RSS

Teaching Adequate Prehospital Use of Personal Protective...

12 June 2020
Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to increased use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Adequate use of this equipment is more critical than ever because the risk of shortages must be balanced against the need to effectively protect health care workers, including prehospital personnel. Specific training is therefore necessary; however, the need for social distancing has markedly disrupted the delivery of continuing education courses. Electronic learning (e-learning) may provide significant advantages because it requires neither the physical presence of learners nor the repetitive use of equipment for demonstration. Objective: Inclusion of game mechanics, or “gamification,” has been shown to increase knowledge and skill acquisition. The objective of this research was to develop a gamified e-learning module to interactively deliver concepts and information regarding the correct choice and handling of PPE. Methods: The SERES framework was used to define and describe the development process, including scientific and design foundations. After we defined the target audience and learning objectives by interviewing the stakeholders, we searched the scientific literature to establish relevant theoretical bases. The learning contents were validated by infection control and prehospital experts. Learning mechanics were then determined according to the learning objectives, and the content that could benefit from the inclusion of game mechanics was identified. Results: The literature search resulted in the selection and inclusion of 12 articles. In addition to gamification, pretesting, feedback, avoiding content skipping, and demonstrations using embedded videos were used as learning mechanics. Gamification was used to enhance the interactivity of the PPE donning and doffing sequences, which presented the greatest learning challenges. The module was developed with Articulate Storyline 3 to ensure that it would be compatible with a wide array of devices, as this software generates HTML5-compatible output that can be accessed on smartphones, tablets, and regular computers as long as a recent browser is available. Conclusions: A gamified e-learning module designed to promote better knowledge and understanding of PPE use among prehospital health care workers was created by following the SERES framework. The impact of this module should now be assessed by means of a randomized controlled trial.

This is the abstract only. Read the full text free (open access) on the JMIR Serious Games website. JMIR is the leading ehealth publisher: fast peer-review - open access - high impact.

Age-Associated Capacity to Progress When Playing...

12 June 2020
Background: The decline of cognitive function is an important issue related to aging. Over the last few years, numerous mobile apps have been developed to challenge the brain with cognitive exercises; however, little is currently known about how age influences capacity for performance improvement when playing cognitive mobile games. Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the score data of cognitive mobile games over a period of 100 gaming sessions to determine age-related learning ability for new cognitive tasks by measuring the level of score improvement achieved by participants of different ages. Methods: Scores from 9000 individuals of different ages for 7 cognitive mobile games over 100 gaming sessions were analyzed. Scores from the first session were compared between age groups using one-way analysis of variance. Mixed models were subsequently used to investigate the progression of scores over 100 sessions. Results: Statistically significant differences were found between age groups for the initial scores of 6 of the 7 games (linear trend, P<.001). Cognitive mobile game scores increased for all participants (P<.001) suggesting that all participants were able to improve their performance. The rate of improvement was, however, strongly influenced by the age of the participant with slower progression for older participants (P<.001). Conclusions: This study provides evidence to support two interesting insights—cognitive mobile game scores appear to be sensitive to the changes in cognitive ability that occur with advancing age; therefore, these games could be a convenient way to monitor cognitive function over long-term follow-up, and users who train with the cognitive mobile games improve regardless of age.

This is the abstract only. Read the full text free (open access) on the JMIR Serious Games website. JMIR is the leading ehealth publisher: fast peer-review - open access - high impact.
NIH basic training course on transcranial magnetic...

NIH basic training course on transcranial magnetic...

10 June 2020
NIH basic training course on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) - Risks and SafetyDr. Sarah Lisanby, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Noninvasive Neuromodulation Unit, discusses the safety...
View More 
Sarah H. Lisanby: Introduction to Transcranial Magnetic...

Sarah H. Lisanby: Introduction to Transcranial Magnetic...

10 June 2020
Sarah H. Lisanby: Introduction to Transcranial Magnetic StimulationDr. Sarah Lisanby, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Noninvasive Neuromodulation Unit, describes the purpose of a series of...
View More 
NIH basic training course on transcranial magnetic...

NIH basic training course on transcranial magnetic...

10 June 2020
NIH basic training course on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) Physical Parameters & ProtocolsDr. Bruce Luber, a staff scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, provides...
View More 
First154155156157159161162163Last