A very popular myth surrounding game-based learning is that it involves learning through video games. This article showcases The Healing Blade, a card game which is slowly gaining popularity among medical students in the United States.
The Healing Blade is a card game that teaches budding Med students the ins and outs of infectious disease. It was created by two doctors, Francis Kong and Arun Mathews, who founded the game company Nerdcore Learning.
In the game you play as either an Apothecary or a Lord of Pestilence. It’s a two player game where each player chooses one side. The goal is to beat your opponent through better card management. The game’s USP — playing the game teaches you which infectious diseases are vulnerable to which antibodies. It’s not a trivia game, but players learn or put into practice real-world knowledge of fighting infections during game play.
The game does not have the end-goal of generating a profit, but of generating funds to donate to a worthy cause. The money Nerdcore Learning raises by selling the game goes toward an organization Dr. Mathews created called HOPE, Hospital-based Online Pediatric Environment, which provides video game consoles to pediatric hospitals.
There are numerous card and board games which can be used as effective learning aids in Instructor Led Trainings, and many more can be designed to satisfy specific learning outcomes.
Here’s a list of five more learning games (Board and Card) that I came across.
- American Megafauna
- Erosion
- Britannia
- ORIGINS – How We Became Human
- Zendo
