Join Dr. Sam Coppoletti, PTA Education Lead at PhysioU, for a deep dive and collaborative discussion about Assistive Devices. Discover how students can build confidence and clinical reasoning through hands-on, formative virtual experiences with commonly used assistive devices. This session goes beyond demonstration – engage in meaningful discussion with fellow faculty and uncover practical strategies to seamlessly integrate this tool into your curriculum.

Featured Speaker: Sam Coppoletti, PT, DPT

Dr. Coppoletti is a veteran PTA educator with a diverse clinical and academic background. He has earned degrees from Northern Illinois University, the University of Iowa, and Shenandoah University. His career includes work as a PTA, rural hospital director, pediatric cooperative therapist, and MPT faculty at Southwest Baptist University. He also led the Shawnee State PTA Program for eight years, served a decade at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College, and directed the Hocking College PTA Program. Dr. Coppoletti has served on the Ohio PT Licensure Board, the OPTA Ethics Committee, and as a consultant to NPTE Final Frontier. He is part of an international team teaching in Cameroon’s first PT bachelor’s program and currently teaches for Lake Superior College’s PTA Military Bridge Program.

Featured Speaker: Tracy Moore, PT, DPT, ONC 

Dr. Moore is a physical therapist, faculty member, product manager and educational leader. He is an active speaker at national and international conferences, specializing in oncology rehabilitation, chronic pain, and learning science. Dr. Moore continues to conduct and publish research, present at industry conferences, and contribute to PhysioU app design and development.

00:00 PTA Education and Challenges Discussion

04:41 Content Localization and Compliance Updates

08:04 Descriptive Audio Implementation Discussion

11:53 Assistive Devices Study Resource Demo

14:55 Assistive Devices Training Resources

19:56 Assisted Devices App Classroom Benefits

22:47 Physi-U Educational App Demonstration

Helpful Links: Complimentary Educator access | Educator resources | Set up a Demo

A Smarter Way to Teach Assistive Device Training: Inside PhysioU’s Comprehensive Learning Platform

Teaching assistive device skills has always been one of those foundational challenges in physical therapy education. You need students to master proper fitting techniques, understand multiple gait patterns, practice safe guarding, and develop clinical judgment about when to use which device—all within a compressed timeframe and often with limited equipment access. It’s a tall order, particularly when you’re preparing PTAs who need to hit the ground running in clinical settings.

That’s exactly why we designed PhysioU’s Assistive Devices app the way we did. In our recent webinar, we walked through how this platform addresses the real-world constraints PTA faculty face while giving students the repetition and reference materials they need to build genuine competence. What emerged was a conversation about more than just teaching tools—it was about reimagining how foundational skills can be learned efficiently without sacrificing depth or practical application.

Meeting Faculty Where the Challenges Live

The obstacles are familiar to anyone teaching in a PTA program. Not every school has access to the full range of assistive devices students will encounter in practice. Newer equipment like knee walkers or specialized crutches may be out of reach budget-wise, yet patients are using them. Lab time is precious and often insufficient for the amount of practice students need to achieve fluency. And then there’s the perennial question of how to create authentic clinical scenarios when you can’t always bring real patients into the classroom.

We’ve also heard from faculty about the fitting challenges. Students sometimes struggle to remember the key measurements and adjustment techniques across different devices, mixing up procedures or missing critical safety checks. The learning curve can be steep, particularly when you’re trying to prepare students for high-stakes clinical encounters where proper device fitting directly impacts patient safety and outcomes.

PhysioU’s approach tackles these challenges through a combination of comprehensive video demonstrations, downloadable teaching resources, and case-based learning that brings clinical reasoning into the equation. The platform isn’t meant to replace hands-on lab practice—nothing can substitute for actual repetition with equipment and peers—but it significantly enhances what students can accomplish before, during, and after their lab sessions.

