RICHMOND, Va. -- The finest athletes in the world competing at the peak of athletic competition captured the attention of the world during the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, but pharmacy students at VCU have spent the past couple of semesters competing in their own "Infectious Disease Olympic Games" thanks to their professors.
A few years ago, Dr. Leigh Anne Hylton-Gravatt sought a way to break up the dense material in the Infectious Disease lecture course she teaches every semester.
"We have to go through such a large number of medications; we cover anywhere from bacteria to fungi to viruses, and really trying to cover the whole gamut within a very short time period is very difficult. It’s very information-dense," Hylton-Gravatt said. "Students have said time and time again, it is so overwhelming. So I've continually been on the hunt for how can I make this fun for students, make it more manageable.”
The beginning of the 2022 winter/spring semester happened to coincide with the beginning of the Winter Olympics, and Hylton Gravatt decided to try out an idea she'd been stewing for a little while.
"I had this idea, what if we kind of meld some of the knowledge that we're learning with infectious disease, but also do Olympic-style type of competitions with it," she said.
The pharmacy students take daily, short quizzes on their course material to start class. The top three finishers each week were able to compete in the games once a week during a 10-minute break in the two-hour lecture.
“After I did it, the students loved it so much, they were like, well, what's next? Are we doing March Madness?” Dr. Hylton-Gravatt said.
“It creates a better learning environment versus what we went through when I was in this class, just lectures, two hours of lecture every day," said Dr. Anne Masich, a former student in the class who now serves as a co-professor with Hylton-Gravatt. "The students love it. And I feel like with each like, step up, it gets more competitive.”
In the last couple of semesters, the professors have morphed the games into a weekly team activity where students on a specific team compete for points on the quizzes and then the actual events.
The events Hylton-Gravatt and Masich have concocted run the gamut, boxing (with Rock-Em-Sock-Em Robots), indoor sailing (with toy boats that students power by blowing air through a straw), long jump using toy frogs, and relays that involve twirling around on a baseball bat, hitting a wiffle ball, and riding a plastic gym class scooter around the main corridor at the VCU School of Pharmacy.
“When we have colleagues who tumble upon us testing [a game] out in the hallway, they're like, 'Oh, what is going on?'” Masich said with a smile and a laugh.
"Anywhere in healthcare, you're going to be working together as a team, and that is one important aspect of this: they're competing as a team," Hylton-Gravatt said. "One student commented this year, 'I can't believe that I learned more about my teammates during these competitions than I ever did in the last year and a half of being in classes with them.'"
Beyond all the fun, there is growing research that suggests gamification in education helps students at all levels increase focus, retain material, and enjoy learning more fully. Both Hylton-Gravatt and Masich said they're glad the fun is helping their students reach their goals.
“We're getting them out of their seat, getting them distracted away from hard material, and take a break, give their brain a break for about 10 minutes, and hopefully they learn better because of it," Masich said.
"Yes, we do a very serious job that requires a lot of focus and precision when you're dealing with medications, thinking about dosages, making sure that you get the right medication to the right patient at the right dose. But at the same time, really thinking about, how can you take those mental breaks," Hylton-Gravatt said. "That's really what we're trying to inspire here, to inspire that passion to help them get to the path that they want to go, and really make sure that they're as successful as they can be and win the gold medal.”
You can learn more about the VCU School of Pharmacy here.
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