About
A total of 1.6 million people died from TB in 2021.
-WHO
Sure, you have heard about TB, AIDS and most recently, COVID-19. Infectious diseases with a significant mortality rate. 'OK', you're thinking, 'but what does that have to do with Infection Fighters?'
Despite awareness campaigns there are still residual stigma, lack of access to credible health information, and the general lack of understanding the concepts relating to infections, disease, and treatment.
Infection fighters is an open educational game developed as part of the North-West University’s Open Educational Fellowship of 2021 to address the information-knowledge gap relating to infections, diseases, and how to best manage these.
Developing an OER game
The game was developed by a team from the NWU comprising biochemists, a health/wellness counsellor, instructional designers, multimedia designers and developers, as well as a programmer with inputs from education specialists and a gaming expert too.
Development involved video production with associated audio, putting together reading material, animations, infographics and testing the player’s knowledge gain through interactive games where the difficulty increased with each level and finally collecting the player’s assessment of the game, through embedded surveys.
The aim of the game is to provide a freely accessible resource compiled from credible health resources that is fun, interactive, and educational to the point where it encourages critical thinking, executing informed health decisions and encourages positive behavioural change amongst communities during health crises. In essence, the aim is to develop a society better prepared for future disease outbreaks.
Past, present, and emerging disease breakouts as well as the misinformation and myths centered around these, highlight that there is a need for health education within households and among communities.
This resource comprises health information from credible resources, addressing a variety of concepts in the infectious disease field, all in one place. The resource is freely available, accessible, interactive, promotes the retention of information and directs self-learning in a fun and stimulating way. The player is also provided with feedback while the game’s open nature makes it adaptable to serve various contexts.