Enhancing digital and professional competences via implementation of virtual laboratories for future physical therapists and rehabilitologist

• Main Authors: Halina I. Falfushynska (Author), Bogdan B. Buyak (Author), Grygoriy M. Torbin (Author), Grygorii V. Tereshchuk (Author), Mykhailo M. Kasianchuk (Author), Mikołaj Karpiński (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Academy of Cognitive and Natural Sciences, 2022-03-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.55056/cte.125; 2833-5473
• Keywords: virtual laboratory; physical therapy/physical rehabilitation major; digital skills; blended education; Technology; T; Education; L
• Source: CTE Workshop Proceedings, Vol 9 (2022)

Being popular world-wide, virtual laboratories enter into different fields of education and research and practitioners have to be responsible for choosing the most suitable and then adapt them to particular field. The aim of the present work was to assess the effectivity of the implementation of Praxilab, Labster, and LabXchange virtual laboratories as the powerful digital tool into teaching protocols of "Clinical and laboratory diagnostics" discipline for physical therapists and rehabilitologist. We have carried out the online survey for 45 students enrolled in physical rehabilitation degree program. About 70% surveyed students reported that implementation of virtual laboratories in "Clinical and laboratory diagnostics" discipline met individual learning needs of students, helped acquired digital skills (25%), and supported them to stay ahead of the curve. The virtual lab applications, not only assisted harness students fair against lack of practical skills, but also brought about a new dimension to the classes and helped overcome digital alienation and gain their digital skills and abilities. Indeed, a virtual lab can't completely replace the experimental work and teacher's explanation, but it might support teaching activities of a modern mentor and learning activities of a modern student. Almost all of surveyed students (82%) expected that in near future the virtual laboratories would take the dominant place in the education market due to possibility of students' pre-train the key points of practical activities before real experiments in lab and better understand their theoretical backgrounds. Thus, this study is intended to contribute to utilization of virtual labs by students enrolled in study physical therapy/physical rehabilitation with expected efficiency.