NCT05520671

Evaluating TESLA-G, a Gamified, Telegram-delivered, Quizzing Platform for Surgical Education in Medical Students

Evaluating TESLA-G, a Gamified, Telegram-delivered, Quizzing Platform for Surgical Education in Medical Students: a Protocol for a Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 50 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Nanyang Technological University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 100 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Telegram Education for Surgical Learning and Application Gamified (TESLA-G) is an online, gamified quizzing platform for surgical education in medical students.The main objective of this pilot study is to assess the feasibility and acceptability of carrying out a full randomised control trial involving TESLA-G. A pilot randomised controlled trial involving 50 undergraduate medical students will be conducted. They will be randomised into an intervention group and an active control group. Feasibility will be determined by participant enrollment, retention rate, and quiz completion. Acceptability will be measured quantitatively via a post-intervention learner satisfaction survey and qualitatively via semi-structured interviews. Additionally, participants' scores for pre- and post-intervention knowledge tests will be compared.

Detailed description

Online multiple-choice question (MCQ) quizzes are a well-established summative assessment tool in medical education. However, they suffer from high drop-out rates, attributed to waning user motivation over time. Various studies have shown that incorporation of gamified elements into learning can promote engagement and motivation. In this pilot study, we will assess the feasibility and acceptability of a novel gamified quizzing platform, Telegram Education for Surgical Learning and Application Gamified (TESLA-G), to determine the possibility of a future larger-scale randomised controlled trial. This study entails a randomised controlled trial with two arms, an intervention group (TESLA-G) and an active control group (conventional quizzing platform). 50 first to fifth year medical students from Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University will be randomised into the two arms with a 1:1 allocation ratio, stratified by year of study. Participants will use the assigned quizzing platform to attempt questions on a specific topic (endocrine surgery) over a period of two weeks. At the end of the study period, several outcomes will be assessed. Feasibility will be determined by participant enrollment, retention rate, and quiz completion. Acceptability will be measured quantitatively via a post-intervention learner satisfaction survey and qualitatively via semi-structured interviews. Additionally, participants' scores for pre- and post-intervention knowledge tests will be compared.

Conditions

• Surgical Education in Medical Students

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Gamified online quizzing platform	TESLA-G is a novel gamified quizzing platform designed based on Bloom's taxonomy of learning domains. Questions will be created in blocks, where each block will test a specific topic within a specialty (endocrine surgery has been selected for this study). Each block has 5 questions, and each question corresponds to each level of Bloom's taxonomy and each level in game. For this study, we aim to create 56 blocks of 5 questions, totalling 280 questions. All questions will be created by two board-certified general surgeons and one endocrinologist, and validated by the research team. The aim of the game is for players to get as many points as they can before the timer runs out. Gamification elements include levels, countdown timer, lives, a point multiplier system, leaderboard rankings and a personalised dashboard. Participants in the intervention group will be provided with a link to access TESLA-G, sent from an automated Telegram bot; this access will be provided for 14 days.
OTHER	Conventional quizzing platform	The conventional quizzing platform will be a modified version of TESLA-G with all gamification elements removed. The same set of questions as the gamified version will be used. Upon entering the quiz, a question stem and five choices will be shown. When an option is selected, the right answer along with its explanation will be indicated. The next question will then be sent, and this process repeats until the participant leaves the platform or has answered every question. Questions will be queued in blocks, with each block corresponding to a particular topic in endocrine surgery. Unlike the gamified version, questions within each block will be randomised, regardless of their level on the Bloom's taxonomy. Participants will also not be informed of the level of Bloom's taxonomy for individual questions. The access link to the platform will be sent to participants from an automated Telegram bot, and this access will last for 14 days.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-05-01
• Primary completion: 2023-06-30
• Completion: 2023-06-30
• First posted: 2022-08-30
• Last updated: 2023-04-05