Opportunities for building learning activities around real patients have decreased. Therefore, various forms of representative simulation have become an increasingly common alternative. Virtual patients is one such simulation developed to support the delivery of clinical teaching.

Game-based learning has been considered as a new way of delivering clinical teaching that is more suited to the new generation of ‘digital natives’.

Online multi-user virtual environments offer rich interactive 3D collaborative spaces where users can meet and interact. One example of such an environment is Second Life.

The Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London has developed a region in Second Life that aims to design game-based learning activities for delivery of virtual patients that can drive experiential, diagnostic, and role-play learning activities supporting patients’ diagnoses, investigations and treatment.

This paper discusses different learning types and the virtual patients developed in Second Life that follow a linear and a game-based learning approach based on a four-dimensional framework, as well as other design considerations that look at emergent narratives and modes of representation.

An overview of an ongoing research project at Imperial College is also provided. This project aims to explore the experience of computer and videogame play among medical students, and to identify gender-related differences and social propensities that might exist between high gamers and low gamers in their approaches to game-based learning in Second Life.

This paper aims to answer the following research questions:

Is there any gender-related difference regarding general attitude towards gaming when using Second Life for game-based learning?

Is there any relation between gaming competence and attitude towards gaming when using Second Life for game-based learning?

This investigation involves 25 undergraduate medical students from Imperial College London, average age 21 years old. The gender distribution of the respondents is 48% female (n = 12) and 52% male (n = 13).

The sample was kept small since the current architecture of Second Life limits the number of concurrent users in the region.

Two Focus Groups will be carried out in order to address the social dimension for collaborative gaming including gender-related issues.

The survey ‘My feelings when playing games’ including 21 statements will be administered to the participants. The survey developed by Bonanno, P. and Kommers, P.A. (2008) was developed to identify the different attitudinal components to gaming and explore their pedagogical implications.

Six statements relate to the affective component, five statements relate to perceived usefulness, six statements relate to perceived control and four statements relate to behavioural components. All statements describe behaviours while using games. Situations with positive feelings and well as situations with negative feelings such as fear, lack of control and hesitation have been addressed. A 5-point Likert scale is used.

Gaming competence was addressed by identifying participants under two different computer/videogame categories: high gamers or low gamers.

• High gamer includes all participants who responded having played computer or videogames a few days ago or a few months ago.
• Low gamer includes all participants who responded having played a few years ago or never.

Data about gaming competence was collected at the beginning of the investigation aiming to identify gaming tendencies among undergraduate medical students.

The sample analysed included 118 full-time, undergraduate medical students average age 22 years. The majority of respondents (47%) were male, and (34%) of all students completed the survey.

From this group a stratified sample has been selected according to gender and individual gaming competence.

The overall participant’s attitude, called general attitude, will be defined by summing all the individual statement scores. The higher the score, the more favourable is the attitude.

Recommendations will be drawn based on the major attitudinal components and the gender-related tendencies identified.

These recommendations will guide academics in the design of game-based learning activities supporting gender-related demands within a Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE).

This paper focuses on the relationship between the initial Respiratory Medicine knowledge of students before and after being exposed to three different teaching delivery methods: traditional face2face, interactive e-learning materials and immersed game-based learning in Second Life.

The population is represented by undergraduate medicine students. Three samples of 20 students each will be randomly selected among 118 students.

Two Focus Groups will be carried out in order to address the social dimension for collaborative gaming.

A method for performing these investigations has not been identified yet. The Rasch model has been considered.

This paper will focus on the findings after applying the survey ‘My feelings when playing learning in Second Life’ and ‘My feelings when using e-learning’ to two different groups.

One group will be exposed to an interactive e-module on Respiratory Emergencies: Pneumothorax, while the other one will cover the same content but interacting with game-based learning activities in Second Life.

The survey comprising of 21 statements will be administered to the participants. This survey developed by Bonanno, P. and Kommers, P.A. (2008) was developed to identify the different attitudinal components to gaming and explore their pedagogical implications.

Six statements relate to the affective component, five statements relate to perceived usefulness, six statements relate to perceived control and four statements relate to behavioural components. All statements describe behaviours while using games. Situations with positive feelings and well as situations with negative feelings such as fear, lack of control and hesitation have been addressed. A 5-point Likert scale is used.

Two Focus Groups will be carried out in order to address the social dimension for collaborative gaming including gender-related issues.

Maria Toro Troconis, PhD student

m.toro@imperial.ac.uk