The relationship between Video Enhanced Observations and VIVA examination performance in second year chiropractic undergraduate students: a cross sectional cohort study

Introduction Manipulative psychomotor skills training forms a fundamental part of undergraduate Chiropractic education. As new learning techniques and strategies are developed, it is important to be able to quantify their effectiveness. Video Enhanced Observation (VEO) is a server-based software, which allows for pre-programming of digital “tagsets” as well as the ability to upload, tag, and digitally comment on video recordings of various manual procedures. The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between immersive learning using VEO in Chiropractic technique skills training, and VIVA performance scores.
Methods VEO was integrated into the year 2 Chiropractic technique module at the Welsh Institute of Chiropractic (WiOC) during the 2017-18 academic year. VEO recordings were collected, tagged and uploaded to a secure server. Once uploaded the videos were shared with peers and academic members of staff. All 58 active year 2 students were enrolled and given creative access to the system so that they could either: be recorded during a class with verbal and digital feedback given immediately afterwards; be recorded during class with digital tags and written feedback applied at a later stage; or upload their own recorded technique performance to the server for feedback from the VEO manager. Students also had access to a library of technique exemplars as performed by an experienced Chiropractic educator. The total number of occasions a student was involved in a video was recorded, with data further divided into 2 groups for comparison: number of times a student was recorded by a tutor during class; number of videos recorded and uploaded to VEO by the student. All variables were analysed for correlations with technique VIVA percentage scores. Data were analysed for normality and appropriate correlation tests were performed using SPSS V.24 for Windows.
Results 31 students (53%) participated in classroom recordings. Of those 31 students, 7 (12%) recorded and uploaded at least one video for digital feedback. There was positive correlation between the number of recordings students were involved in and the VIVA scores (r = 0.273, p=0.038). Correlations were also found when comparing those who uploaded their own videos with VIVA scores (r =0.257, p=0.052). There was a non-significant positive correlation between those solely being recorded in the classroom and VIVA scores (r = 0.158, p=0.238).
Conclusion This initial study demonstrated that students participating in the VEO learning environment scored higher in the VIVA examination, indicating a more complete acquisition of the required skills and competencies associated with the assessment point. This study also indicates that the VEO system may be a valuable teaching aid for students learning complex psychomotor skills at undergraduate level.