An Educational Game to Teach Immune Evasion of the Schistosome and Validation of Its Impact

The adoption of serious games (SGs) is rapidly growing with new applications emerging in medical education. SGs refer to games whose main content is to teach knowledge and skills, providing professional training and simulation. However, there are limited instances of applying such a paradigm to learning about parasite immunology. This study aimed to create a game to aid understanding of the principles of schistosomes’ immune evasion for a wide range of audiences and validated its effectiveness. The game ‘Schistosome: The Escape’ was developed in Unity using original and third-party assets. This game, ‘Schistosome: the Escape’, is played in the first person. Players are cast as parasites aiming to achieve victory by evading attacks from immune cells. The game consists of three levels corresponding to the migratory path of schistosomes in the human body. As each level is completed, the parasite undergoes morphological changes. All game mechanics correlate with underlying immunology principles. After development, 27 individuals were recruited and divided into a game-based learning (test) group (N = 12) and a text-based learning (control) group (N = 15). The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) age over 18 years old, (2) educational level higher than high school and (3) willingness to be contacted in a follow-up. These two learning methods were assessed by conducting a quiz before and after each experimental condition. Results showed that the game-based learning group exhibited significant improvements in understanding schistosome immunology. Compared to the reading-based learning group, the test group achieved higher average knowledge acquisition, and 100% of players acknowledged the potential value of SGs for learning parasitology. This study suggested that the developed game is comprehensive, visually appealing and effective. Through gameplay, players could successfully grasp schistosome immunology knowledge at a level comparable to reading materials. SGs are a robust complement to and potential replacement for conventional learning patterns.