Abstract:

Introduction:
Traditionally, students were taught with master classes were the professor was the only one involved in the dynamics of the class, and the assessment of the knowledge the students obtained was performed through written tests delivered at the end of the course. Nowadays, the active involvement of students in the learning-process is pioneering in many levels, and different approaches regarding their assessment also arise.

Mobile phones have become a crucial handy tool students often use in order to check their mail, search for important information and establish communication with peers. Therefore, due to the high availability students have to mobile phones, using this resource as a pathway to enhance active learning could be interesting.

There are a myriad of software options available to enhance this learning process. Options such as the Socrative© software, that defines itself as “your classroom app for fun, effective engagement and on-the-fly assessments”. It is an app that enables the professor to visualize student understanding through continuous assessments, and this might provide insight about information that’s not well understood and general development of the course.

Objective:
The aim of this work was to analyze the compliance of students to a continuous assessment of knowledge using mobile devices software

Materials and methods:
During a whole second year course of the Degree of Physical Therapy, students in the 6 ECTS subject “Diseases and Therapeutic Approach of the Nervous System” were asked to download the Socrative© app, student version, in order to be actively part of a continuous assessment procedure. Tests including the information previously taught in class were delivered weekly, and students were asked to complete this tests. At the end of the course, compliance to this assessment was analyzed by looking at how many tests the students completed out of how many tests were offered. A survey regarding satisfaction was also given in order to ask students about their personal opinion

Results:
Results show a highly good acceptance by the students, who got engaged in this assessment process. This translated in high compliance rates, therefore, we can assume that this type of assessment could be of value for further course developments

Keywords:

App, assessment, mobile, physical therapy.