Enhancing Critical Thinking in Athletic Training: Developing Interactive Simulations for Student Evaluation

The Program

Apr 25

Written By

Mindi Hilborn, DAT
Athletic Training & Exercise Science

Project Overview

Student evaluation in athletic training is something that not only takes physical hands-on skills but needs to have critical thinking evolve. Within the healthcare curriculum students are often taught about conditions in their entirety and then struggle when working through vague symptoms, especially outside of athletic injuries. For this reason, I thought that there needed to be a patient evaluation simulation that could be utilized by students to practice their critical thinking with lower stakes. Less points and not with live patients in their clinical settings. This also needed to be something that could be adaptable to different injuries and illnesses in a variety of our courses.

Planning Process

To begin this project, I searched Merlot and other sources for applications that are currently being utilized by nursing students since I could not find anything specific to the field of athletic training. Outbreak at Watersedge, an interactive game that explored Public Health was the closest that I could find that was comparable to what I was looking to explore. There were several case studies, but these were just information presented with 5 questions that followed. The case studies however had limited engagement and enhancement to the materials that were already being used within our course.

Within ATH 505 Medical Management of an Athletic Population, I looked to incorporate the following goals:

Demonstrate evaluation skills for the recognition of systemic injury and illness.
Identify the signs, symptoms, interventions and, when appropriate, the return-to-participation criteria for: Sudden cardiac arrest, exertional sickling associated with sickle cell trait, rhabdomyolysis, internal hemorrhage, diabetic emergencies including hypoglycemia and ketoacidosis, asthma attacks; systemic allergic reaction, including anaphylactic shock, epileptic and non-epileptic seizures, shock, toxic drug overdoses, and local allergic reaction.
Integrate case information into an appropriate clinical decision for individuals with a variety of diagnoses.

Final assessment of these skills within the course includes oral practical examinations, patient evaluations simulations, and proficiency skill assessments. Based on this application or assessment that I was looking to use would need to be focused in Triple-E Framework. This framework would then combine the current methods being used in the classroom and a development study method to assess the student engagement, while enhancing and extending our learning goals. When looking at current assessments and tools as well as what I hope to develop, I had to consider our unique students. Currently, we have several students who receive academic accomodations for learning disabilities, a deaf student who also has interpreters in the classroom but not field with her, students with different types of computers (software must be considered), and access to perform the skills at a variety of clinical locations (high school, college, and orthopedic clinics). One student expressed not only hearing the concept but seeing the words associated with it for better understanding.

Implementation

The project initially began as a H5P branching with touch points concept for students to work through. An initial scenario was entered with branching options that the students were presented as their next steps within the evaluation process. This, however, did not allow for feedback to the students, their ability to give their own answers, and was guiding them more than allowing for free thinking. It was also not multidimensional to encourage students to access the materials in an enjoyable learning format. I then took a step back to look at the scenario that was being used in the sample as a whole and looked to break it into each of the evaluation sections; patient history, physical examination, condition specific examination, referral (additional testing or physician).

Moving back to the outbreak game and HR training that I had to complete; I had the idea of some sort of interactive PowerPoint type presentation. This can then include audio or video to demonstrate the patient, questions to support critical thinking while assessing knowledge, and be something that all students can access with restrictions. This would allow me to show the patient with keywords for the student to see while they navigated each condition.

I then explored iSpring within PPT and Canva presentation creation. I have a premium version of Canva so I did have to watch what was being used to ensure that students could access all aspects. At this point, I have moved to exploring this project based out of PPT utilizing iSpring. I did look at the paid and free versions of this and at the current time and am creating the module using the free version. The goals of this that will assist the student with achieving the course outcomes are:

Decrease student time on task (evaluation) while completing a focused activity.
Create opportunities for learning outside of the standard classroom presentation.
- Create variations to meet student needs in other areas.
Demonstrate additional complex learning over time.

Assessment

Once the model is completed in entirety for 1 medical condition, it will be placed into the associated content tab (oral practical 2) within the course shell on Brightspace. Students will be asked to utilize this for their second oral practical. Following the practical students will be surveyed on the feelings of preparedness compared to oral practical 1 when the materials were not applied the same way. This informal assessment will allow feedback to adjust before launching additional assessments that can be utilized. Additionally, I will compare oral practical 1 and 2 scores for each student, and with previous years that did not have access to the item to ensure that the students are not just familiar with the layout of the practical.

Reflections and Next Steps

Before putting materials onto the slides, sample slides were shown to several students for feedback of their understanding. During this process, one student requested larger fonts. Another said that she was following a video but would need a picture reference when the slide changed. It was determined that a still picture with photos would help to reinforce what was seen in the scenario video. She also requested that the words be said that are on the screen to help connect them. For example, pollakiuria means frequent urination. Without seeing and hearing the word, the student was having a tough time remembering the formal name. Another request that I have not yet determined how to address is the ability to provide feedback directly within. Currently, I can give multiple choices with further explanation following.