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

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.

Conditions

• Surgical Education in Medical Students

Interventions

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.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Nanyang Technological University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Clement, Luck Khng Chia, MBBS, MS · Department of General Surgery, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore

• Lorainne Tudor Car, MBBS, PhD · Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

100 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-05-01

Primary Completion

2023-06-30

Completion

2023-06-30