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This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background: Digital education is expected to transform higher education teaching and learning. Despite high expectations, higher education teachers have been slow to implement active digital learning. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate physiotherapy teachers’ attitudes toward and experiences with digital education and what the teachers’ considered prerequisites to a digital transformation of teaching and learning in physiotherapy. Methods: Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 teachers in physiotherapy education. The interviews were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings: The findings illuminate teachers’ attitudes toward and experiences with digital education and their views on prerequisites to a digital transformation of teaching and learning in physiother-apy education, presented as four themes: 1) skepticism toward digital education; 2) digital technol-ogy as a tool to support the established teaching practice; 3) longing for teacher collaboration; and 4) calling for time to plan and learn, and significant academic leadership. Conclusion: This study shows how physiotherapy teachers are skeptical about digital education, primarily viewing it as a threat to established teaching practices. Taken together, the findings demonstrate a potential for digital transformation in physiotherapy education, which can be released by informing the current teaching practices with evidence from research showing how use of digital technology can improve teaching and learning in physiotherapy education.

Despite efforts to increase the implementation of active teaching and learning in higher education, teaching approaches based on information transfer are still dominant. The slow adoption has been attributed to reluctance on the part of teachers. Active digital pedagogies, such as the flipped classroom, transfer the responsibility for learning to the students, thus challenging the traditional role of the teacher. The purpose of this study was to investigate how flipped classroom supervision is aligned with conceptions of teaching among teachers working in undergraduate physiotherapy education. Data were collected through a focus-group interview with three teachers who had recently participated in flipped classroom supervision and were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. Supervision in the flipped classroom was viewed mostly positively by the physiotherapy teachers interviewed. The less defined teaching role and the increased social interaction constituted the most radical departure from their previous experiences in traditional teaching environments. The teachers found that the teaching and learning environment enhanced the quality of students’ work. There was no indication that the student-centred pedagogies conflicted with the teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning. The findings do not support the idea that the existing teaching culture represents a barrier to technology-supported education.

BackgroundDigital learning designs have the potential to support teaching and learning within higher education. However, the research on digital learning designs within physiotherapy education is limited. This study aims to identify and investigate the effectiveness of digital learning designs in physiotherapy education.MethodsThe study was designed as a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized and non-randomized trials. A search of eight databases on digital learning designs and technology was conducted. Study selection, methodology and quality assessment were performed independently by three reviewers. The included studies were mapped according to the types of digital interventions and studies. For similar interventions, the learning effects were calculated using meta-analyses.ResultsAltogether, 22 studies were included in the review (17 randomized controlled trials and five cohort studies). A blended learning design was used in 21 studies, a flipped classroom model in five and a distance learning design in one. Altogether, 10 of the 22 articles were included in meta-analyses, which showed statistically significant effects for flipped classrooms on knowledge acquisition (standardized mean difference [SMD]: 0.41; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.20, 0.62), for interactive websites or applications (apps) on practical skills (SMD: 1.07; 95% CI: 0.71,1.43) and for students self-produced videos on a practical skill in a cervical spine scenario (SMD: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.06, 0.93). Overall, the effects indicated that blended learning designs are equally as or more effective than traditional classroom teaching to achieve learning outcomes. Distance learning showed no significant differences compared to traditional classroom teaching.ConclusionsThe current findings from physiotherapy education indicate that digital learning designs in the form of blended learning and distance learning were equally or more effective compared to traditional teaching. The meta-analyses revealed significant effects on student learning in favour of the interventions using flipped classrooms, interactive websites/apps and students self-produced videos. However, these results must be confirmed in larger controlled trials. Further, research should investigate how digital learning designs can facilitate students’ learning of practical skills and behaviour, learning retention and approaches to studying as well as references for teaching and learning in digital learning environments.

