Views: 151 Downloads: 39

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital learning, with online masterclasses (OMCs) replacing face-to-face education. OMCs can improve accessibility, engagement, and expert exposure, resulting in improved educational quality and reach, especially for healthcare professionals. To assess the effectiveness of an OMC session in educating physical therapy students on physical agents. This non-controlled clinical trial involved 135 seventh-semester physical therapy students (mean age 21.8 ± 1.1 years) at Universidad Andrés Bello in the Physical Agents course. The OMC employed an international instructor to teach superficial thermotherapy. Learning outcomes were assessed by comparing pre-and post-OMC evaluation scores, with a passing score of 70%. Student satisfaction with the OMC was evaluated in three dimensions: teacher quality, technical support, and overall satisfaction. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test assessed differences between the evaluations. The Physical Agents course analyzed 135 students (67 males and 68 females) after excluding 26 who did not meet the selection criteria. Evaluations before and after the OMC showed significant improvement, with scores increasing from 8.0 to 12.4 on average. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated an 87.4% overall improvement, notably higher in males (95.5%) than females (79.5%). The satisfaction survey, completed by 101 students (62.73% response rate), reported high satisfaction (mean score 4.48 out of 5). Instructor availability for Zoom platform queries resulted in a 93% acceptance rate. The survey demonstrated high internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.965. The OMC enhances healthcare education by offering accessibility, engagement, and expert exposure, complementing traditional methods, and supporting blended learning formats‎.

Keywords: Education, Educational measurement, Undergraduate, Physical therapy specialty, Clinical competence, Health

Citation Formats: