Abstract:

The implementation of the new Degree in Physiotherapy at University of Vigo involved some modification in different aspects. One example is the diminishment of face-to-face theory and practical teaching in the subject Electrotherapy and Ultrasound-therapy, located on the second half of second course. In particular, the development of those practical themes involves handling of different equipment, and such equipment are not easily accessible outside the Faculty or any clinical centre. For this reason, and to encourage simulated clinical practice, in the absence of such equipment, we had developed the simulator e-LectroSim, a computer simulator of an electrotherapy equipment. The app e-Adventure was used to develop the simulator. Based on different clinical cases approaches (there are six different patients for each pathology), the students are placed in a clinical situation near to reality and according to it they should make decisions about their treatment. This project had the financial support of University of Vigo within the Programme of Educational Innovations in 2013. Nowadays the project is in the latter part of its developing.

The objective of this study was to present the students’ opinion (students who had ever passed the subject) on the possibility of using e-LectroSim as support for learning practical themes on the subject Electrotherapy and Ultrasound-therapy for future enrolled students.

A cross sectional descriptive study has been carried out. Students from third and fourth courses participated in it. The students participated voluntarily in the study. After handling the simulator, the students were asked to fill an ad hoc assessment questionnaire.

33 students participated in the study (25 from third course). According to a Likert scale from 1 to 5 points, data expressed positive scores (over 4 points) for the issues interesting, educative, pedagogical, original, easy to use and comprehensible. In spite of those positive results, different aspects were pointed as needing improvement and those were final feedback on the mistakes made, the need of illustrative videos, a timer, a bigger screen, or bigger images.

In conclusion, we could point to the fact that students appear to have a positive opinion on the simulator about its use as a support for learning practical themes on the subject Electrotherapy and Ultrasound-therapy.

Keywords:

Active learning, Technological Development and Innovation Projects, Physiotherapy.