Abstract:

Background:
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Alcoitão School of Health Sciences (ESSA) interrupted on March 16, 2020, all classroom activities, including clinical activities. This situation created the need to transfer all activities and classes to an online format (synchronous and asynchronous) and to promote in students new knowledge/skills/attitudes related to the new professional reality.

Purpose:
To increase students literacy and reflection concerning the pandemic and to adapt, as a profession to the new needs of society, the Department of Physiotherapy decided to implement an online activity that could facilitate this process.

Methods:
The online activity was created with a duration of 3 weeks integrated into the clinical curricular units. It involved 218 Physiotherapy students from the 4 curricular years, the Department lecturers and guests speakers. This activity included the creation of an updated repository of information related to the pandemic COVID-19, namely national (DGS) and international (WHO) guidelines, professional guidelines (WCPT, APFISIO, Professional Interest Groups) and multimedia material (videos and podcasts). As part of the activity, students were asked to complete the Coronavirus Disease Program developed by Pysiopedia (Physioplus), according to the academic year, in whole or only some of the modules. To support the activity, several online sessions were promoted, where, with the participation of guests, the pandemic and its impact on the various contexts of Physiotherapy were discussed. To evaluate the activity, students were asked to submit certificates of completion of the Coronavirus Disease Program course and an individual reflection on the institutional e-learning platform. To assess the impact on student satisfaction, an online questionnaire with several dimensions (34 questions) was used.

Results:
96% of the Students (n= 211) completed this course, submitting the certificates of completion and the individual reflection. Concerning the student satisfaction, with a response rate of 96% distributed evenly across the various academic years, 78.7% considered that the activity, in general, was clear and was well structured, having reached the general objectives of the activity (79.6%), 83.4% also considered that it was an overall positive experience and reinforcing the importance of carrying out this type of activities (76.3%).

Conclusion(s):
From the results we can conclude that is important to develop updated activities adapted to current needs, using online approaches and involving all the partners in the educational process. It is important that Physiotherapy educators, create and implement activities that facilitate the development of students competencies that allow them to play a proactive role in global and local efforts to reduce the impact health and social effects of this pandemic.

Keywords:

COVID-19, Online Education.