AUDIOLOGY TEACHING MEDIATED BY TECHNOLOGY AND THE IMPACT ON PRACTICAL PERFORMANCE
Educational Technology; Information Technology; Teaching Materials; Audiology; Audiometry; Simulation Training.
Introduction: The use of technologies integrated into teaching can make classes more dynamic and interesting and help the teaching-learning process. Objective: To develop and validate technologymediated tools for teaching audiology. Method: A prospective descriptive study, structured in two manuscripts: (I) Virtual patients: impact of computer simulation on practical performance in audiology and, (II) Virtual Audiometer: online tool for teaching and learning. In the first study, two professors and 35 students from two Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology courses answered a satisfaction questionnaire and a self-assessment scale of the impact on practical performance, both on a Likert scale. In the second manuscript, the online version of the virtual audiometer was used by 481 people from 17 states and the Federal District (DF). Of these, 98 students, 24 professors and nine audiologists registered their assessment in a Likert scale questionnaire, in addition to citing positive and negative points. Results: The audiometric simulator and the online version of the virtual audiometer were positively evaluated as auxiliary tools in teaching, with intra- and inter-category user agreement. In addition, there was a positive perception of the impact on audiological practice. In the content analysis, the predominant negative point was the “installation difficulty” for the simulator and the “lack of an instruction manual” for the virtual audiometer. Conclusion: The two tools developed were positively evaluated and can bring benefits to the audiology teaching. The similarity with the physical audiometer, the low cost and the ease of installation are fundamental aspects for the efficiency of these solutions.