Usefulness and Usability of a Digital Health Educational Tool -VSTEP Examination Suite- to Teach Standardized Assessment of Persons Post-Stroke: Student and Faculty Perspectives (Preprint)

Abstract

Background & Objective: The VSTEP Examination Suite, a collection of evidence-based standardized assessments for persons post-stroke, was evaluated as an educational tool by physical therapy students and faculty. Methods: Six students from a Doctor of Physical Therapy program in the US and six faculty who teach standardized assessments in different physical therapy programs from the US and Israel interacted with the system using a talk-aloud procedure. Transcripts were coded deductively with a priori categories of usability, usefulness and labeled with negative or positive valences. A second round of inductive coding yielded emergent themes based on theories of technology adoption, clinical reasoning and education. Results: Frequencies and valences of the deductive themes of usefulness and usability were tested for differences between faculty and students using a Wilcoxon Sign Rank test. Faculty comments with positive valence for usefulness were lowest for the 6MWT (83%) and for the students on the 4SQT (92%). Usefulness scores were not significantly different between faculty and students. For usability, faculty and students had the lowest positive valence scores for the 10MWT (50%). Students had a statistically significant higher number of negative usability comments compared to faculty (W=0, p =0.017) specifically for the 5XSTS (W=0.5, p = 0.022). Themes emerged related to variable knowledge about the standardized tests, value as a teaching and learning tool, technology being consistent with clinical reasoning in addition to ensuring reliability, expert-to-novice clinical reasoning (students) and usability. Conclusions: The VSTEP was found to be useful by both faculty and students, and usability testing revealed opportunities for technology refinement.