Helseprofesjonene møter i økende grad pasienter, brukere og pårørende som trenger kunnskap om hvordan de kan leve best mulig med langvarige helseutfordringer. Det mangler imidlertid studier av hvordan læreplanene for helseprofesjonsutdanningene imøtekommer behovene i helsetjenesten for helsepedagogisk kompetanse. I denne artikkelen undersøker vi hvordan helsepedagogikk fremtrer i læreplaner til bachelorutdanningene i ergoterapi, sykepleie og fysioterapi. En summativ innholdsanalyse viser at det er en manglende sammenheng mellom læreplandokumenter på ulike nivå (ramme-, program-, og emneplaner) og mellom didaktiske kategorier som mål, innhold, arbeids- og undervisningsformer. Artikkelen avslutter med å vise til behov for videre forskning. Increasingly, the health professions encounter patients, users and carers in need of knowledge of how to manage a life with long-term health conditions. There is however a paucity of research on how the curriculum for bachelor pro grams accommodate the needs of health services for health education competence. In this article we investigate how health education subjects appear in the curriculum for bachelor programs in occupational therapy, nursing and physiotherapy. A summative content analysis shows a lack of coherence between different levels of the curriculum and between didactic categories. Finally, the article points to needs for further research.

In higher education, resistance to shifting educational methods presents a challenge in fulfilling the opportunities offered by new methods. The purpose of the present study is to document the experiences of a flipped classroom intervention in a Norwegian physiotherapy programme, from the perspectives of the students and the teachers. The findings demonstrate that the students’ attitudes were mainly positive. In particular, the students evaluated autonomous group work and unlimited access to digital material as positive. The academic outcomes from the final exam were similar to previous years. Interviews with the teachers showed that the learning environment associated with the group work in the flipped classroom was a different and highly appreciated experience. In conclusion, the present study indicates that there is potential in implementing digital approaches in physiotherapy programmes.

Background The purpose of the study was to describe the design, implementation and evaluation of a flipped classroom teaching approach in physiotherapy education. The flipped classroom is a blended learning approach in which students receive digital lectures as homework, while active learning activities are used in the classroom. Flipped classroom teaching enables a learning environment that aims to develop higher-order cognitive skills. Methods The study design was a historically controlled, prospective, cohort study. An eight week theoretical course on musculoskeletal disorders was redesigned, moving from a conventional approach to a flipped classroom model. Pre-class learning material consisted of about 12 h of video lectures and other digital learning resources that were split up over the duration of the course. In-class activities consisted of seven full-day seminars where students worked in groups in order to solve problem-based assignments. The assignments were designed to reflect authentic clinical problems and required critical thinking and reasoning. Outcomes were measured with course-grades and compared with historical controls of conventional teaching, using descriptive statistics. Self-perceived learning outcomes and students’ experiences were also collected in a survey. Results Fifty-one students passed the course exam, two failed and one did not attend (n = 54). The share of students with Excellent, Very good and Good (ABC) performances increased by more than 10% relative to any previous year. In addition, Satisfactory, Sufficient and Failed performances (DEF) decreased by more than 10%. Almost two thirds of the students preferred the flipped classroom approach as compared with conventional teaching. Interaction with peers and educators, and flexibility, were the most positive factors that were reported by students. Long seminars, time-constraints and low motivation with respect to preparation and educators’ roles were the most common complaints. Conclusions A flipped classroom approach in physiotherapy education resulted in improved student performances in this professional programme, when compared with conventional teaching. Students responded positively to the collaborative learning environment, especially with respect to the associated autonomy and flexibility. There were indicators that all groups did not work optimally and that accountability to other group members did not always ensure pre-classroom preparations.

Background: Research into occupational therapy students’ approaches to studying is growing, and research has shown approaches to studying to be associated with academic performance. However, learning conceptions and preferences for teaching among occupational therapy students have rarely been reported, and their relationships to study approaches need to be empirically investigated. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the sociodemographic and education-related factors associated with approaches to studying among occupational therapy students in Norway. Methods: Occupational therapy students (n = 149) from one education program in Norway completed questionnaires related to approaches to studying, learning conception, preferences for teaching, and sociodemographic factors. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to examine the independent variables’ associations with approaches to studying. Results: Higher age was associated with higher deep approach scores and lower surface approach scores, whereas being female was associated with higher surface approach scores. Higher scores on learning conception was associated with higher scores on the deep and the strategic approaches. Higher scores on supporting understanding was associated with higher scores on the deep and strategic approaches, whereas higher scores on transmitting information was associated with higher scores on the surface approach. Conclusions: This study provides increased understanding of the associations between students’ learning conceptions, preferences for teaching, and approaches to studying. The results contribute to educators’ knowledge base from which they can adapt their way of teaching according to student group characteristics. © 2018 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.