Gamifying the memorization of brand/generic drug names

Background and purpose: The objective of this study was to determine how the implementation of Quizlet, an electronic flashcard/quiz/gaming platform, affected the doctor of pharmacy candidate's ability to successfully complete quizzes based on brand and generic names of the most commonly used medications. Educational activity and setting: Brand name, generic name, and class of Top 300 Prescription Medications were uploaded into the program in four different study sets. Students were encouraged to utilize the provided games to prepare for quizzes. Quiz results were compared to results from the previous year. A survey was administered to measure the students perception of the efficacy of and engagement in the program in comparison to traditional printed text-based materials. Findings: Students who played the games in spring 2017 scored significantly higher than the spring 2016 cohort who did not utilize gaming (average 94.1% vs. 86.9%). Most (61.2%) of the students in the 2017 course reported that they primarily utilized the games to study vs. other methods. Summary: The use of gaming could be a resource that increases student motivation to independently memorize material for quizzes in didactic courses.