Pathfinder: a modified collaborative game for learning and team development.

Abstract

Introduction: Games and other active learning techniques provide engaging, situation-based experiences that allow for immediate feedback and student empowerment. However, many games require significant time commitments and remain burdensome for faculty to integrate easily across other topics. Description of Innovation: The authors modified a leadership activity to create a Pathfinder^® game for recruitment and educational purposes. The highly cooperative and interactive maze design embeds a quiz to retrieve knowledge. Participants are tasked with finding their way out of a square maze on the floor, physically moving throughout the maze and answering quiz questions as they correctly navigate a pre-determined path known only by the gamemaster. Previous implementations of the Pathfinder^® game include in-class learning, team-building, and prospective student recruitment. At the end of the game, one class of students were surveyed to gather feedback. Findings: The descriptive survey gathered 36 student responses of which 75% agreed or strongly agreed that the game enhanced their learning experience, while 86% of students felt the game was fun and/or engaging. The game provides a low stakes mechanism for students to assess their knowledge and practice team building and communication. Importantly, Pathfinder^® is highly adaptable to other disciplines/content areas and requires a relatively low amount of preparation time. However, adequate physical space is needed for successful implementation. Summary: Pathfinder^® is an interactive game that provides an opportunity for participants to work on communication and knowledge retention in an engaging and highly adaptable format that can be modified for virtually any topic or discipline.