engaging learning opportunities. However, there are limited applications of serious games in clinical education on the topic of dementia and little transparency on the development process. The thesis work outlined in this project intends to explore how serious games can best facilitate a learning experience for senior pharmacy students to better their understanding of the lived experience of dementia. The primary objective was to develop a serious game with multi-stakeholder input. The secondary objective was to provide game design recommendations for development of serious games on this topic based on end-user play-testing experiences. During both the development and user-testing, qualitative methods were used to gather thorough feedback and understand individual play experiences, namely semi-structured interviews and the think-aloud protocol. To develop a serious game, the game design framework for medical education was adapted in this project, which involved three stages: preparation and design, development, and formative evaluation. In the first stage, a clinician and a systems design expert were consulted to develop the first prototype. In the development stage, the prototype was reviewed by stakeholders including clinicians, people with lived experiences of dementia or care partners, and serious game researchers through semi-structured interviews, resulting in iterative improvements. Stakeholder feedback culminated in the development of a serious game with the goal of helping pharmacy students better understand the lived experience of dementia, in a digital, non-linear story format. During the final formative evaluation stage of game design, 11 senior pharmacy students, a pharmacy educator, and a social worker with expertise in dementia care tested the game. Their learning and play experiences were gauged through the semi-structured interview and think-aloud protocols. The qualitative data was analyzed using the framework method of analysis. Three factors were necessary for creating an engaging learning experience about dementia for senior pharmacy students. The first was facilitating understanding of dementia through an experiential approach using a realistic environment and authentic storytelling. The second was providing a problem-oriented experience by providing meaningful player interaction opportunities and creative freedom. Finally, novelty in the game format was necessary for an engaging experience. Future directions include recruiting more stakeholders and student participants with experiences relating to dementia, and utilizing these recommendations to improve on the game and assessing its impact on student empathy and confidence in caring for patients who have dementia

A Case Study of Using Online Communities and Virtual Environment in Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) as a Learning and Teaching Tool for Second Language Learners

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) create large virtual communities. Online gaming shows potential not just for entertaining, but also in education. This research investigates the use of commercial MMORPGs to support second language teaching. MMORPGs offer virtual safe spaces in which students can communicate by using their target second language with global players. Using a mix of ethnography and action research, this study explores the students’ experiences of language learning and performing while playing MMORPGs. The results show that the use of MMORPGs can facilitate language development by offering fun, informal, individualised and secure virtual spaces for students to practise their language with native and other second language speakers

Technology Solutions for Developmental Math: An Overview of Current and Emerging Practices

Reviews current practices in and strategies for incorporating innovative technology into the teaching of remedial math at the college level. Outlines challenges, emerging trends, and ways to combine technology with new concepts of instructional strategy

Spartan Daily, February 25, 1941

Volume 29, Issue 95https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/3257/thumbnail.jp

The Cowl - v.30 - n.9 - Apr 27, 1977

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 30, Number 9 - April 27, 1977. 12 pages. Note: The volume number printed on the banner page of this issue (XXX) duplicates the volume number for the 1967-68 academic year

Chief Kerry's moose : a guidebook to land use and occupancy mapping, research design, and data collection

Aboriginal peoples in Canada have been mapping aspects of their cultures for more than a generation. Indians, Inuit, Métis, non-status Indians and others have called their maps by different names at various times and places: land use and occupancy; land occupancy and use; traditional use; traditional land use and occupancy; current use; cultural sensitive areas; and so on. I use “land use and occupancy mapping” in a generic sense to include all the above. The term refers to the collection of interview data about traditional use of resources and occupancy of lands by First Nation persons, and the presentation of those data in map form. Think of it as the geography of oral tradition, or as the mapping of cultural and resource geography. (PDF contains 81 pages.

Spartan Daily, May 2, 1966

Volume 53, Issue 111https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/4845/thumbnail.jp

Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works

Considering the education-to-employment system as a highway with three critical intersections -- enrolling in postsecondary education, building skills, and finding a job -- this research has determined places where students take wrong turns or fall behind, and why. With increased data and innovative approaches, employers, educators, governments and youth can create a better system