Learning promotion of physiotherapy in neurological diseases: Design and application of a virtual reality-based game

INTRODUCTION: The virtual reality-based (VR) game can be considered as a new approach to education and to enhance the skills of health-care students. AIMS: The purposes of this research were to design a VR game and to apply it to teach physiotherapy in neurological diseases. METHODOLOGY: In this study, at first, a VR game was designed for upper limb rehabilitation in brain-injured patients based on the literature and the opinions of physiotherapy experts and game designers. Then, the designed game was used for teaching physiotherapy in neurological diseases. Thereafter, the opinions of 31 undergraduate students about the teaching session were evaluated by two anonymous questionnaires. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics through SPSS (version 19). RESULTS: The VR game developed under expert supervision. The evaluation showed that the median score for students’ perception of learning was 3.11. The median scores of questions related to the “facilitating level of virtual reality” and “student satisfaction” were 8.66 and 9, respectively. The analysis of students’ responses to open-ended questions highlighted the therapeutic aspect of the game compared to its educational aspect. CONCLUSIONS: Application of VR games in education can enhance the students’ perception of learning. Furthermore, it can provide a better understanding of physiotherapy in patients with neurological diseases as well as the satisfaction of students. However, the survey indicated that the good results of this teaching method are due to the use of VR for guiding the patient's movements.