Development of Game-Like Simulations for Procedural Knowledge in Healthcare Education

We present EGDA, an educational game development approach focused on the teaching of procedural knowledge using a cost-effective approach. EGDA proposes four tasks: analysis, design, implementation, and quality assurance that are subdivided in a total of 12 subtasks. One of the benefits of EGDA is that anyone can apply it to develop a game since it keeps development as simple as possible and uses tools for modeling and implementation that do not require a highly technical profile. EGDA has been applied to the creation of seven educational games in healthcare, and has been iteratively refined after each experience. EGDA is evaluated on two aspects. First, the effort and cost needed for creating these games is estimated and compared to current industry standards. Second, impact on knowledge acquisition and a student acceptance are discussed. Results suggest that EGDA can make game development more affordable, which is critical for increased adoption and scalability of game-based learning (GBL), while assuring a high educational value of the resulting games.