EducaPlay gamified digital assessment versus traditional assessment in undergraduate nursing education: a quasi experimental study

Gamified digital assessment combines interactive clinical cases, structured progression, and immediate feedback within the assessment process. This study compared immediate case-based performance and assessment experience outcomes between the EducaPlay gamified digital assessment package and traditional paper-based assessment in undergraduate nursing education. This multicenter quasi experimental study included 90 third year undergraduate nursing students from three nursing institutes. Students participated according to their existing classroom assignments in either the EducaPlay condition, with 45 students, or the traditional assessment condition, with 45 students. Individual randomization was not performed. Both conditions used the same pediatric cases, learning objectives, assessment content, and scoring criteria. EducaPlay combined tablet-based delivery, interactive clinical decisions, game elements, automated feedback, and instructor facilitated review. The traditional condition used paper-based cases, written assessment, and instructor led review. The primary outcome was the immediate post assessment case-based learning score. Secondary outcomes were changes from pre assessment to post assessment in satisfaction, perceived stress, motivation, and interaction with educational content. The primary outcome was analyzed using analysis of covariance adjusted for baseline satisfaction. Secondary outcome changes were compared using Mann Whitney U tests with Bonferroni correction. After adjustment for baseline satisfaction, the estimated mean case-based learning score was 89.20 in the EducaPlay condition and 69.07 in the traditional condition. The adjusted mean difference was 20.13 points, with a 95% confidence interval from 17.12 to 23.14 and p less than 0.001. EducaPlay was associated with more favorable changes in satisfaction, motivation, and interaction with educational content than traditional assessment, with p less than 0.001 for each comparison. Perceived stress increased in the EducaPlay condition and decreased in the traditional condition, with p less than 0.001. Participation in the multicomponent EducaPlay assessment package was associated with a higher immediate case-based learning score and more favorable changes in satisfaction, motivation, and interaction with educational content than traditional paper-based assessment. The simultaneous increase in perceived stress indicates that performance and assessment experience should be considered together when evaluating the package. These findings support further evaluation of EducaPlay as an interactive assessment approach in undergraduate nursing education. Not applicable because this was a quasiexperimental educational study and participants were not individually randomized.