A study on comparison of learning effects between a board game and a lecture about infection control

In order to provide an opportunity for community pharmacists to actively learn about infection control, this study created learning materials through a board game format and verified characteristics of learning by determining and comparing evaluation according to viewpoint and motivational effects between a lecture and the game. To create the board game, we collected cases of infection from 30 community pharmacists. The game was created using collected and created case studies, and we held a workshop on infection control. Participants were assigned to a lecture (n = 32) or game group (n=27) and completed a questionnaire before and after the workshop. The questionnaire included the evaluation according to viewpoint based on the ministry's curriculum guidelines and the motivational effect of Keller's ARCS motivation model. In the evaluation according to viewpoint, the lecture group scores were significantly higher on "knowledge and understanding" than the game group scores. In the comparison of the motivational effects, the game group was significantly higher in three out of the four items of the ARCS motivation model, "Attention", "Relevance", and "Satisfaction". These results indicate that learning through the game aroused the curiosity of the learners, increased the learning outcome, and maintained certain levels of motivation. In addition, the evaluation according to viewpoint showed that the lecture group understood the key concepts and knowledge regarding infection control, whereas there was a possibility that the game group required additional motivational factors for learning and maintaining motivation level.