Effectiveness of Mobile Learning on Athletic Training Psychomotor Skill Acquisition

Abstract

Context Instruction of psychomotor skills is an important component of athletic training education. Accommodating the varied learning abilities and preferences of athletic training students can be challenging for an instructor initiating skill acquisition in a traditional face-to-face (F2F) environment. Video instruction available on mobile devices may offer an alternative teaching tool, allowing for student-initiated learning. Objective To compare outcomes of Quick Clips (QC) instruction with F2F instruction as measured by skill-examination scores. Design Quasi-experimental. Setting Five higher learning institutions with Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE) accredited athletic training education programs. Patients or Other Participants Seventy-four pre-athletic training students, average age 18.86 ± 1.0 years (49 women, 25 men), volunteered for this study. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 instructional groups (F2F or QC). Intervention(s) The principal investigator provided F2F instruction to 38 participants in 3 skills (knee valgus stress test, middle trapezius manual muscle test, and goniometric measurement of active ankle dorsiflexion). The remaining 36 participants watched 3 QC videos demonstrating the same skills. Main Outcome Measure(s) Three individual skill exam scores and the total score. Results A 1-way multivariate analysis of variance indicated a significant effect (P < .0001) of instructional method on exam scores. Follow-up univariate analysis of variance indicated knee valgus stress test exam scores were significantly higher after F2F instruction (P < .0001). Neither manual muscle test nor goniometric measurement exam scores were affected by instructional method. Conclusions The findings support the use of QC as an alternative to F2F instruction for 2 of the 3 skills. This finding is similar to studies reported in the nursing literature on computer-assisted learning, which found inconclusive evidence to support the superiority of one method over another. Mobile video instruction is an effective teaching strategy. It may be best utilized to supplement traditional F2F instruction.