“MedChemVR”: a virtual reality game to enhance medicinal chemistry education

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

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)
184 Downloads (Pure)

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 languageEnglish
Article number10
Number of pages20
JournalMultimodal Technologies and Interaction
Volume5
Issue number3
Early online date4 Mar 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2021

Keywords

  • human-computer interaction
  • user experience
  • user interface design
  • medicinal chemistry
  • gamification
  • virtual reality
  • inclusive technology
  • e-learning
  • pharmacology
  • simulation
  • education
  • molecular biology
  • molecular dynamics
  • inclusive education
  • E-learning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Pharmacology (medical)
  • Molecular Biology
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Pharmaceutical Science
  • Neuroscience (miscellaneous)
  • Computer Networks and Communications

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of '“MedChemVR”: a virtual reality game to enhance medicinal chemistry education'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this