Chapter 2 – Connection loss in online learning: a physiotherapy student’s experi
Chapter 2 – Connection loss in online learning: a physiotherapy student’s experience of practical education during a pandemic
Dr Laura Blackburn; Dr Larissa Elisabeth Kempenaar ; and Dr Sivaramkumar Shanmugam
Abstract
Pandemic restrictions have presented many challenges for healthcare students and educators when transitioning from face-to-face to online practical learning. As restrictions will likely continue for the foreseeable future, there is a need for pedagogical approaches which place students and their experience at the centre of practical education. This chapter provides a student’s voice to inform developments in practical education.
Healthcare practical education involves an in-person, hands-on approach whereby students physically and verbally interact with each other and educators to develop psychomotor skills. The chapter discusses the impact on learning as a result of changes in the delivery of practical classes before, during, and after the pandemic. The chapter is divided into three methods of delivering teaching: face-to-face, online practical education, and hybrid. A final section evaluates experiences of peer learning, embodied learning, engagement, academic and professional socialisation, and assessment to inform recommendations for students and educators on effective practical education.
Introduction
Prior to March 2020, first-year physiotherapy students expected days filled with face-to-face contact with peers and lecturers (Ng et al., 2021). This described my experience when I enrolled in the Doctorate of Physiotherapy (DPT) pre-registration programme in January, two months before the first lockdown. Students in tutorials spent most waking hours in contact, developing close friendships. However, the fast-spreading coronavirus forced universities to close campuses and transfer all tutorials, including practicals, online. This sent many students into a panic, but we were not alone in our struggles to adjust to the new circumstances. Lecturers were forced to adapt their teaching to the requirements of distance learning, which presented challenges for practical, skills-based tutorials. Within a short period, we all had to adapt to alternative methods of learning.
This chapter describes my learning experience over the pandemic, exploring the benefits and limitations of learning methods used over the first 16 months of my degree. The first three sections explore face-to-face, online practical education, and a hybrid of the two. Afterwards, I discuss student socialisation, embodied learning, peer learning, and assessment. My recommendations are based on student experience, complemented by Salmon’s (2013) five-stage learning and teaching model which positions the learning environment as essential to learner engagement. The DPT programme team adapted Salmon’s (2013) model to inform the learning and teaching principles for online and hybrid practical learning during the pandemic (see Figure 1).
Face-to-face learning
My previous degree