Resumo

MACHADO, Liliane dos Santos; MORAES, Ronei Marcos de; NUNES, Fatima de Lourdes dos Santos  e  COSTA, Rosa Maria Esteves Moreira da. Serious games based on virtual reality in medical education. Rev. bras. educ. med. [online]. 2011, vol.35, n.2, pp. 254-262. ISSN 0100-5502.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0100-55022011000200015.

Technological innovations have allowed new approaches in educational processes. "Serious games" are a particular category of games and content devoted to specific purposes, in which players use their knowledge to solve problems, learn new issues, and train tasks. One of the technologies for developing serious games is virtual reality, which offers 3D computer environments with advanced interaction capable of providing high levels of motivation in the learning process. In the context of medical education, such applications present a niche that has received relatively little attention, considering their relevance and potential impact on society. This article presents serious games based on virtual reality as a proposal for teaching specific contents in the medical field. The article categorizes such games and discusses how they have been developed in recent years, their components, characteristics of development, and potential and opportunities for research, development, and business.

Palavras-chave : Teaching; Video Games; Training; Informatics.