Faculty of Health Science, School of Rehabilitation Science, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Gong Badak Campus, Kuala Terengganu 21300, Terengganu, Malaysia.
Exercise and Sports Science Programme, School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian 16150, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 22;19(13):7636. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19137636.
Learners’ engagement is shown to be a major predictor of learning, performance, and course completion as well as course satisfaction. It is easier to engage learners in a face-to-face teaching and learning format since the teacher can observe and interpret the learner’s facial expression and body language. However, in a virtual setting with the students sitting behind cameras, it is difficult to ascertain engagement as the students might be absent-mindedly attending the class. Henceforth, with the rapid transition to online learning, designing course content that could actively engage the students towards achieving the said elements is, therefore, necessary. We applied a data-driven approach in designing a virtual physical education and sport science−related course via a learner engagement model. A fully online course catering to 132 students that runs for a total of 14 weeks was used as a case study to develop the course. The study was conducted during the 2020/2021 academic year, which was the period of the peak COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. The delivery of the course content was implemented in stages to achieve three essential educational outcomes namely, skill and knowledge acquisition, and personal development as well as course satisfaction. We hypothesised that the developed learners’ engagement approach will promote the students’ acquisition of skills and knowledge and foster the personal development of the students through fitness improvement. It is also hypothesised that the students will be satisfied with the course developed upon successful completion. A chi-square analysis projected a statistically significant difference in the skill and knowledge acquisition before and after the programme (p < 0.001). A Wilcoxon rank-sum test demonstrated personal improvement in the overall fitness of the student upon completing the prescribed activity of the course content. Moreover, a total of 96.2%, 95.5% and 93.2% of students expressed their satisfaction with the clarity of the learning objectives, good organisational and course content plan, and appropriate workload of the course designed, respectively. There is sufficient evidence to accept all hypotheses formulated, and hence, we postulated that, since students spend more time outside the classroom, out-of-class learners’ engagement activity should be considered when designing a virtual course to promote lifelong learning, experience, and higher-order thinking. The techniques presented herein could be useful to academics, professionals, and other relevant stakeholders in developing virtual course content within a specific domain of interest.
学习者的参与度被证明是学习、表现和课程完成以及课程满意度的主要预测因素。在面对面的教学和学习模式中，更容易让学习者参与其中，因为教师可以观察和解释学习者的面部表情和肢体语言。然而，在学生坐在摄像头后面的虚拟环境中，很难确定参与度，因为学生可能心不在焉地参加课程。因此，随着向在线学习的快速过渡，设计能够积极吸引学生实现上述目标的课程内容是必要的。我们应用了一种数据驱动的方法，通过学习者参与模型设计了一门虚拟的体育教育和运动科学相关课程。一个完全在线的课程，面向 132 名学生，总共运行 14 周，被用作案例研究来开发课程。该研究于 2020/2021 学年进行，正值马来西亚 COVID-19 疫情高峰期。课程内容的交付分阶段进行，以实现三个基本的教育成果，即技能和知识的获取、个人发展以及课程满意度。我们假设，所开发的学习者参与方法将促进学生技能和知识的获取，并通过健身提高促进学生的个人发展。我们还假设，学生在成功完成课程后会对所开发的课程感到满意。卡方分析预测，在课程前后，学生在技能和知识获取方面存在统计学上的显著差异（p < 0.001）。威尔科克森秩和检验表明，学生在完成课程内容规定的活动后，整体健康状况有所提高。此外，共有 96.2%、95.5%和 93.2%的学生分别表示对学习目标的清晰度、良好的组织和课程内容计划以及课程设计的适当工作量表示满意。有足够的证据接受所有提出的假设，因此，我们假设，由于学生在课堂外花费更多的时间，在设计虚拟课程时应考虑课外学习者的参与活动，以促进终身学习、体验和高阶思维。本文介绍的技术对于学术界人士、专业人士和其他相关利益相关者在特定感兴趣领域开发虚拟课程内容可能是有用的。
