Effectiveness of Webinar based Teaching for Physiotherapy Interns during COVID-19 in India- A Pilot Study

Abstract

Introduction: SARS Covid II pandemic has consistently spread and has severely disrupted the lives of more than the three quarters of the world’s population. Their system is unable to effectively respond to the current challenges in the present day pandemic, which has put forth another challenge for medical educators across the world to deal with the huge responsibility of rethinking how to carry on delivering high quality medical education due to social isolation strategies and enormous clinical responsibilities. Webinars have become an essential component of Physiotherapy teaching during the pandemic periods. Lecturers have reported about satisfaction and enjoyable sessions during webinars. Materials and Method: An intern’s physiotherapy attitude form, student’s satisfaction questionnaire, smooth delivery and intuitive interface scores were dependent variables and Teaching Method (participation in a webinar or classroom teaching) is the independent variable. Result: Descriptive analysis and Students t-test were done for inter-group comparison of Webinar Group Vs Classroom group which were found to be statistically significant at p≤0.5. The scores for Webinar group vs Classroom group respectively are Physiotherapy attitude questionnaire Test scores (54.17±8.8 & 39.38±10.8, t=5.7*), Student’s satisfaction questionnaire scores (4.54±0.59 & 4.29±0.69, t=1.45), Smooth Delivery Scores (4.5±0.5 & 5.0±0, t= 4.79*), Students intuitive interface scores (4.63±0.4 & 3.04±0.2 t=13.2*) and Action taken scores (4.58±0.4 & 3.25±0.43, t=11.56*). Conclusion: The webinar based teaching is more effective as compared to classroom teaching for Physiotherapy Interns with a limitation to teaching practical skills especially in fields like Physiotherapy where it is essential.

Full text

Research Arcle
Journal of Advanced Research in Medical Science & Technology (ISSN: 2394-6539)
Copyright (c) 2020: Advanced Research Publicaons
Journal of Advanced Research in Medical Science & Technology
Volume 7, Issue 4 - 2020, Pg. No. 3-7
Peer Reviewed & Open Access Journal
Corresponding Author:
Kalpana Zutshi, Department of Rehabilitaon
Sciences, Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi,
India.
E-mail Id:
zutshi.kalpana@gmail.com
Orcid Id:
hps://orcid.org/0000-0002-3270-8068
How to cite this arcle:
Munjal J, Zutshi K. Eecveness of Webinar
based Teaching for Physiotherapy Interns during
COVID-19 in India- A Pilot Study. J Adv Res Med
Sci Tech 2020; 7(4): 3-7.
Date of Submission: 2020-12-01
Date of Acceptance: 2020-12-18
INFO ABSTRACT
Effectiveness of Webinar based Teaching for
Physiotherapy Interns during COVID-19 in India-
A Pilot Study
Jitender Munjal1, Kalpana Zutshi2
1Physiotherapist,(North DMC Medical college& Hindu Rao Hospital, Delhi); PhD Scholar Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India.
2Associate Professor, F/o AHS, Department of Rehabilitaon Sciences, Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi, India.
DOI: hps://doi.org/10.24321/2394.6539.202015
Introducon: SARS Covid II pandemic has consistently spread and has
severely disrupted the lives of more than the three quarters of the
world’s populaon. Their system is unable to eecvely respond to
the current challenges in the present day pandemic, which has put
forth another challenge for medical educators across the world to deal
with the huge responsibility of rethinking how to carry on delivering
high quality medical educaon due to social isolaon strategies and
enormous clinical responsibilies. Webinars have become an essenal
component of Physiotherapy teaching during the pandemic periods.
Lecturers have reported about sasfacon and enjoyable sessions
during webinars.
Materials and Method: An intern’s physiotherapy atude form, student’s
sasfacon quesonnaire, smooth delivery and intuive interface
scores were dependent variables and Teaching Method (parcipaon
in a webinar or classroom teaching) is the independent variable.
