Application of Bloom's Taxonomy in Developing Gamification Mechanisms and Dynamics for Cases Based Learning in Medical Education

Case-based Learning (CBL) is a pedagogical teaching approach employed in many medical schools that uses real patient or virtual patient cases to impart relevance and aid in connecting theory to practice. This method is learner-centered with intense interaction between clinical cases as the students build their knowledge to examine different cases. The real world or authentic contexts used in CBL expose students to viewpoints from multiple directions and see why a medical professional may want different approaches to treatment. Gamification can augment case-based learning (CBL) when students play the role of cases (characters) in the accompanying narrative and apply their knowledge. Gamification mechanics allow for a more compelling and participatory student experience ultimately motivating students to make specific actions. In addition to that, gamification mechanics are able to appeal to students' basic desires of wanting to achieve and being rewarded for their actions. When applied in the correct manner the mechanics of gamification has the ability to drive student engagement and participation to new heights. In case based learning, lecturers will use pedagogical approaches when they map out learner journeys or experience paths. Gamification design also starts with learning objective or intended learning outcomes. In case of gamifying curriculum, the learning objectives and intended learning outcomes are broken down into behaviors, triggers and meaningful touch points, otherwise called gamification mechanisms. Often the purpose of game based learning is to encourage the learner to adopt a new skill or build on knowledge to achieving higher order thinking skills. Incorporation of Bloom’s taxonomy helps to design gaming mechanisms to redefine the learning objectives and the associated behavior of the learner. In this paper, the researchers conceptualize the design of gamification mechanisms through application of Bloom's taxonomy using an action research model conducted with 118 undergraduate medical students from School of Medicine for case-based learning approach. This paper also explained the growing potentials of integrating gamification into medical education for case-based learning.