Impact of Autonomous Learning for Advanced Acquisition of Physiology (ALAAP) module among undergraduate health-care professional students

Abstract

Objectives: The present study aims to document the effectiveness of self-directed activity-based Autonomous Learning for Advanced Acquisition of Physiology (ALAAP) module for endocrine learning among undergraduate physical therapy students. Materials and Methods: Fifty-five second semester students (28 males and 27 females) of the physical therapy course of a private healthcare university were recruited and the traditional didactic method of teaching-learning was compared with that of the newly developed ALAAP module. Results: The triad approach employed to compare the scores of pre-test and post-test after the ALAAP module intervention showed P < 0.001 and Hedges’ g effect size of 0.75 with a 95% CI of –3.41 to –1.5 implying the effectiveness of the module to be strong. Furthermore, the feedback obtained was favourable toward this module and showed that there was an increase in both the affective and cognitive domains of learning. Conclusion: ALAAP module for endocrine physiology is effective and positively targeted all types of learners. It helped their transition from pedagogy to andragogy type of deep learning. The group work done by the students as a part of this module instilled collaborative and cooperative learning in them.