Result: Descripve analysis and Students t-test were done for inter-group
comparison of Webinar Group Vs Classroom group which were found
to be stascally signicant at p≤0.5. The scores for Webinar group vs
Classroom group respecvely are Physiotherapy atude quesonnaire
Test scores (54.17±8.8 & 39.38±10.8, t=5.7*), Student’s sasfacon
quesonnaire scores (4.54±0.59 & 4.29±0.69, t=1.45), Smooth Delivery
Scores (4.5±0.5 & 5.0±0, t= 4.79*), Students intuive interface scores
(4.63±0.4 & 3.04±0.2 t=13.2*) and Acon taken scores (4.58±0.4 &
3.25±0.43, t=11.56*).
Conclusion: The webinar based teaching is more eecve as compared
to classroom teaching for Physiotherapy Interns with a limitaon to
teaching praccal skills especially in elds like Physiotherapy where it
is essenal.
Keywords:
Webinar Group, Classroom Group, Physiotherapy
Atude, Student’s Sasfacon, Smooth Delivery Scores, Students
intuive Interface and Acon taken

4
Munjal J et al.
J. Adv. Res. Med. Sci. Tech. 2020; 7(4)
ISSN: 2394-6539
DOI: hps://doi.org/10.24321/2394.6539.202015
Introduction & Literature Review
Over the last nine months, SARS Covid II pandemic has
consistently spread across the world. It has severely
disrupted the lives of more than the three quarters of the
world’s populaon that reside in Low and Middle Income
Countries (LMIC) like India and in Lan America, South East
Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa which have not previously
developed healthcare and medical educaon systems.1
Their system is unable to eecvely respond to the current
challenges in the present day pandemic.
The combination of high population, health demand
and insucient resources, with very few skilled health
professionals and medical educators was already a challenge
even prior to this pandemic in developing countries like India.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put forth another challenge for
medical educators across the world to deal with the huge
responsibility of rethinking how to carry on delivering high
quality medical educaon at a me when medical schools
are closing face to face teaching due to social isolaon
strategies and educators have to cope with their enormous
clinical responsibilies. This pandemic situaon has made
all the educaonal schools and colleges across the world to
take up online teaching as a resort to counter the pandemic
situaon.2 The Courses are conducted online, examinaons
are being carried out online and assignments are being
submied via email.
Webinars are dened as web based seminars, in which
parcipants and facilitators communicate live over internet
across the globe using shared virtual plaorms and interact
ubiquitously and synchronously in real me via voice over
Internet Protocol (IP) technology and webcam equipment.
It is also known as online distant teaching learning method.
3
Medical webinar is applicaon and usage of medical course,
seminars, and conferences, workshops in Medical and
Paramedical webinars in the eld of educaon.
4,5
Webinars
have become an essenal component of Physiotherapy
teaching during the pandemic periods.
6
Tutors, students and
lecturers have reported about sasfacon and enjoyable
sessions during webinars.
7-14
However, the experience of the
educators has not been analyzed. The study focuses at the
eecveness of webinar based teaching for physiotherapy
interns and their professional training in India. In the context
of Physiotherapy, the study tried to analyze how eecve
are webinars in physiotherapy in promoting student
achievement in terms of knowledge performance in test
and which characteriscs moderate student achievements
by the feedback forms lled by the subjects before and
aer the sessions which is one of the methods to measure
the quality of the webinar. Various kinds of feedback
forms have already been introduced in Educaon system.
15
Webinar based teaching learning programs provide a great
opportunity for praccing physiotherapists to interact with
pioneers in the eld of Physiotherapy and provide good
quality updated treatment to paents. Nambi et al.6 have
studied the eects of webinar based teaching program on
therapists’ atude and sasfacon of Low Back Pain (LBP)
paents and found wide posive eects on quality of life
and paents sasfacon.
Material and Method
Experimental Study
Randomized controlled crossover study design with repeated
measures.
An intern’s Physiotherapy attitude form in terms of
(knowledge, assessment and performance), student’s
sasfacon quesonnaire, smooth delivery and intuive
interface scores were the Dependent Variables and Teaching
Method (parcipaon in a webinar or classroom teaching)
is the Independent Variable.
Participants
Interns in Department of Physiotherapy, Hindu Rao hospital,
Delhi, India.
