Abstract

This chapter shares details about the design and development of the Virtual Dental Implant Trainer (VDIT) learning game created for the Medical College of Georgia. The design and development team introduces the program by sharing the instructional goals of the learning game, basic design concepts, and development constraints. The chapter then highlights successes and discusses issues the team encountered during the design and development of the VDIT learning game. The emphasis is on sharing our experiences to help future organizations interested in creating or procuring learning game products learn from our example. Despite the issues, the team was able to minimize their impact and happily report that the game has been successfully created, tested, and delivered to the Medical College of Georgia for use in the affiliated dental school programs. The chapter closes with actionable recommendations for learning game design teams to help ensure delivery of successful game products.

Introduction

The purpose of the Virtual Dental Implant Trainer (VDIT) project was to create a game-based simulation training tool to allow students to practice dental implant decision making during their free time. Nobel Biocare, a globally recognized maker of dental implant tools and hardware, through its partnership with the Medical College of Georgia (MCG), commissioned our team to design VDIT as a downloadable or CD-driven software package that could be distributed to medical students through its network of accredited schools and businesses.