Abstract:

In the Physical Therapy Degree Program, as well as in many other health sciences degree programs, the subject “anatomy” is clearly one of the most essential subjects for any student. However, despite a long tradition, conventional anatomy education based on pictures, anatomical or cadaveric models, is becoming more involved into innovative learning approaches, taking advantage of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Current understanding of the psychology of learning encourages teachers to integrate both cognitive and motivational components. Thus, turning students into active creators of content and incorporating e-learning into their study routines, may be useful to create a more satisfactory and effective learning experience, compared with traditional approaches.

For this reason, the main purpose of this study is to analyze how the incorporation of e-learning affects students’ motivation to learn and to determine whether e-learning could be favored by students, compared to traditional learning.

To carry out this study, Physical Therapy students of University of Lleida were invited to voluntarily participate in the study. 72 students were included, and they were divided in groups of 4 people. After the e-learning experience, they had to fill a questionnaire.
Results showed that students declared their personal preference in favor of adding e-learning tools to teaching. Students perceived their learning with this methodology to be superior to that of more classical approaches reporting higher levels of motivation.

Keywords:

e-learning, comparison, anatomy.