Inclusion Criteria and Exclusion Criteria
•
Interns in Physiotherapy, who signed informed consent
were included
• Both sexes were included
•
The subjects who had previous knowledge (pretest
score >30/100) about the musculoskeletal and sports
condions being taught in the present study were
excluded
•
The subjects who had computer equipment related
issues were also excluded from the study
Out of the populaon of thirty interns, a total of twenty four
(24) interns (14 females and 10 males) (Mean age 22.17±0.78
years) parcipated in the webinar-based study aer taking
an informed consent that excluded 2 male dropouts.
The Study was Divided into Two Steps5,6
In the rst step, the interns were divided equally in two
groups: Group A (7 females and 5 males) and Group B (7
females and 5 males) by randomizaon of male and female
subjects separately. The two groups were taught through six
webinar sessions and six classroom sessions of 45 minutes
duraon each by the two authors equally on musculoskeletal
and sports condions diagnosis and management. The
subjects were given a pretest objecve test and the pretest
performance score were noted before the start of each
session. The Group A was taught six classroom sessions
followed by six webinar sessions and Group B was taught
six webinar sessions followed by six classroom sessions to
act as controls and nullify the order eect. The subjects
were later subjected to knowledge or performance tests
with objecve test scores aer the sessions as a post test
measure. The feedback form also had scales to measure
the content sasfacon, smooth delivery, Intuive interface

5
Munjal J et al.
J. Adv. Res. Med. Sci. Tech. 2020; 7(4)
ISSN: 2394-6539
DOI: hps://doi.org/10.24321/2394.6539.202015
and acon taken on the Likert scale with scores ranging
from 1 to 5 (least to max).
The study was carried out over a period of 3 months (May,
June and July 2020). The Webinar technology was Zoom
and Cisco WebEx Webinars and face to face lecture was
held for classroom teaching. The subjects were asked to ll
up an evaluaon sheet that comprised of feedback and an
objecve type test of 20 quesons of 5 marks each before
and aer the session.
In the second step, the data collected from feedback forms
aer the teaching via webinar and aer classroom teaching
was compiled and analyzed. The means of the pretest and
post test scores was calculated. The results were taken up as
Two Groups of parcipants (Group 1 or Webinar group and
Group 2 or Classroom group) where all the 24 parcipants
were subjected to 6 webinar sessions and 6 classroom
sessions respecvely.
The results were analyzed using paired T-test in SPSS (version
25) soware with a p-value≤ 0.05 as signicant.
Result
The results of the study showed that the 24 interns had a
Mean age (22.17±0.78) years. The median age was 22 years
and modal age was 22 years. Amongst all the subjects, 58.33
% were females and 41.67 % were males. The results are
presented as mean and standard deviaon of scores for
Physiotherapist’s Atude test, student’s sasfacon, smooth
delivery of lecture, intuive interface and acon taken.
Variables
1. Physiotherapy atude quesonnaire Test scores
2. Student’s sasfacon quesonnaire scores
3. Smooth Delivery Scores
4. Students intuive interface scores
5. Acon taken scores
Discussion
The results of the study show that there is a stascally
signicant dierence in Physiotherapy atude quesonnaire
Figure 1.Pie chart showing percentage of male and
female subjects recruited for the study
Table 1.Inter group comparison of various variables of
Subjects in two groups viz Webinar group (Grp 1) and
Classroom group ( Grp 2)
Variables Group
Mean
dierence
± SD
t-
value
p-
value
Physio-
therapy
atude
ques-
onnaire
Test scores
Webinar
group
(Grp1)
54.17±8.8 5.7 0.01**
Classroom
group
(Grp2)
39.38±10.8
(p-value > 0.05 Non Signicant; p-value ≤ 0.05*Signicant; p-value
≤0.01** Highly Signicant).
