TITLE:
Using distance education in teaching orthotic fabrication to occupational therapy students
AUTHORS:
Husny Amerih, Mohammad S. Nazzal, Hassan Elsalloukh
KEYWORDS:
Distance Education; Occupational Therapy; Teaching Skills; Splint Making; Educational Pedagogy
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.5 No.5,
May
27,
2013
ABSTRACT: Occupational therapy (OT) education requires
educators to provide students with entry level skills in orthotic fabrication. These
skills have been taught in a traditional face-to-face classroom and labs. The concept
of distance education (DE) has evolved over the years with the advancement of the
technology. DE started with print media, radio broadcasting, and progressed to utilizing
video conferencing. Currently DE relies heavily on using the internet to deliver
quality, cost-effective and convenient education. DE Literature focused on teaching
basic knowledge, however, no research was found that compared DE to traditional
education in teaching skills or the application of knowledge. This pilot study
investigated the effectiveness of using DE pedagogy in teaching OT students the
skills of splint making, and to compare effectiveness of DE to that of traditional
classroom. Forty OT students participated in the study, they self-selected to be
in the experimental, or control group. The experimental group received training
on splint making via the Blackboard?, while the control group received
similar training the traditional way. The quality of splints was evaluated; Mann-Whitney
concluded that the difference between the means of the two groups was no significant,
indicating that the quality of the splints were equivalent.