Samantha Grace

During the COVID-19 pandemic, health education had to make a significant shift to teach practical techniques to student remotely. Online video resources have resulted in superior learning outcomes in existing health care literature. This action research project aimed to establish whether online video resources demonstrated practical techniques could improve physiotherapy students’ competence and confidence and reduce exam-related anxiety when completing these practical techniques in the cardiorespiratory physiotherapy module practical examination.

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Method: Student surveys gained feedback and compared student confidence and anxiety with the techniques pre- and post a series of short videos of the techniques being made available to them. Competence was also measured by the mark attained in the practical examination for the relevant questions. Level of engagement was based on Moodle engagement statistics.

Findings: Practical exam results showed 2-percentage bracket increase on the “practical demonstration” domain of the marking grid for these techniques compared to the previous module. Students only gave positive feedback towards the videos and reported improved confidence and reduced exam-related anxiety. Moodle statistics demonstrated very high engagement with the resources in 75-100% of students accessing the videos 2-3 times each.

Discussion: Pre-recorded videos are low-cost, time-efficient, and easy to produce. They offer a convenient way for students to learn practical skills with added benefits of controlling the cognitive load through pausing, repeating, and decreasing speed that face-to-face learning cannot offer. Given logistical limitations and a growing physiotherapy cohort, this offers an opportunity for an evidence-based, student-supported blended model of learning practical physiotherapy techniques.