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Effectiveness of Virtual Flipped Classroom in Teaching Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation to Physiotherapy
Amir Mohammad Salehi1,2, Ailin Talimkhani3, Elham Khanlarzadeh4
1Fetal & Pediatric Cardiovascular Research Center, Children's Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Purpose:
The virtual flipped classroom (VFC) is a virtual instructional strategy that engages students through active learning strategies and supports both synchronous and asynchronous virtual education components. This study examined the efficacy of the VFC instructional method in a Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation course for physiotherapy students.
Method:
In this quasi-experimental study, 16 instructional sessions were randomly assigned to a cohort of 55 fifth-semester physiotherapy students. Based on the nature of the content (theoretical vs practical), 8 sessions were delivered asynchronously using the Virtual Lecture-Based Learning (VLBL) approach, while 8 were delivered through the VFC method. To reduce carryover effects, the 2 instructional methods were alternated weekly with a one-week washout interval. Of the 16 sessions, 10 (5 VLBL and 5 VFC) were randomly selected to include both a pretest and a posttest to assess students' learning progress. After the course, students' satisfaction, attitudes, and knowledge associated with both instructional methods were measured and compared.
Results:
Students demonstrated significantly higher overall knowledge, satisfaction, and attitude scores under the VFC approach compared with VLBL (P < .001). Across the 5 assessed sessions, the VFC method also produced significantly higher pretest and posttest scores than VLBL (all P < .001). Although absolute performance was consistently greater in the VFC sessions, pre- to posttest improvement did not differ between methods (P > .05), indicating comparable learning gains. Both instructional methods, however, showed significant gains relative to baseline (all P < .001).
Conclusion:
The findings suggest that the VFC is an effective instructional approach for enhancing second-year physiotherapy students' knowledge, satisfaction, and attitudes toward learning.
