Digital educational information service for physical education at humanities university

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Dr.Hab., Professor A.A. Somkin1
PhD, Associate Professor O.V. Lyashenko1,2
PhD, Associate Professor S.A. Konstantinov1
1St. Petersburg State Institute of Cinema and Television, St. Petersburg
2National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg

Keywords: Physical Education Department, Moodle-based digital education service, distance education, digital textbooks and videos.

Background. Digital education resources being implemented in the academic education systems on the whole and the Physical Education and Sports discipline in particular have been found beneficial for the self-reliant trainings since they offer ample opportunities for the individualized learning models, with the necessary data easily found and digested on a most efficient basis [2, 4]. Distance education technologies are known to facilitate formation of universal competences including the self-management and self-development ones including those in the Physical Education and Sports theory and practice domain [1, 3].

Objective of the study was to develop and test benefits of the Moodle-based distance education technology piloted at the Physical Education Department of Saint Petersburg State Institute of Cinema and Television (SPSICT).

Methods and structure of the study. The study to develop and test benefits of the new Moodle-based distance education technology at the SPSICT Physical Education Department was run in the academic year of 2017-18. It should be noted that the Physical Education Department has made a successful transition to the distance education method in the Physical Education and Sports disciplines. The SPSICT Physical Education Department website (moodle.gykit.ru) offers the following distance education tools: (1) Eight lectures in the text-only format; (2) Reference literature for each of the above lectures; (3) Progress tests for every lecture.

The Moodle-based distance education model used at the SPSICT Physical Education Department facilitates the interactive education format and communication of the faculty with students and Physical Education and Sports theoretical knowledge tests as required by the SPSICT Internal Academic Progress Test Regulation of 2018, with the competences rated by the primary, interim and final tests on the relevant scoring scale in every session up to examinations.

Since most of the academic disciplines at SPSICT require a high creativity from students and, hence, reasonably tolerant to their off-class creative practices, the students quite often accumulate academic arrears in the theoretical and practical courses of the Physical Education and Sports disciplines. More specifically, the arrears are explained by their engagements in film festivals, creative contests, conferences, master classes run by experts and celebrities of theater, music, cinema, radio and television [8], and that is the reason why still much to be done to improve the following: (1) The so-called ‘catch-up’ system to help them clear academic arrears in the sessions by the off-session trainings; and (2) Options to offset the missed theoretical and practical classes by the self-reliant learning/ training efforts.

Results and discussion. The educational surveys during the practical training sessions and questionnaire surveys of the SPSICT faculty and students showed that most of the students prefer self-reliant athletic trainings as the most efficient ‘catch-up’ option – albeit these trainings are never systemic and methodologically literate enough. To facilitate the self-reliant trainings, the Physical Education Department staff has worked out an Instruction Manual for the Self-reliant Physical Education and Sports Trainings available in hardcopies and electronic version available on the SPSICT Physical Education Department website. Students may use their mobile devices to browse the education materials and find the most convenient individual education path. The electronic version of the Instruction Manual (FULL button) gives the following sections:

– Description of the sample design of a health-prioritizing self-reliant athletic training session with detailed elements;

– Preparatory section with the cyclic aerobic practices assisted by the cardiac function stimulating training machines plus a set of standard physical conditioning exercises;

– Core part including the health athletic exercises for every key muscle group;

– Session finalizing part with the relaxing and flexibility focused physical exercises; and

– Reference literature.

The practical recommendations (FULL button) give descriptions of every exercise with pictures featuring the movement sequence to facilitate practical execution, with detailed explanations. The session finalizing instructions give two sets of stretching exercises for the key muscle groups with the movement sequence featuring pictures – that may be practiced at the gymnastic wall or on mat. The materials given in the electronic version of the Instruction Manual for the students' self-reliant trainings (FULL button) are the same as the printed version offered by the university library.

Recommendations activated by the LIGHT button give filed sets of exercises for the key muscle groups and stretching practices for the session finalizing part – without textual explanations and descriptions to facilitate browsing on mobile devices including smart phones. Students appreciate this application tool helpful for their self-reliant trainings in the sport gyms with the so-called express consulting service option.

The student willing to study the strength/ flexibility exercises in more detail may find them in the Reference Literature by opening up a file menu with full texts of the source publications downloadable in pdf format. Since the electronic version of the Instruction Manual is available in a few options, the training model may be effectively customized to the non-sporting university students’ needs and situations to facilitate their self-reliant trainings [6].

