A WEB-BASED 3D LUNG ANATOMY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT USING GAMIFICATION

The bronchial tree structure is a complex form within the human lung. It consists of many intertwining pipes which decrease in size and increase in number as you travel deeper into the structure. To amplify the difficulty this poses, visual learning aids accessible to students both in a lab environment and self-learning environment are generally two dimensional. Gamification techniques for education and eLearning have been proven beneficial in advancing many area of medical pedagogy. This paper presents a system intended to disseminate lung anatomy knowledge to medical students, as well as novice bronchoscopists. To achieve this, a 3D bronchial structure was modelled to match that of schematic drawings provided to medical students. This model was then imported into a 3D learning system that had been created using a game engine and designed for deployment on a web-based platform. This framework provides a learning environment in which the user can navigate through the bronchial pipes and interact with interest points to learn about the anatomical structure. The framework also includes a quiz environment, adapting the interest points as quiz questions. The quiz includes dynamically generated feedback, providing a means of self-assessment for the user. This environment also incorporates game metaphors such as points of interest, levels, objectives, and a heads up display (HUD). Similarly, the environment uses player pawn flying navigation with keyboard and mouse input, reflecting the navigation found in many first-person games. Future developments for this system involve the inclusion of pathologies to compliment anatomical knowledge. It is also anticipated that the system will be further extended to include other pedagogical content regarding the thoracic cavity.