Implementing Artificial Intelligence in Physiotherapy Education: A Case Study on the Use of Large Language Models (LLM) to Enhance Feedback

Abstract

This article presents a controlled case study focused on implementing and using generative artificial intelligence, specifically large language models (LLMs), in physiotherapy education to assist instructors with formulating effective technology-mediated feedback for students. It outlines how these advanced technologies have been integrated into an existing feedback-oriented platform to guide instructors in providing feedback inputs and establish a reference framework for future innovations in practical skills training for health professions education. Specifically, the proposed solution uses LLMs to automatically evaluate feedback inputs made by instructors based on predefined and literature-based quality criteria and generates actionable textual explanations for reformulation. In addition, if the instructor requires, the tool supports summary generation for large sets of text inputs to achieve better student reception and understanding. The case study describes how these features were integrated into the feedback-oriented platform, how their effectiveness was evaluated in a controlled setting with documented feedback inputs, and the results of its implementation with real users through cognitive walkthroughs. Initial results indicate that this innovative implementation holds great potential to enhance learning and performance in physiotherapy education and has the potential to expand to other health disciplines where the development of procedural skills is critical, offering a valuable tool to assess and improve feedback based on quality standards for effective feedback processes. The cognitive walkthroughs allowed us to determine participants' usability decisions in the face of these new features and to evaluate the perceived usefulness, how this would integrate into their workload, and their opinion regarding the potential for the future within this teaching strategy. This article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for practice and future research directions in this developing field.