Context is key: an interactive experiential and content frame game

Abstract

Most games used for teaching focus on either content transfer or an experiential learning experience. ‘Context is Key’ is a combination of both as the learners actively interact experientially with the content being taught, with fellow learners and with the facilitator(s). Using this interactive game after a didactic portion of teaching can reinforce the knowledge in ways that require synthesis of the knowledge for application and encourage group discussion and the sharing of knowledge that participants possess. This game was originally created to highlight the complexities of the differential diagnosis of bipolar disorder in adolescents. By playing the game, students can understand why psychiatric symptoms on their own are not as valuable as placing them within the context of symptom clusters, how it takes time to make an accurate diagnosis for complex presentations of symptoms, how to sort symptoms that have similar presentations and why ‘Context is Key!’