Abstract:

Educationalists focus increasingly on information management and critical thinking as necessary life skills. Problem-based learning (PBL) appears to respond to these needs. A multi-disciplinary team at the Universidad San Jorge (Spain) has developed a mobile application , Labyrinth, as a means of providing learning experiences based on PBL in the form of case studies in the field of Physiotherapy. The application may be used both on and off campus as a tool for learning and, in the near future, for evaluation, both formative and summative.

Labyrinth allows the student to guide his/her own anamnesis and patient evaluation by selecting certain proposed options which help lead towards a diagnostic hypothesis and the resulting proposal for treatment. The selection process is accompanied by a variety of document types in English: audiovisual, articles, notes, questionnaires and audio. A parallel forum also permits communication and feedback between users and teachers. Selection of correct options leads directly to the next option, while incorrect choices are met with explanatory documentation followed by a series of questions to help the learner to make a more informed decision and to avoid random choices. The application is accesible on mobile phone, tablet and computer. Both teachers and students access the application via login, using their university ID. Teachers have access to data on frequency of use and time spent in each section and are responsible for the introduction of the cases and their accompanying documentation which may be modified at any given time.

The development of Labyrinth involved agile information technology methodology under the supervisión of an IT architect. Content and Language integrated learning and PBL methodologies were followed in the creation of the documentation for the clinical cases.
The development and nature of the application, Labyrinth, which has been created and piloted with students in the subject of ‘General procedures in Physiotherapy 1’ at the Universidad San Jorge are described and the results of this initial use of the tool in terms of students perceived learning gains are presented and discussed.

Keywords:

Mobile application, problem-based learning, health sciences.