Use of audience response systems (ARS) in physiotherapists’ training: a qualitative study

Objective: To explore the experience of using audience response systems (ARS) in postgraduate physiotherapy training.

Design: Qualitative interview study following the 'reflexive thematic analysis' by Braun and Clarke.

Setting: Higher education university.

Participants: Ten Italian students (60% men, N=6; 40% women, N=4) agreed to partake in the interviews.

Results: We generated four themes. Specifically, the ARS were perceived: (1) as a 'Shared Compass' (theme 1) between the student and the lecturers to monitor and modify the ongoing students' learning journey; (2) useful to 'Come Out of Your Shell' (theme 2) as they help students to overcome shyness and build a team with peers; (3) as 'A Square Peg in a Round Hole' (theme 3) as they should not be used in situations that do not suit them; (4) as 'Not Everyone's Cup of Tea' (theme 4) as mixed opinions among ARS' utilities were found under some circumstances (eg, memorisation process and clinical reasoning).

Conclusion: Physiotherapy lecturers must use ARS critically, respecting when (eg, not at the end of the lesson) and how to propose them, keeping in mind that some skills (eg, practical ones) might not benefit from their use. Moreover, they need to consider that the ARS are not a tool for everyone, so ARS must be integrated into a multimodal teaching paradigm.