Blended Learning in Future Physiotherapy Professionals

Effectiveness of a Heart Disease Blended Learning Program in Future Physiotherapy Professionals: A Prospective Study

Blended Learning (BL) is proving to be an effective method of teaching within the health professions . However, there are still scarce studies on BL conducted with undergraduate physiotherapy students. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a heart disease BL programme in knowledge, motivation, engagement, design of the programme instructions and learning behaviours in physiotherapy students.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Heart Diseases; Teach-Back Communication
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Blended learning in heart disease

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 124
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Spain
  • Valencia, Spain, 46010
    • University of Valencia

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• studying a Physiotherapy Degree at the aforementioned University
• to be willing to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

• none

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Physiotherapy students; The participants performed an 8-week heart disease blended learning program.	Other: Blended learning in heart disease; The intervention included face-to-face classes and online resources (Moodle, online syllabus, videos, websites, podcasts, activities, apps, forums, emails, tutoring).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Coronary Artery Disease Education Questionnaire (CADEQ)	CADEQ includes 20 closed-ended questions about medical conditions, risk factors, exercise, nutrition, and psychosocial wellbeing with a single-word answer (yes, no). Total score ranges from 0 to 20 (0=poorest knowledge, 20=best knowledge).	0 weeks
Coronary Artery Disease Education Questionnaire (CADEQ)	CADEQ includes 20 closed-ended questions about medical conditions, risk factors, exercise, nutrition, and psychosocial wellbeing with a single-word answer (yes, no). Total score ranges from 0 to 20 (0=poorest knowledge, 20=best knowledge).	4 weeks
Coronary Artery Disease Education Questionnaire (CADEQ)	CADEQ includes 20 closed-ended questions about medical conditions, risk factors, exercise, nutrition, and psychosocial wellbeing with a single-word answer (yes, no). Total score ranges from 0 to 20 (0=poorest knowledge, 20=best knowledge).	8 weeks
Coronary Artery Disease Education Questionnaire (CADEQ)	CADEQ includes 20 closed-ended questions about medical conditions, risk factors, exercise, nutrition, and psychosocial wellbeing with a single-word answer (yes, no). Total score ranges from 0 to 20 (0=poorest knowledge, 20=best knowledge).	12 weeks
Coronary Artery Disease Education Questionnaire (CADEQ)	CADEQ includes 20 closed-ended questions about medical conditions, risk factors, exercise, nutrition, and psychosocial wellbeing with a single-word answer (yes, no). Total score ranges from 0 to 20 (0=poorest knowledge, 20=best knowledge).	20 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Effect of the Dader Method in Cardiovascular Risk of Patients with Risk Factors or Cardiovascular Disease Questionnaire (EMDADER)	EMDADER is composed of 10 multiple-choice questions with four answer options on coronary artery disease and risk factors, and two questions to report weight and height. Total score ranges from 0 to 10 (0=poorest knowledge, 10=best knowledge).	0, 4, 8, 12 and 20 weeks
Academic Motivation Scale and Attributional Styles Questionnaire	The tool is composed of 24 items, using a 7-point Likert scale: from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree). The scale integrates three domains related to learning motivation: Intrinsic Motivation (9 items), Performance Motivation (7 items) and Extrinsic Motivation (7 items). The maximum score is 7. The scale is prepared to add the different items even if they measure different items. They will not be interpreted separately.	4, 8 weeks
Student Engagement Questionnaire	It is a 35-item questionnaire, scored on a five-point Likert scale (1=totally disagree, 5=totally agree). The questionnaire is divided into five dimensions: Intellectual Capabilities (items 1-10), Working Together (items 11-16), Teaching (items 17-25), Teacher-student Relationship (items 26-29), and Student-student Relationship (items 30-35). The maximum score of the questionnaire is 5. The scale is prepared to add the different items even if they measure different items. They will not be interpreted separately.	4, 8 weeks
Community of Inquiry Survey	A 34-item questionnaire, scored on a five-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree) that includes three dimensions: i) Cognitive Presence (items 1-13), related to the degree to which participants are able to construct meaning and knowledge through continuous communication, reflection, and discussion; ii) Social Presence (items 14-22), related to the ability of participants to identify with the community, communicating and developing interpersonal relationships; iii) Teaching Presence (items 23-34), referring to the design, guidance and direction, on the part of teachers, of cognitive and social processes with the purpose of achieving the result of meaningful learning in students. The maximum score of the questionnaire is 5. The scale is prepared to add the different items even if they measure different items. They will not be interpreted separately.	0, 4, 8, 12 and 20 weeks
Learning behaviours (I)	Number of downloads were retrieved and collected from the institution's Moodle platform Virtual ClassroomTM, through class progress	0, 4, 8, 12 and 20 weeks
Learning behaviours (II)	Number of topics visited were retrieved and collected from the institution's Moodle platform Virtual ClassroomTM, through class progress	0, 4, 8, 12 and 20 weeks
Learning behaviours (III)	The score of questionnaires were retrieved and collected from the institution's Moodle platform Virtual ClassroomTM, through class progress	0, 4, 8, 12 and 20 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Valencia
• Investigators: Study Chair: David Hernández-Guillén, PT, PhD, University of Valencia

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 28, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): June 30, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 25, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 7, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): December 9, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 19, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 18, 2023
• Last Verified: April 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Physiotherapy; Education; Teaching methods; Students; Blended learning
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Cardiovascular Diseases; Heart Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: BL_HEART_01

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No