Efficacy of Online Video-Recordings Versus Classroom Lectures for Teaching Transfer Techniques to Physical Therapy Students.
Purpose/Hypothesis: This study examined the use of online video lectures vs. traditional in-class lectures in the teaching of psychomotor transfer skills to first-year physical therapy graduate students. The authors hypothesized both videos and in-class lectures would be equally effective in the learning of manual transfer skills among physical therapy students.
Number of Subjects: 40 Doctor of Physical Therapy Students
Materials and Methods: Forty students from a first-year physical therapy graduate program cohort gave verbal consent and were divided by coin-flip randomization into an online video group and an in-class lecture group (n=20). The online video group was given unlimited access to 3 video modules. The in-class lecture group attended two 2.5 hour lectures taught by primary course instructors. Learning was assessed using a 25 question pre- and post-test and the performance and manual transfer skills during a pass/fail competency.
Results: Both the online video group (p = 4.35e-17) and in-class lecture group (4.17e-15) achieved statistically significant improvements in test scores following respective interventions. Mean pre-test scores between the groups indicated no statistical difference between group samples (p = .56). Mean post-test scores between the groups indicated no statistically significant difference between learning (p = .41).
Conclusions: The study results are in accordance with current literature supporting the use of online video lectures in lieu of or as adjunct to traditional classroom learning.
Clinical Relevance: The results of the current study may have significant implications in the world of academia for professional degree health care programs. Online video lectures may allow students to choose the time and place they prefer to view them. Video lectures eliminate the need to be on campus which decreases time and inconvenience of commuting. Online lectures offer the ability to rewind, pause, speed-up/slow-down, and re-watch however the student sees fit to optimize learning and comprehension. Video lectures may be created to accommodate the various learning styles of students including those who learn by auditory, reading, and watching visual means by including audio voice-overs, written content slides, and video demonstrations. Furthermore, online lectures could be utilized to teach more basic skills outside of the classroom and reserve class time for more pertinent and complex topics. These lectures could also be used to standardize information taught when a single instructor is teaching multiple sessions of a single course, multiple instructors are teaching multiple sessions of a single course, and when a single course is taught in sequential semesters and years.