Development of a digital game to raise young adults’ awareness of viral infections

• Autor(a) principal: Proença, Frederico Gonçalves
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/36737
• topic: Digital games; Game-based learning; Microbiology; Situation awareness; Viral infections

Emerging viral infections and risks posed to human health have led to an urgent need of having scientific, prompt, and appropriate in-time information during viral outbreaks. Since young adults have greater mobility and heterogeneity in daily contacts, raising awareness of viral infections in this age group is extremely important. Digital games have already been used as effective tools to encourage healthy behaviors. However, there is a general lack of knowledge in game design considerations to inform about viruses and raise players' awareness of viral outbreaks. Thus, exploring the use of digital games and design considerations to influence players' decision-making in daily routines to fight against viral infections and outbreaks seems to be not only important but also necessary. The purpose of this research is to formulate a set of best practices and guidelines for designing and developing virus-themed digital games to raise young adults' awareness of viral infections, their spread, and transmission. The Development Research method is applied, being subdivided into the following phases: (1) Definition of the game requirements based on the literature review and a three-round Delphi method with informed individuals in Microbiology and Game Design and Development (26 in the 1ˢᵗ round, 19 in the 2ⁿᵈ, and 14 in the 3ʳᵈ); (2) Development of the game Mutation Madness; and (3) Game evaluation involving 34 young adults aged between 18 and 35. The Mutation Madness game showed to be an effective learning strategy in raising awareness among young adults for viral infections – i.e., occurrences of mutations and variants, emphasizing the relevance of a set of practices and guidelines. These include (i) Addressing the transmission of the virus, measures to prevent and treat viral infections as a topic; (ii) Replicate virus interactions based on physical-life models; (iii) Incorporate the content in a playful way to be transmitted implicitly, among others.