Her newest project, “What's My Method?” is a game designed to teach players about contraceptive methods in a way that is engaging and interactive.  

Bertozzi has spent more than two decades exploring how games and immersive technology can support learning.  

She has seen how humor and empathy can reach audiences in ways that traditional methods cannot achieve. In “What's My Method?” animations and voiceovers guide players through how contraceptive methods work.

Through the use of icons and colors, it is easier for players to process and accurately remember details like duration, return to fertility, and effectiveness, she said. By watching the couples in the games make decisions, players begin to understand their own choices more clearly, she added. 

The idea for this project grew even stronger when the Barbados Family Planning Association joined as a deployment partner.  

Erin Sabato, senior director of global learning at Quinnipiac, introduced both groups to each other after hearing Bertozzi was looking for a community to prepare to pilot the game. Bertozzi's team was thrilled to have the opportunity to present its hard work and gather feedback from people who would directly benefit from it.  

Getting to this point was not easy.  

Years earlier, Bertozzi created a similar game through funding from the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges in Global Health. The version was launched in India, gaining great success, Bertozzi said.  

The feedback her team received encouraged the expansion of the immersive learning technology and to create “What's My Method?” as a follow-up. Finding financial support quickly became a major obstacle, she said.  

A grant from Quinnipiac helped partially fund the Barbados deployment, which led to a randomized control trial last spring that Bertozzi paid for herself. She said she is hopeful that the success of this work will inspire even more funding for projects like this in the future.

Input from the Quinnipiac community helped define the game's vision, she said. Bertozzi credits talent in the game design and development program as one of the project's greatest strengths. Stakeholders in Barbados provided important guidance as well, she said. One of the most influential suggestions was to include male partners in the decision-making process. The collective attention to detail helped the game reflect how real contraceptive decisions are shared between partners.  

The research behind the project continues to evolve. Bertozzi recently presented a paper at the International Conference on Family Planning in Bogota, Columbia.  

The paper outlines the planning process for the randomized control trial. She believes this is the first National Institutes of Health-reviewed randomized control trial at Quinnipiac. 

Learning the whole process from submission to approval was one of Bertozzi's biggest challenges to overcome — as well as a major accomplishment. The team is now energized as they prepare for the paper that will share the results.  

Bertozzi hopes the game will eventually reach people across Barbados and communities around the world. Her experience at the conference brought her closer to that goal. She said she believes digital games are a unique way to place complicated information into real life context, which helps people understand and connect with the content.

Looking back, she said she feels most proud of the alumni who worked on the project to develop their own skills and confidence.