Empathy, creativity, and feelings using a modern board game: A learning experience valued by physiotherapy students

This study aimed at understanding how physiotherapy students perceive a modern board game experience as an opportunity to train socioemotional skills. Twenty physiotherapy students participated in a learning experience using the Telestration game and were assessed in terms of: game-based self-perceived experience; game’s serious dimension. The facilitator’s perceptionswere also accounted for. Students learned creative expression skills (85% students characterized a true/strong creative experience; 90% expressed a strong feeling of “freedom of experimentation”) and were considered immersed and emotionally involved (significant association between understanding game’s serious purposes and emotional relationship with experience, p-value=0.01). Telestration was classified as a relevant learning method for other serious purposes (>50% students revealed inttention to use Telestration for other serious purposes). Therefore, physiotherapy students self-rated this experience with the Telestration game as significant for learning relevant socioemotional skills. Additionally, facilitator’s perceptions confirmed that they were perfectly immersed and emotionally involved in this learning experience. Future studies in this topic are needed, including larger samples and students from different health courses. Future studies in this topic are needed, including larger samples and students from different health courses.