JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The digital age has introduced opportunities and challenges for clinical education and practice brought on by infinite incoming information and novel technologies for health. In the interdisciplinary field of communication sciences and disorders (CSD), engagement with digital topics has emerged slower than in other health fields, and effective strategies for accessing, managing, and assessing quality of digital resources are greatly needed. Thus, investigating the utility of a “digital learning toolbox” (DLT), a resource library application containing resources for CSD could help with more effective filtering of relevant, useful information.

Objective:

This cross-sectional survey study conducted in the German-speaking world investigated perceptions and preferences regarding features, functions, content, and concerns surrounding a hypothetical DLT application for CSD.

Methods:

An open online survey was disseminated to professionals and students in CSD including speech-language pathologists (SLPs, German: Logopäd:innen), SLP students, phoniatricians and otolaryngologists, and medical students. Insights into preferences and perceptions across professions, generation, and years of experience regarding a proposed hypothetical application were investigated.

Results:

Of the 164 participants, an overwhelming majority (162, 98.8%) indicated readiness to use such an application and most (159, 97%) perceived the proposed application to be helpful. Participants positively rated app functions that would increase utility (e.g., tutorial, quality rating function, filters based on content/topic, digital format), though had varied opinions regarding an app-community feature. Regarding app settings, most participants rated the option to share digital resources through social media links, to receive and manage push notifications, and for reporting technical issues positively. However, significant variance was noted across profession (H3 = 8.006, P=.046) and generation (H3 = 9.309, P=.025) regarding a username password function, with SLPs indicating greater perceived usefulness in comparison to SLP students (P=.045), as was demonstrated by Generation X vs. Generation Z (P=.037). Participants perceived a range of clinical topics to be important, though significant variance was observed across profession between physicians and SLPs regarding the topic of diagnostics (H3 = 9.098, P=.028) and therapy (H3 = 21.236, P<.001). Concerns included technical challenges, data protection, the quality of the included resources, and the sustainability of the proposed app.

Conclusions:

This investigation demonstrated that professionals and students show initial readiness to engage in the co-design and use of an interdisciplinary DLT application. Specifically, this application could bolster effective access, sharing, evaluation, and knowledge management in a digital age of rapid change. Formalized digital skills education in the field of CSD is just part of the solution. It will be crucial to explore flexible, adaptive strategies collaboratively for managing digital resources and tools to optimize targeted selection and use of relevant, quality evidence in a world of bewildering data.