Perio Pickup

Dr Robert Hirsch
Faculty of Dentistry

What It Is
A game for fourth & fifth year undergraduate dental students which focusses on academic and clinical knowledge in Periodontics (the part of dentistry dealing with the gums and gum diseases).

Why I Did It
When the first wave of DIY computer-aided learning authoring packages became available, I spent many hours writing an interactive program relating to sharpening periodontal instruments. The final product worked OK, but I noticed that students tired of it/ lost concentration after a few minutes. They didn't learn much from it either, as experience in the clinic was to show.

I came to the conclusion that there can be something very isolating and 'soul destroying' about sitting in front of a computer terminal learning something and that unless the program is extemely rivetting and slickly produced, students will quickly turn off & wish they were somewhere else. One of the problems we face, I believe, is that we are surrounded by so many highly professional and clever information packages (TV & computer) that any products that look even slightly 'home made' will be rejected as having little inherent value.

How It Works
My next foray into an alternative/ different form of teaching came during a short period of study leave. I developed a game called Perio Pickup (modelled on Trivial Pursuit). This could be played by a group of up to 6 students and consisted of question sheets (suggested answers on the back) and a reward system for correct answers. Questions came in 6 categories of clinical & academic Periodontics and the idea was to correctly answer a question in each category to win the game. The questions were clinically relevant and included photographs of specific cases.

What Students Thought
The response from students was very favourable. Here learning occurred in an interactive social environment, rather than an interactive but more sterile user-computer environment. I think this made all the difference with regard to learning. Other advantages were that the tutor could participate at different levels. For example, you could sit in the corner and observe the level of knowledge displayed by each player as their turn came around. Or, you could use an individual question to launch off on a mini tutorial about that particular condition or treatment plan; indeed some playing sessions involved discussion about only 1 or 2 questions.

The questions have also been used to help students who are struggling academically and who have difficulty in final exam technique, particularly since the style of questions in PerioPickup are being increasingly used as exam questions by the Department.

Comments
Although the game was very time consuming to make, it is probably less so than the average CAL program. I believe the issue of high quality finish is not as important with the hard copy teaching tool as it is with computer generated or video products.