“MedChemVR”: A Virtual Reality Game to Enhance Medicinal Chemistry Education

Areej Abuhammad; Jannat Falah; Salasabeel F.M. Alfalah; Muhannad Abu-Tarboush; Ruba T. Tarawneh; Dimitris Drikakis; Vassilis Charissis

doi:10.3390/mti5030010

“MedChemVR”: A Virtual Reality Game to Enhance Medicinal Chemistry Education

Areej Abuhammad, Jannat Falah, Salasabeel F.M. Alfalah, Muhannad Abu-Tarboush, Ruba T. Tarawneh, Dimitris Drikakis, Vassilis Charissis

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Medicinal chemistry (MC) is an indispensable component of the pharmacy curriculum. The pharmacists’ unique knowledge of a medicine’s chemistry enhances their understanding of the pharmacological activity, manufacturing, storage, use, supply, and handling of drugs. However, chemistry is a challenging subject for both teaching and learning. These challenges are typically caused by the inability of students to construct a mental image of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a drug molecule from its two-dimensional presentations. This study explores a prototype virtual reality (VR) gamification option, as an educational tool developed to aid the learning process and to improve the delivery of the MC subject to students. The developed system is evaluated by a cohort of 41 students. The analysis of the results was encouraging and provided invaluable feedback for the future development of the proposed system.

Original language	English
Article number	10
Journal	Multimodal Technologies and Interaction
Volume	5
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/mti5030010
Publication status	Published - 2021

Keywords

E-learning
Education
Gamification
Human-computer interaction
Inclusive education
Medicinal chemistry
Virtual reality

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.3390/mti5030010

Cite this

@article{9d640988e83f44b5af9a1486fcca6956,

title = "“MedChemVR”: A Virtual Reality Game to Enhance Medicinal Chemistry Education",

abstract = "Medicinal chemistry (MC) is an indispensable component of the pharmacy curriculum. The pharmacists{\textquoteright} unique knowledge of a medicine{\textquoteright}s chemistry enhances their understanding of the pharmacological activity, manufacturing, storage, use, supply, and handling of drugs. However, chemistry is a challenging subject for both teaching and learning. These challenges are typically caused by the inability of students to construct a mental image of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a drug molecule from its two-dimensional presentations. This study explores a prototype virtual reality (VR) gamification option, as an educational tool developed to aid the learning process and to improve the delivery of the MC subject to students. The developed system is evaluated by a cohort of 41 students. The analysis of the results was encouraging and provided invaluable feedback for the future development of the proposed system.",

keywords = "E-learning, Education, Gamification, Human-computer interaction, Inclusive education, Medicinal chemistry, Virtual reality",

author = "Areej Abuhammad and Jannat Falah and Alfalah, {Salasabeel F.M.} and Muhannad Abu-Tarboush and Tarawneh, {Ruba T.} and Dimitris Drikakis and Vassilis Charissis",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",

year = "2021",

doi = "10.3390/mti5030010",

language = "English",

volume = "5",

journal = "Multimodal Technologies and Interaction",

issn = "2414-4088",

publisher = "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - “MedChemVR”

T2 - A Virtual Reality Game to Enhance Medicinal Chemistry Education

AU - Abuhammad, Areej

AU - Falah, Jannat

AU - Alfalah, Salasabeel F.M.

AU - Abu-Tarboush, Muhannad

AU - Tarawneh, Ruba T.

AU - Drikakis, Dimitris

AU - Charissis, Vassilis

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Medicinal chemistry (MC) is an indispensable component of the pharmacy curriculum. The pharmacists’ unique knowledge of a medicine’s chemistry enhances their understanding of the pharmacological activity, manufacturing, storage, use, supply, and handling of drugs. However, chemistry is a challenging subject for both teaching and learning. These challenges are typically caused by the inability of students to construct a mental image of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a drug molecule from its two-dimensional presentations. This study explores a prototype virtual reality (VR) gamification option, as an educational tool developed to aid the learning process and to improve the delivery of the MC subject to students. The developed system is evaluated by a cohort of 41 students. The analysis of the results was encouraging and provided invaluable feedback for the future development of the proposed system.

AB - Medicinal chemistry (MC) is an indispensable component of the pharmacy curriculum. The pharmacists’ unique knowledge of a medicine’s chemistry enhances their understanding of the pharmacological activity, manufacturing, storage, use, supply, and handling of drugs. However, chemistry is a challenging subject for both teaching and learning. These challenges are typically caused by the inability of students to construct a mental image of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a drug molecule from its two-dimensional presentations. This study explores a prototype virtual reality (VR) gamification option, as an educational tool developed to aid the learning process and to improve the delivery of the MC subject to students. The developed system is evaluated by a cohort of 41 students. The analysis of the results was encouraging and provided invaluable feedback for the future development of the proposed system.

KW - E-learning

KW - Education

KW - Gamification

KW - Human-computer interaction

KW - Inclusive education

KW - Medicinal chemistry

KW - Virtual reality

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102854107&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/mti5030010

DO - 10.3390/mti5030010

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85102854107

SN - 2414-4088

VL - 5

JO - Multimodal Technologies and Interaction

JF - Multimodal Technologies and Interaction

IS - 3

M1 - 10

ER -

“MedChemVR”: A Virtual Reality Game to Enhance Medicinal Chemistry Education

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this