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van der Stockt T1, Lowe R1, Lowe T1
1Physiopedia, London, United Kingdom
Background: Online education provides an opportunity for physiotherapists around the world to gain professional development in any geographical or environmental context. Delivering effective online education is therefore an important contribution to raising professional standards around the world. The key to delivering effective online education to suit this purpose is to provide courses that satisfy the learning and accreditation needs of all. Physioplus courses have evolved over the years to better serve the needs of the global physiotherapy community to gain knowledge in a wide variety of topics and to fulfill their continuing education and professional development requirements. Sharing this knowledge will allow all providers of online education to better serve the needs of physiotherapists all over the world and therefore elevate professional practice globally.
Purpose: To gain insight into effective pedagogy for online courses that satisfy the needs of the global physiotherapy community.
Methods: Data from over 25,000 participants of 37 online courses on the Physioplus professional development platform between October 2015 and September 2018 was analysed. Quantitative analysis explored course completion data that compared participation outcomes of different length courses. Qualitative data from evaluation forms explored course content preferences and long form feedback.
Results: When comparing 4 different length courses (Massive open online courses (MOOCs), n=3; 16-hour courses, n=10; 3-6 hour courses, n=7; 1-2 hour courses, n=17) participants were more likely to complete the short 1-2 hour courses (71%, compared with MOOCs 35%, 16-hour 25%, and 3-6 hour 44%). Interestingly the MOOCs showed a higher completion rate than the generally accepted 10% for MOOCs (Jordan 2014).
Data gathered in course evaluation forms displays a variety of learning styles evidenced by the variation in satisfaction with various types of learning activity e.g. discussion forums. However, videos and text based topic summaries are consistently rated as valuable learning activities. Other feedback indicated that time taken to complete a course and accreditation status are both important factors.
Conclusion(s): Participants on this platform, showed a significantly higher completion rate for short courses than longer courses. Although a variety of learning activities are important to satisfy a wide range of learning styles, videos and topic summaries were identified as the most valuable learning activities.
Implications: For effective sharing of knowledge on a global scale, online courses need to adapt their pedagogy to meet the needs of physiotherapists all over the world. Time, accreditation, cost and types of learning activity all influence course completion rates and an individual´s satisfaction with the learning experience. In this case course completion data and participant feedback has motivated the change to shorter courses with condensed required learning activities.
Although course completion is not a general metric for course success it is an important factor for participants that need a certificate or CEUs for proof of professional development for professional re-registration requirements. Future work will explore reasons participants do not finish courses, and the related use of artificial intelligence to encourage continued engagement in a course through to completion.
Keywords: Continuing Professional development, Pedagogy, Accreditation
Funding acknowledgements: No funding received
Purpose: To gain insight into effective pedagogy for online courses that satisfy the needs of the global physiotherapy community.
Methods: Data from over 25,000 participants of 37 online courses on the Physioplus professional development platform between October 2015 and September 2018 was analysed. Quantitative analysis explored course completion data that compared participation outcomes of different length courses. Qualitative data from evaluation forms explored course content preferences and long form feedback.
Results: When comparing 4 different length courses (Massive open online courses (MOOCs), n=3; 16-hour courses, n=10; 3-6 hour courses, n=7; 1-2 hour courses, n=17) participants were more likely to complete the short 1-2 hour courses (71%, compared with MOOCs 35%, 16-hour 25%, and 3-6 hour 44%). Interestingly the MOOCs showed a higher completion rate than the generally accepted 10% for MOOCs (Jordan 2014).
Data gathered in course evaluation forms displays a variety of learning styles evidenced by the variation in satisfaction with various types of learning activity e.g. discussion forums. However, videos and text based topic summaries are consistently rated as valuable learning activities. Other feedback indicated that time taken to complete a course and accreditation status are both important factors.
Conclusion(s): Participants on this platform, showed a significantly higher completion rate for short courses than longer courses. Although a variety of learning activities are important to satisfy a wide range of learning styles, videos and topic summaries were identified as the most valuable learning activities.
Implications: For effective sharing of knowledge on a global scale, online courses need to adapt their pedagogy to meet the needs of physiotherapists all over the world. Time, accreditation, cost and types of learning activity all influence course completion rates and an individual´s satisfaction with the learning experience. In this case course completion data and participant feedback has motivated the change to shorter courses with condensed required learning activities.
Although course completion is not a general metric for course success it is an important factor for participants that need a certificate or CEUs for proof of professional development for professional re-registration requirements. Future work will explore reasons participants do not finish courses, and the related use of artificial intelligence to encourage continued engagement in a course through to completion.
Keywords: Continuing Professional development, Pedagogy, Accreditation
Funding acknowledgements: No funding received
Topic: Education; Education: methods of teaching & learning
Ethics approval required: No
Institution: N/A
Ethics committee: N/A
Reason not required: Ethics approval was not required as the review was done on the development of online educational courses. Data analysis was performed on course start and completion rates as well as general course feedback. Personal identifiers were omitted from all data.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
