In this session you will be able to play with a Jeopardy style game developed by Texas A&M University, College of Medicine. With the help of Articulate, low-cost buzzers and MakeyMakey is possible to engage students and create a fun learning environment for classes of any size. Let's play, learn together and have fun!
For the first time, the College of Medicine at Texas A&M University experimented with playing an interactive Medical Jeopardy with a classroom of 200 first year medical students. Faculty and staff were concerned that not all of the students would have the opportunity to play and properly engage. To everyone’s surprise, all of the students were excited and participating in a very competitive level.
Based on Henderson (2005), we knew that games reduce stress and anxiety, and effectively increase student’s retention of knowledge, promotes relaxation while learning, and add value to learning. So we decided to develop an effective TV show game using the technology that we had.
The Office of Academic Technology developed the first generation of the Medical Jeopardy game in March 2016 that included 3 rounds with 30 questions per round and a final question.
In addition to the main application, a digital buzzer application was developed with Storyline 2. The buzzer worked on a second computer using the MakeyMakey, a USB computer board that connects an everyday energy-conducting object to a computer, to connect four table-top buzzers.
A month later, the game was re-used for a different course but with students from the second year. We had improved the buzzers, cables, and the game itself, and feedback and experience were very positive as well.
We are currently working in the development of the second generation of the game to improve the user interface and to include the game and buzzer in just one application.
The third generation of the Medical Jeopardy will be a collaborative project, where faculty can contribute worldwide with more questions and categories, and deploy this game in an online environment.
This session will be focused on the development of the game, buzzer application, setup to play the game in large groups, and the use of the MakeyMakey to develop a home-made buzzer system at a low cost. From a poster, participants will have access to pictures from the Game Day and a video testimony, using an Augmented Reality application.
The College of Medicine is planning to license it the project under a Creative Common License to share it with more schools. However, it can be replicated to use it in any other discipline using the same educational tools.
During this session, the participants will:
- Identify the setup to play this game in a lecture room with 200 students
- Discover how Storyline 2 was used to develop the Jeopardy game and buzzer application.
- Experiment with the MakeyMakey to connect an everyday energy-conducting object to a computer
- Play the Jeopardy game with OLC questions using apples, carrots, and bananas as buzzers.
This project was the recipient of the Women in EdTech Scholarship Award at OLC Innovate 2016, as part of Patricia Luna’s work.
Reference: Henderson D. (2005) Games: making learning fun. In Annual Review of Nursing Education, Vol. 3 (Oermann M.H. & Heinrich K.T., eds), Springer Publishing Co, New York, 165-183