PhD, Associate Professor S.V. Radaeva¹
PhD V. S. Sosunovsky¹
PhD, Associate Professor L.M. Bezhentseva^1
1National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk

Corresponding author: a.zagrevskaya@yandex.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to survey the students’ progress in adaptation to the modern distance physical education service formats, their benefits and drawbacks.

Methods and structure of the study. We sampled for the survey the 18-20 year-old (1-3-year) special health group students (n=768, 64.7% female and 35.3% male sample) from the Humanities, Natural Sciences and Physics and Mathematics Departments of National Research Tomsk State University. Own distance physical education adaptation was rated excellent, good, satisfactory and poor by 34%, 42%, 20% and 4% of the sample, respectively. Most of the Russian universities keep their own distance learning web-platforms dominated by Moodle SDU toolkit that was originally designed to complement the full-time education service. Satisfaction with the Moodle SDU system was reported positive, negative and uncertain by 68%, 12% and 20% of the sample.

The other part of the questionnaire form was designed to survey attitudes to the distance physical education service, with 75%, 13% and 12% of the sample rating it positively, negatively and uncertain, respectively. We further analyzed reasons for the positive attitude to distance physical education service.

Results and conclusion. The distance physical education service was found beneficial under certain conditions as it makes the training process more versatile, optional, mobile, free in time and space and, hence, more effective; albeit such service formats may be still challenging when combined with the traditional collective trainings in classes and gyms. Generally, the modern distance physical education service formats may be beneficial for many academic physical education goals. The questionnaire survey data and analyses of the students’ adaptation and attitude to the distance physical education give grounds to make recommendations on how the distance physical education service should be designed and managed for success. We would recommend the most efficient distance physical education models to be prudently implemented as complementary to the traditional academic physical education service for the special health group to effectively encourage the students’ interest in and motivations for theoretical and practical progress in physical education.

Keywords: distance education, COVID-19 pandemic.

Background. Since 2020 with its COVID-19 pandemic related restrictions, many academic Physical Education and Sports Departments in Russia have reported multiple problems due to transition to distance learning service formats [1-3] bereft of the traditional physical education and sport service benefits including live teacher-student communication, well-equipped gyms, apparatuses and accessories and many other progress facilitating aspects [4, 5]. Special problems have been reported by the special health groups in need of special/ adapted distance physical education service options.

Objective of the study was to survey the students’ progress in adaptation to the modern distance physical education service formats, their benefits and drawbacks.

Methods and structure of the study. We sampled for the survey the 18-20 year-old (1-3-year) special health group students (n=768, 64.7% female and 35.3% male sample) from the Humanities, Natural Sciences and Physics and Mathematics Departments of National Research Tomsk State University.

Results and discussion. Own distance physical education adaptation was rated excellent, good, satisfactory and poor by 34%, 42%, 20% and 4% of the sample, respectively. Most of the Russian universities keep their own distance learning web-platforms dominated by Moodle SDU toolkit that was originally designed to complement the full-time education service. Satisfaction with the Moodle SDU system was reported positive, negative and uncertain by 68%, 12% and 20% of the sample correspondingly.

The other part of the questionnaire form was designed to survey attitudes to the distance physical education service, with 75%, 13% and 12% of the sample rating it positively, negatively and uncertain, respectively. We further analyzed reasons for the positive attitude to distance physical education service and found 68.5% of the group happy with the physical education videos offered by the teacher; 39.6% appreciating the video reports of own physical education practices making it possible to analyze own performance and progress from the outside; and 4.1% of the group emphasized benefits of the live online trainings in a conference format when the teacher watches every trainee and helps him/ her by timely theoretical and practical instructions.

The survey found benefits of the live scheduled online trainings with video records of the training process for further analysis in free time. In the distance physical education design and practical aspects, the teacher always has an option of prior recording to freely control and correct the trainees’ execution watching them on a monitor later on. The students who opt for the self-reliant trainings are required to submit video reports of such trainings with own reflections/ analysis of the progress, problems and limitations.

It should be mentioned that the distance physical education service facilitates the students’ progress in working with video equipment and application software plus their analytical skills, to develop a deep insight into the movement techniques and progress opportunities. This fact was particularly appreciated as found by the survey, with 38.1% of the sample reporting progress in the video capturing/ editing/ analyzing aspects; and 10.3% reporting progress in own creativity due to the distance physical education process recording, analyzing and reporting, with special benefits for their physical education interest and motivations.

Furthermore, the distance physical education practices were found to improve the student's self-esteem and determination in contrast to live collective physical education sessions – since some of the special health group students are unsurprisingly shy to train with the others due to their poor physical fitness and body shape, whilst home physical education practices release them of this stress and mental limitations. In addition, home distance physical education was found appreciated for the freedom in space and time – since every student is free to train on his/her own schedule and discretion. This positive factor and its motivational aspects were reported by 84.9% of the sample.

The question of whether or not the teacher uses special means to keep the students informed on their progress in the physical education and healthy lifestyles was responded negatively by 62% of the sample, whilst many actually emphasized the need for such progress information that could be made available via the popular social networks – such as VKontakte and Telegram favored by 72.1% and 34.6% of the sample, respectively.

Conclusion. The distance physical education service was found beneficial under certain conditions as it makes the training process more versatile, optional, mobile, free in time and space and, hence, more effective; albeit such service formats may be still challenging when combined with the traditional collective trainings in classes and gyms. Generally, the modern distance physical education service formats may be beneficial for many academic physical education goals. The questionnaire survey data and analyses of the students’ adaptation and attitude to the distance physical education give grounds to make recommendations on how the distance physical education service should be designed and managed for success. We would recommend the most efficient distance physical education models to be prudently implemented as complementary to the traditional academic physical education service for the special health group to effectively encourage the students’ interest in and motivations for theoretical and practical progress in physical education.

References

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