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Serious Digital Game-Based Learning in Nursing Education
Thus, in trainings carried out with serious games, while simultaneously ad-
dressing the visual, auditory, sensory and psychomotor areas of the students,
it is also aimed for the student to have fun using the decision-making mech-
anism in the game. Moreover, in a serious game, students find opportunities
to improve their performance as measured by the scoring mechanism and
can also self-assess their progress (Lu & Lien, ). This situation, unlike train-
ing with traditional simulators, offers the student the opportunity not only
to reach the predetermined goal but also to benefit from the entertainment
element (Blakely et al., 9).
Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Nursing Education
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major changes in all areas of education.
Almost all levels of schools and universities had to stop face-to-face educa-
tion and then immediately switched to distance education methods. The in-
terruption of formal education forced nursing schools to rapidly develop and
effectively use distance education strategies (Min et al., ). Thus, in addi-
tion to the increase in distance education applications in nursing education,
educator and student experiences regarding the use of this technology in
education have also begun to develop. During the COVID-19 period, distance
education, online live or video-trainings were used effectively in nursing edu-
cation, and the internet and digital tools were used at this stage of education
(Baker et al. ). Innovative technologies, especially mobile applications,
virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), have begun to be used to im-
prove students’ clinical skills in nursing education and research has begun to
be conducted in this field (Güngör et al., 4).
The effectiveness of DGBL applications in developing nursing skills has re-
cently become the subject of many nursing studies. For example, Chang et
al. (1) study showed that DGBL tools are an effective alternative in the skill
training of nursing students, most students stated that serious game-based
learning positively affected their learning during the pandemic process, and
increased their communication skills and motivation (Chang et al., 1). It
is seen that serious games play an important role in terms of skill develop-
ment and psychological strengthening, as well as cognitive and knowledge
development. This situation has created an alternative way for the pandemic
to physically limit nursing education, and has supported educators and stu-
dents to make maximum use of technology in this process and contribute to
the educational processes. However, although the benefits of distance edu-
cation tools and digital technologies in nursing education are seen, it is also
stated that evaluating the impact of these technologies, especially in terms
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