Evaluating TESLA-G, a Gamified, Telegram-delivered, Quizzing Platform for Surgical Education in Medical Students

Evaluating TESLA-G, a Gamified, Telegram-delivered, Quizzing Platform for Surgical Education in Medical Students: a Protocol for a Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial

Telegram Education for Surgical Learning and Application Gamified (TESLA-G) is an online, gamified quizzing platform for surgical education in medical students.The main objective of this pilot study is to assess the feasibility and acceptability of carrying out a full randomised control trial involving TESLA-G.

A pilot randomised controlled trial involving 50 undergraduate medical students will be conducted. They will be randomised into an intervention group and an active control group.

Feasibility will be determined by participant enrollment, retention rate, and quiz completion. Acceptability will be measured quantitatively via a post-intervention learner satisfaction survey and qualitatively via semi-structured interviews. Additionally, participants' scores for pre- and post-intervention knowledge tests will be compared.

Online multiple-choice question (MCQ) quizzes are a well-established summative assessment tool in medical education. However, they suffer from high drop-out rates, attributed to waning user motivation over time. Various studies have shown that incorporation of gamified elements into learning can promote engagement and motivation.

In this pilot study, we will assess the feasibility and acceptability of a novel gamified quizzing platform, Telegram Education for Surgical Learning and Application Gamified (TESLA-G), to determine the possibility of a future larger-scale randomised controlled trial.

This study entails a randomised controlled trial with two arms, an intervention group (TESLA-G) and an active control group (conventional quizzing platform). 50 first to fifth year medical students from Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University will be randomised into the two arms with a 1:1 allocation ratio, stratified by year of study. Participants will use the assigned quizzing platform to attempt questions on a specific topic (endocrine surgery) over a period of two weeks.

At the end of the study period, several outcomes will be assessed. Feasibility will be determined by participant enrollment, retention rate, and quiz completion. Acceptability will be measured quantitatively via a post-intervention learner satisfaction survey and qualitatively via semi-structured interviews. Additionally, participants' scores for pre- and post-intervention knowledge tests will be compared.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Currently enrolled in a full-time 5-year undergraduate programme in the medical school that leads to the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS)
• Willing and able to provide consent for participating in the entire duration of the study including all pre- and post-study assessments

Exclusion Criteria:

• NIL