What’s Inside the Assistive Devices App

At the heart of the platform is an extensive library of concise, focused videos covering everything from device fitting to gait pattern instruction. Each video gets straight to the point, typically running just over a minute, which respects both faculty time and student attention spans. The front wheel walker fitting demonstration, for instance, walks through the entire process in 78 seconds: unfolding the walker, positioning the patient, adjusting to wrist crease height, and confirming proper elbow flexion when the patient grips the handles.

This brevity is intentional. Students are juggling multiple courses and clinical preparation simultaneously. What they need are clear, repeatable demonstrations they can reference quickly rather than lengthy tutorials that require significant time investment to extract key information. 

The platform includes fitting videos for all major assistive devices—standard walkers, rolling walkers, axillary crutches, forearm crutches, quad canes, and single-point canes. Each follows a similar structure, making it easier for students to develop a consistent mental framework for the fitting process across devices.

The gait pattern section takes the same focused approach but adds a crucial detail: the patient wears a red stocking on the involved leg. This simple visual cue helps students clearly see weight-bearing patterns and timing, particularly important when they’re learning to distinguish between two-point, three-point, and modified patterns. Videos are filmed from multiple angles and available for both right and left lower extremity involvement, which turns out to be remarkably useful. Students can select the version that matches their patient’s presentation, and clinicians can actually share these videos directly with patients as take-home reference materials using the platform’s email sharing feature.

Beyond the mechanics, the app includes wheelchair assessment content that addresses proper fitting across multiple dimensions—seat height, depth, width, armrest height, and footrest position. Each measurement includes not just the ideal positioning but also the consequences of poor fitting. Students learn, for example, that armrests set too high create difficulty with propulsion and standing, while armrests too low cause forward trunk lean and similar mobility challenges. This moves students beyond rote measurement toward understanding the functional implications of proper fitting.

Teaching Resources That Actually Save Time

One of the platform’s most practical features for faculty is the collection of downloadable lab handouts available in both PDF and DOC formats. These aren’t just transcripts of the videos—they’re purpose-built teaching documents with thumbnail sketches showing key positions and bullet-pointed fitting cues organized by device type. Faculty can use these as-is for lab sessions or customize the DOC versions to align with their specific curriculum or institutional requirements.

The bookmarking functionality opens up another efficiency gain. Faculty can curate collections of specific content—say, all the fitting videos plus relevant gait patterns for an upcoming lab—and share that collection with students via a single URL or email. Students then have a focused study guide that points them to exactly what they need to review. This is particularly valuable for exam preparation, where students can bookmark their weak areas and create personalized review sequences.

During the webinar, we demonstrated how this might work in practice using a “passport” system for lab access. Students must complete specified video content and demonstrate competencies with multiple partners before gaining access to advanced lab practice or practical exams. The combination of video review, hands-on practice, and competency checkoffs with faculty feedback creates a progression that builds skill systematically rather than hoping students figure it out through trial and error.

We’re also actively working toward WCAG 2.2 compliance, ensuring the platform meets universal accessibility standards. This includes descriptive audio in all videos and accessible navigation throughout the interface, making the content genuinely usable for all students regardless of disability status. It’s not just about legal compliance—it’s about ensuring every student can engage fully with the learning materials.

Where Clinical Reasoning Enters the Picture

Skills practice is essential, but clinical judgment is what separates competent practitioners from those who struggle in real-world settings. That’s where the case study component becomes particularly valuable. These aren’t contrived scenarios—they’re drawn from common clinical presentations PTAs will encounter regularly.

Take the 35-year-old female patient with lower extremity fractures. The case provides relevant history and current status, then asks students to work through a series of clinical reasoning questions. Which assistive device would they recommend based on the information provided? What three pieces of information guided their decision? How would they adjust the device for this patient, and which gait pattern would be most appropriate given the weight-bearing restrictions?

The cases then introduce realistic complications. The patient reports numbness in their hands during ambulation. Students must identify potential causes and determine what to check—is it device fit, hand positioning, weight distribution, or something else? Another common scenario: the patient mentions their family has a cane and axillary crutches at home and asks which they should bring to the next session. Students must consider weight-bearing status (25% in this case) and explain why a cane won’t provide adequate support even though it’s more convenient than crutches.

