Learning is good, learning while having fun is better. This is why these last fifteen years serious game have been developing for all ages and in all fields, particularly in the health one.
E-learning and serious game, what difference(s)?
Serious game is a particular way of e-learning. The latter is defined by the European Commission as “the use of Internet new multimedia technologies to improve learning quality by facilitating, on one hand, the access to resources and to services, and on the other hand the exchanges and the collaboration at a distance”. The serious game differs in that it is based on gaming—it allies recreation activities and pedagogy. The second difference could be that the serious game allows rather to acquire a knowledge by the experience whereas e-learning brings it more theoretical.
The origin of the serious game
The serious game, in its current version, appeared in 2002 in the United States with the “America’s Army”. This game had been developed for the American army which wanted to increase recruitment further to the entering of the USA in the Afghanistan war. It was launched during the United States national holiday as—beyond the training aspect and the fighting missions inside the simulation that it offers—it aimed to value the image of Army.
The market of the serious game
According to a study of Ambient Insight, serious games generated globally 2.6 billion dollars in 2016. In 2012, the French State invested 20 million Euros inside its program “France numérique 2012”in view to support 48 projects.
The serious game has developed in various domains, such as culture, economy, education, environment, marketing, politics, health, science and sport.
What about serious game for the health field
“Pulse!” is one of the first serious game developed by the American company Breakaway and conceived for the medical practice. The health professional has to establish the diagnosis of a patient who arrived at emergencies, and create the treatment. There are several scenarios with various severity cases.
Quite in the same way, the French agency Interaction Healthcare developed SIMUrgences, an emergency simulation game for cardiac pathologies.
Aiming at the patients this time, Voracy Fish is used to rehabilitate upper limbs after a stroke.
Other example, Chimiothérapie, is a serious game which allows to follow a young boy in its drug treatment. This game allows to answer the questions that can ask patients and their family, such as “To what intent is use a chemotherapy? How does it work? What are the consequences?“.
More information here.
Finally, there are some serious game aiming at a general audience. CINACity allows you to train in first aid techniques. It does not replace official training but it lets you acquire the good reflexes while waiting for help. He is available on the website curapy.com
If you wish to pass the first aid certificate, Salvum will train you on the theoretical part while doing the practical part with partner centres. More information here.
Last example, VIHdeo game, is a serious game aiming AIDS prevention. The game takes place in the format of an interactive story where the player is invited to make choices. For every good answer, the user is rewarded and advice is given on appropriate behaviour: AIDS screening test, your rights, the continuation of the treatment, etc. This game concerns mainly young people. In the report presented by Sidaction in 2016, the French organization fighting AIDS, only 16 % of the 15-25 years said themselves “very well informed about AIDS” and 24 % declared “not to be afraid of this disease”. While 30 % have a false representation of the disease and its modes of transmission —even more terrible—17 % of the latter think that “the emergency contraceptive pill is a way to prevent the transmission”!
Other revealing figures of the lack of information of the young people are to be found here. This serious game, available here, thus seems a playful and very useful way to inform these young people.
