DIGITAL LEARNING AND E-LEARNING PLATFORMS IN PHYSIOTHERAPY

Abstract

What started as a pandemic-driven necessity has now become a fixture in physiotherapy education. Blended formats, flipped classrooms, interactive apps, student-made videos, and telehealth training modules have all shown tangible gains in how well students acquire knowledge, stay engaged, and perform practical tasks. That said, going fully online does not work well when students need to develop haptic awareness, respond to tactile feedback, or receive close hands-on correction from an instructor.The sensible takeaway is that digital learning works best as a complement to, not a replacement for, face-to-face teaching in physiotherapy. This chapter looks at the main digital platforms being used in physiotherapy programmes today, weighs up the evidence for and against different approaches, and puts forward practical principles for designing curricula, choosing assessment methods, and rolling out technology in ways that genuinely serve learning outcomes.