The use of serious games as digital medicine started in recent years as the United States Food and Drug Administration granted Class 1 or 2 device clearance to serious games or game-like technologies. This encouraging trend motivates interdisciplinary cooperation between experts in the medical sciences and the game industry because the Northern American pharmaceutical revenues have exceeded USD1 trillion globally since 2014. The potential of this lucrative business opportunity may attract fund providers and venture capitalists to support game-related research and development projects. The author elaborates his activities and experiences in the United States in FY2017/2018 as a Humphrey fellow from Malaysia. Specifically, the research and development trend of serious games for cognitive function in the academic and the game industry has positive impact on how medical doctors and practitioners in low- and middle-income countries may use or develop games as digital medicine.
This study presents the results of a year-long project focused on analysis and reflection on working with comics by Year One students in Hulu Langat districts. This study presents the use of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) comics to help children understand certain physical phenomena and try to make students interested in mathematics and science subject. Thirteen excellent teachers of science and mathematics from the Hulu Langat district were involved in the analysis of syllabus Year One science and mathematics subjects and the preparation of scripts while the STEM comic illustrator was created by two lecturers from the Faculty of Art, Computing and Creative Industry from Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Perak Malaysia. The study is based on observations of changing perception of phenomena by children as a result of the use of comics. As a result, a STEM comic that contains ten series for Year One science and mathematics subjects has been successfully developed. This comic is expected to attract and enhance the achievement of Year One students in science and mathematics. Implication of this study, STEM comics can be used by teachers as science and mathematics teaching aids. Comics are proven to be a modern pedagogical strategy, which is starting to gain its popularity in teaching about mathematics and science. Comics can be very helpful tools in making science and mathematics concepts interesting, fun learning and comprehensible for a Year One children.