Investigating the efficacy of practical skill teaching: a pilot-study comparing three educational methods

This study compares the efficacy of two innovative practical skill teaching methods, against a traditional teaching method. Year three pre-clinical physiotherapy students consented to participate in a randomised controlled trial, with concealed allocation and blinded participants and outcome assessment. Each of the three randomly allocated groups were exposed to a different practical skills teaching method (traditional, pre-recorded video tutorial or student selfvideo) for two specific practical skills during the semester. Clinical performance was assessed using an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).