These case-based questions can work as in-class discussion prompts, homework assignments, or even assessment items. Faculty have the flexibility to expand the provided answers for deeper discussion or use them as-is for self-directed learning. The cases include total knee replacement scenarios, spinal cord injury presentations, and other bread-and-butter conditions that help students connect device selection and gait training to actual patient care contexts.

Building Skills Progressively Across the Curriculum

PhysioU isn’t designed as a standalone resource for one course—it’s structured to support learning progression throughout a PTA program. The first semester typically focuses on foundational skills: range of motion, palpation, vital signs, basic physical agents. The platform includes dedicated apps for each of these areas with the same concise, focused approach used in the assistive device content.

As students advance, they encounter more complex applications through simulation-based apps. These scorable activities present realistic patient scenarios where students must integrate multiple skills—assessment, device selection, patient education, safety monitoring—and make clinical decisions in real time. Faculty can track student performance, see how many attempts were needed to achieve passing scores (typically set around 75-80%), and identify areas where students struggle consistently.

The platform also includes patient education materials that extend beyond the classroom. Students learning wheelchair assessment, for instance, can access content on skin inspection, pressure relief techniques, signs of decreased circulation, and how to navigate different surfaces and inclines. These materials can be shared directly with patients, helping PTAs fulfill their education responsibilities more effectively and giving patients reference materials they can return to at home.

Throughout the curriculum, the search functionality and content organization make it easy for both faculty and students to find what they need quickly. Looking for gait pattern handouts? A search brings up the teaching content in the top results. Need a quick refresher on modified three-point gait? The video is accessible in seconds, not minutes. This kind of frictionless access matters when faculty are prepping for lab sessions or students are reviewing before practicals.

Looking at Real Implementation

During the webinar, we walked through several practical applications that faculty have used successfully. The passport system mentioned earlier ensures students come to lab sessions prepared, having reviewed relevant videos and understanding basic concepts before attempting hands-on practice. This shifts lab time away from initial instruction and toward supervised practice with feedback, making those limited contact hours far more productive.

The bookmarking feature serves double duty as both a study tool for students and a curriculum mapping tool for faculty. By creating bookmark collections aligned with course objectives, faculty essentially build custom textbooks from platform content, ensuring students focus on priority areas while maintaining access to the broader library for reference and deeper exploration.

The case studies work particularly well as homework assignments that bridge the gap between skills courses and clinical integration courses. Students can work through cases at their own pace, consulting videos and reference materials as needed, then come to class prepared to discuss their clinical reasoning. This flipped classroom approach tends to generate richer discussions because students have already grappled with the material individually.

One particularly valuable aspect that emerged during our conversation: the ability to share content directly with patients. A PTA working with a patient discharged with axillary crutches can email the appropriate gait pattern video for home reference. This supports patient safety after discharge and reinforces the PTA’s education, all while requiring minimal additional time during the treatment session.

The Bigger Picture

What we’re really talking about here is efficiency without sacrificing quality. PTA education operates under significant time pressure—there’s a finite amount of content that must be covered in a limited timeframe before students head into clinical experiences where expectations are high and mistakes have real consequences. Every tool that can extend learning time, provide additional practice opportunities, or make existing contact hours more productive helps address that fundamental constraint.

PhysioU’s Assistive Devices app represents our attempt to support faculty in that challenge. It’s not about replacing good teaching—it’s about amplifying what skilled educators can accomplish by giving students additional resources for preparation, practice, and review. The platform works best when integrated thoughtfully into a well-designed curriculum, not as a replacement for faculty expertise but as an extension of it.

For programs exploring how to enhance their assistive device instruction, we’re always happy to discuss specific needs and demonstrate how the platform might fit your particular context. Whether it’s a one-on-one consultation or a group session with your full faculty, we want to understand your challenges and explore PhysioU’s practical solutions. 

Because at the end of the day, we’re all working toward the same goal: preparing competent, confident PTAs who can serve patients safely and effectively from day one of practice.