Development of a virtual home visit serious game for physiotherapy students to use when formulating a falls risk management plan for an older adult

Abstract

A virtual home visit serious game was developed to give students a "picture" of the processes around the aims of a home visit and to provide them with an authentic experience where they needed to gather information in order to formulate a falls risk management plan for a client. A key factor in terms of the development of the game was to make it easily accessible to students with minimum requirements from technological support and to be available on desktop, tablet and mobile devices. One hundred and forty-seven (41 males and 106 females) third year physiotherapy students enrolled in physiotherapy courses at Curtin University Perth WA played the virtual home visit serious game in order to gather the appropriate data to formulate a falls risk management plan for the client The virtual home visit serious game was developed using HTML5. It does not need any plugin or extra downloads. It can be played on desktop, tablet, mobile and virtual reality devices. Students access the serious game from the Moodle Learning Management System allowing tracking of student engagement. The virtual home visit provides students with an experience of the processes involved when undertaking a home visit where the aim of the visit is to assess the older client for their risk of falling. While playing the game, students are required to gather information about the client and the hazards and falls risks within her home and then use this information to formulate a falls risk management plan. Students also were required to identify the type of hazards and risks in order to gain points toward a game score. Students had the opportunity to play the game 3 times to either gain as much information as possible or to gain a higher score. Data indicated that students found it easy to access the virtual home visit serious game via Moodle Learning Management System and that there were very few technological issues that needed to be solved in a timely fashion in order for students to complete the learning tasks. The administration of the game from an academic perspective also required very little assistance from technical support. Feedback indicated that the virtual home visit serious game assisted students with the application of theory to practice. Students were also asked to complete a survey that asked them about their use of computer and mobile devices and gaming behavior. Analysis of the technology survey indicated males (n=17) were more likely to play computer games to rate their computer skills higher in comparison to others of a similar age (n=15; 75%) than females (n=30; 60%). Even though females spent longer playing the game than males all students gathered appropriate amount of information in order to complete the falls risk management plan. Students found it easy to access the virtual home visit serious game via Moodle Learning Management System. There were very few technological issues that needed to be solved in a timely fashion in order for students to complete the learning tasks. The administration of the game from an academic perspective also required very little assistance from technical support. Feedback indicated that the virtual home visit serious game assisted students with the application of theory to practice. The virtual home visit serious game was easily administered to students and required minimal technology assistance and assisted with students' preparation for clinical placements.