Student’s
sasfacon
ques-
onnaire
scores
Webinar
group
(Grp1)
4.54±0.59 1.45 0.08
Classroom
group
(Grp2)
4.29±0.69
Smooth
Delivery
Scores
Webinar
Group
(Grp1)
4.5±0.5 4.79 0.05*
Classroom
group
(Grp2)
5.0±0
Students
intuive
interface
scores
Webinar
group
(Grp1)
4.63±0.4 13.2 0.01*
Classroom
group
(Grp2)
3.04±0.2
Acon
taken
scores
Webinar
group
(Grp1)
4.58±0.4 11.56 0.01**
Classroom
group
(Grp2)
3.25±0.43
Figure 2.Inter group comparison of various variables
of Subjects in two groups viz Webinar group (Grp 1)
and Classroom group ( Grp 2)

6
Munjal J et al.
J. Adv. Res. Med. Sci. Tech. 2020; 7(4)
ISSN: 2394-6539
DOI: hps://doi.org/10.24321/2394.6539.202015
scores of the interns in Webinar teaching and classroom
teaching group and the results are in concurrence with the
study of meta analyses and systemic review by Gegerfurtner
et al.15 in 2020 which shows a very trivial increase in the
students atude. The subjects have more interest and
inclinaon towards technology based learning and the
short duraon of about 45 minutes session generates
interest, focuses aenon and concentraon. The study
is in contradicon to the results of a systemic review by
Yao-Ting sung et al.
16
which shows that mobile learning
research applies laggard methodologies in educaon. The
student sasfacon scores showed a stascally non-
signicant result in intergroup comparison of the webinar
and classroom based learning groups. This may be due
to the fact that the students found the technology based
teaching to be handy, convenient and interest generang
and were aenve and alert to capture the content the
same way as they were during the face to face classroom
teaching. The results are in concordance with the study by
Nambi et al. (2020)6 where the paents are well sased
by the therapists trained by webinar based teaching for
treatment of low back pain.
The Internet technology, with Digital India in progress
has tried to ensure that the webinar based teaching runs
smoothly but the parcipants did face some diculty
in aending online classes on Zoom and Cisco Web Ex
smooth delivery and student’s interface results show a
stascally signicant dierence in intergroup comparison
for webinar based teaching and classroom teaching group
with P value ≤ 0.05.17 The students are so tech savvy now
a days that the result also showed a stascally signicant
value for intergroup comparison for intuive interface for
both the groups. The student’s expectaons regarding the
lectures during the pandemic phase were well met and so
the mean scores were higher for the webinar group. The
students were most probably reluctant in aending the
classroom lectures during the pandemic due to the social
distancing norms.
The acon taken scores show that the students are more
interested and have a posive anity towards the webinar
based teaching as the webinar group shows a higher
stascally signicant acon taken score in comparison
to the classroom teaching score with p<0.001. The results
may be aributed to the fact that with the advancement
of technology, cheap data availability, convenience, cost
cung on transport and saving of me which are the
potenal benets of online learning as described by
Appanna et al.18 and especially in the phase of COVID-19
era where Physical distancing is the key to avoid the spread
of the Pandemic, is one of the posive outcomes of webinar
based teaching and this is in concurrence with the results
of study by Nambi et al., 2020.6
In India, it is an excellent opportunity to improve the
internet connecvity throughout rural areas and step ahead
towards Digital India. All the rural and urban areas in India
may be connected digitally for a fruiul interacon amongst
the teachers and the students. It is pernent to menon
here that the praccal skills of the Physiotherapy interns
involving touch and palpaon could not be taught and
assessed and may be a limitaon of the study especially
in elds like Physiotherapy where it is essenal.
Conclusion
The results of the study showed that the webinar based
teaching is more eecve as compared to classroom
teaching for Physiotherapy Interns during the pandemic
period with a limitaon to teaching praccal skills.
Conicts of Interest: None
References
1.
Dario Cecilio Fernandes DC, Maria Cândida Ribeiro Parisi
MCR, Thiago MS, Sandars J. The COVID-19 pandemic
and the challenge of using technology for medical
educaon in low and middle income countries Publish.
MedEd Teaching and Learning, Technology 2020.
DOI: hps://doi.org/10.15694/mep.2020.000074.1.
2.
McKimm J, Gibbs T, Bishop J, Jones P. Health
Professions’ Educators’ Adaptation to Rapidly
Changing Circumstances: The Oawa 2020 Conference
Experience’. MedEdPublish 2020; 9. DOI:hps://doi.
org/10.15694/mep.2020.000047.1.