Presently the SPSICT Physical Education Department offers a menu of elective Physical Education and Sports disciplines including a variety of academic martial arts groups (wushu-sanda, taekwondo, arm wrestling) and popular applied sports (hand-to-hand fight, self-defense, aikido) [7]. However, these groups also report some individual arrears beyond control of the students, and these arrears may also be cleared by the self-reliant off-group trainings facilitated by the electronic teaching aids with videos offered by Physical Education Department for many elective sports – e.g. ‘Wushu Sanda Techniques’, ‘Taekwondo-phumse’, ‘Kickboxing Rules’ etc. Since 2014 till now the Physical Education Department staff has produced more than 20 videos available on DVD disks [5].

Conclusion. As a result of the digital electronic service development studies at the SPSICT Physical Education Department, we have offered the following: (1) Moodle-based distance education technology with a course of lectures and physical education and sports progress scoring/ rating tests; and (2) Digital Instruction Manual with recommendations on how the self-reliant training and learning course may be designed on an individualized basis to facilitate progress in the key academic physical education and sports disciplines including martial arts.

References

  1. Bogdanov V.M., Ponomarev V.S., Solovov A.V. Metody i tekhnologii elektronnogo distantsionnogo obucheniya v vuzovskom kurse fizicheskoy kultury [Methods and technologies of electronic distance learning in PE university course]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2010. no. 2. pp. 51–56.
  2. Bochkareva S.I., Buyanova T.V., Vysotskaya T.P. Ispolzovanie elektronnykh obrazovatelnykh resursov v protsesse fizicheskogo vospitaniya v vuze [Online education resources applied in academic physical education process]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2018. no. 3. pp. 44–46.
  3. Volkova L.M., Bushma T.V., Volkov V.Yu., Zuykova E.G. Kompyuternye tekhnologii na uchebnykh zanyatiyakh po fizicheskoy kulture v vuze [Computer technologies in academic physical education classes]. Kultura fizicheskaya i zdorovye. 2015. no.1 (52). pp. 69–72.
  4. Zakrevskaya N.G., Utisheva E.V., Bordovskiy P.G., Komeva E.Yu. Elektronnaya informatsionno-obrazovatelnaya sreda kak sredstvo kommunikatsii v uchebnom protsesse [Electronic information and education environment as academic communication tool]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2018. no. 2. pp. 9–11.
  5. Lubysheva L.I. Sportizatsiya v sisteme fizicheskogo vospitaniya: ot nauchnoy idei k innovatsionnoy praktike [Sportization in physical education system: from scientific ideas to innovative practice]. Moscow: Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury i sporta publ., 2017. 200 p.
  6. Nikishkin V.A., Bumarskova N.N., Lazareva E.A. Effektivnost fizkulturno-sportivnoy i ozdorovitelnoy deyatelnosti studentov vuza (iz opyta rabotyi kafedry fizkultury i sporta Natsionalnogo issledovatelskogo Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo stroitelnogo universiteta [Efficiency of physical education and sports and health activities of university students (from experience of Physical Education and Sports Department of National Research Moscow State University of Civil Engineering]. Pedagogika i psikhologiya obrazovaniya. 2017. no. 4. pp. 69–75.
  7. Somkin A.A., Konstantinov S.A. Prikladnye i sportivnye edinoborstva na kafedre fizicheskogo vospitaniya tvorcheskogo vuza [Applied and sports martial arts at Physical Education Department of artistic university]. XXI Tsarskoselskie chteniya [Tsarskoye Selo meeting]. Proc. internat. sci. conf. v. II. St. Petersburg: LGU im.  A.S. Pushkina publ, 2017. pp. 271–274.
  8. Somkin A.A., Konstantinov S.A., Devidenko O.V. Ballno-reytingovaya sistema kontrolya v «Elektivnykh distsiplinakh po fizicheskoy kulture i sportu» dlya studentov tvorcheskogo vysshego uchebnogo zavedeniya [Point-rating control system in "Elective physical education and sports disciplines" for students of artistic higher educational institutions]. Mir pedagogiki i psikhologii: international scientific and practical journal. Nizhny Novgorod, 2018. no. 2 (18). pp. 20–30.

Corresponding author: sports_73@mail.ru

Abstract

The article analyzes benefits of a digital educational service model tested at the Physical Education Department of Saint Petersburg State Institute of Cinema and Television. The digital educational service with its distance technologies has proved beneficial for the self-reliant learning in the theoretical and practical education and sport domains, and particularly for building the educational data processing and communication competences in the teacher-student and coach-trainee communication and cooperation formats. As a result of the study, we developed the following: Moodle-based distance educational technology with a course of lectures and physical education and sports progress scoring/ rating tests; digital practical recommendations on how the self-reliant learning course may be designed on an individualized basis in the Full and Adapted formats assisted by Recommended Literature; and offered the educational information database with the digital textbooks and videos to facilitate progress in the key academic physical education and sports disciplines including martial arts.