Students’ perceptions, engagement and satisfaction with the use of an e-rubric for the assessment of manual skills in physiotherapy

Abstract

Introduction In recent years, formative assessment has gained importance in health care education to facilitate and enhance learning throughout the training period. Within the frame of active methodologies, rubrics have become an essential instrument for formative assessment. Most rubric-based assessment procedures focus on measuring the effects of rubrics on teachers. However, few studies focus their attention on the perception that students have of the evaluation process through rubrics. Methods A cross-sectional survey study was carried out with 134 students enrolled in the pre-graduate Physiotherapy education. Assessment of manual skills during a practical examination was performed using an e-rubric tool. Peer-assessment, self-assessment and teacher´s assessment were registered. After completion of the examination process, students’ perceptions, satisfaction and engagement were collected. Results Quantitative results related to students’ opinion about e-rubric based assessment, students’ engagement, perceived benefits and drawbacks of the e-rubric as well as the overall assessment of the learning experience were obtained. 86.6% of the students agreed upon the fact that “the rubric allowed one to know what it is expected from examination” and 83.6% of the students agreed upon the fact that “the rubric allowed one to verify the level of competence acquired”. A high rate of agreement (87.3%) was also reached among students concerning feedback. Conclusions E-rubrics seemed to have the potential to promote learning by making criteria and expectations explicit, facilitating feedback, self-assessment and peer-assessment. The importance of students in their own learning process required their participation in the assessment task, a fact that was globally appreciated by the students. Learning experience was considered interesting, motivating, it promoted participation, cooperative work and peer-assessment. The use of e-rubrics increased engagement levels when attention was focused on their guidance and reflection role.

Improving assessment of procedural skills in health sciences education: a validation study of a rubrics system in neurophysiotherapy

“…All criteria -except for the physical therapist position-showed medium to medium-low difficulty indices, and satisfactory discrimination coefficients, as did the total score [96]. In agreement with previous results [15,23], students positively valued the rubrics´ validity/reliability and usefulness for learning, facilitating transparent evaluation criteria and allowing autonomous practice.…”

“…Experts and students' suggestions allowed introducing improvements to the rubrics to facilitate their understanding and avoid ambiguities and misinterpretations. Evidence highlights that the student involvement in rubrics´ design and implementation is critical for their success [19,23].…”

“…students of Medicine, Nursing, Psychology and Physical Therapy) has evidenced rubrics effectiveness in assessing and developing a wide range of competences (e.g. interpersonal communication and collaboration, and clinical case analysis), noting their increased consistency and reliable scoring ability and their positive effects on students' learning outcomes [18,[20][21][22][23]. Different authors also emphasized the rubrics' usefulness in integrating theoretical and practical training in the clinical formative process [24,25].…”

Instrumentos De Evaluación en La Formación De Competencias Profesionales De Estudiantes Universitarios

“…Los nodos de este clúster poseen una relación positiva, debido a su posición en la red bibliométrica. Destacan las investigaciones en las que los instrumentos fomentaron la autoevaluación (Pérez-Guillén et al, 2022;Tipán, 2021).…”

“…Los resultados de la versión digital fueron similares e inclusive superan el formato físico, ya que la virtualidad permite que los estudiantes se relacionen entre sí y verifiquen su propio progreso; además "la aplicación de instrumentos de evaluación en línea, está permitiendo que tanto docentes como estudiantes logren desarrollar competencias, las cuales permiten adecuar a las necesidades educativas y sirvan de apoyo en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje" (Quincho et al, 2022, p. 428). Asimismo, las TIC facilitaron la retroalimentación y la autoevaluación (Pérez-Guillén et al, 2022).…”