3.
Sura K, Lischalk JW, Leckie J, Welsh JS, Mundt AJ,
Fernandez E. Webinar-Based Contouring Educaon
for Residents. J Am CollRadiol 2017; 14(8): 1074-1079.
4.
Eric C, Buxton, Erik C, Burns, James E, De Muth.
Professional Development Webinars for Pharmacists.
Am J Pharm Educ 2012; 12; 76(8): 155.
5.
Ellias JL, Merriam SB. Philosophical Foundaons of
Adult Educaon. Malabar, FL: Krieger, 2005.
6. Nambi G, Abdelbasset W K, Abodonya A, Saleh A K,
Khanam H. Eects of webinar based teaching program
on therapists’ atude and sasfacon of LBP paents.
Arch Pharma Pract 2020; 11(1): 122-128.
7.
Goe R, IpsenC, Bliss S.Pilot tesng a digital career literacy
training for vocaonal rehabilitaon professionals.
Rehabilitaon Counseling Bullen 2018; 61: 236-243.
8.
Häkkinen P, Järvelä S. Sharing and constructing
perspecves in web-based conferencing. Computers
& Educaon 2006: 47: 433-447. DOI: hps://doi.
org/10.1016/j.compedu.2004.10.015 .
9.
McKinney WP. Assessing the evidence for the
educaonal ecacy of webinars and related internet-
based instrucon. Pedagogy Health Promoon: The
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2017; 3: 475-515.
DOI: hps://doi.org/10.1177/2373379917700876 .

7
Munjal J et al.
J. Adv. Res. Med. Sci. Tech. 2020; 7(4)
ISSN: 2394-6539
DOI: hps://doi.org/10.24321/2394.6539.202015
10.
Mc Mahon Howard J, Reimers B .An evaluaon of a child
welfare training program on the commercial sexual
exploitaon of children (CSEC). Evaluaon and Program
Planning 2013; 40: 1-9. DOI: hps://doi.org/10.1016/j.
evalprogplan.2013.04.002 .
11.
Nelson LS. Learning outcomes of webinar versus
classroom instrucon among bacca laureate nursing
students: A randomized controlled trial. Denton,TX:
Unpublished doctoral dissertaon, Texas Woman’s
University, 2010.
12.
Olson JS, McCracken FF. Is it worth the eort? The
impact of incorporang synchronous lectures into an
online course. Online Learning Journal 2015; 19: 73-84.
hps://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v19i2.499.
13. Stout JW, Smith K, Zhou C, Solomon C, Dozor AJ, Gar-
rison MM etal. Learning from a distance: Eecveness
of online spirometry training in improving asthma care.
Academic Pediatrics 2012; 12: 88-95. DOI:hps://doi.
org/10.1016/j.acap.2011.11.006 .
14.
Wang SK, Hsu HY. Use of the webinar tool (Elluminate)
to support training: The eects of webinar- learning
implementaon from student- trainers’ perspecve.
The Journal of Interacve Online Learning, 7,175–194,
cited in A. Gegenfurtner and C. EbnerEducaonal Re-
search Review 2008; 28 (2019): 10029319.
15. Gegenfurtnera A, Ebnerb C. Webinars in higher edu-
caon and professional training: A metaanalysis and
systemac review of randomized controlled trials 2019.
DOI: hps://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100293.
16. Tseng JJ, Cheng YS, Yeh HN. How pre-service English
teachers enact TPACK in the context of web-conferenc-
ing teaching: A design thinking approach. Computers
& Educaon 2019; 128: 171-182. DOI: hps://doi.
org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.09.022.
17.
Bernard RM,Abrami PC, Borokhovski E, Wade CA,
Tamim RM, Surkes MA etal. A meta-analysis of three
types of interacon treatments in distance educaon.
Review of Educaonal Research 2009; 79: 1243-1289.
18.
Appanna, Subhashni. A Review of Benets and Limita-
ons of Online Learning in the Context of the Student,
the Instructor and the Tenured Faculty. Internaon-
al Journal on E-Learning 2008; 7: 309333844, 2008.
hps://doi.org/10.3102/0034654 .