Title: A 'Student' Immersion Into A Technologically Assisted Learning Experience: The Fitness, Health and Wellness Gig

Presenters:

Mr Bob Boyd

• Director of Practicum Studies
• Director of Staff Wellness Program
• Lecturer
• Unit Coordinator (including HMB171)

Ms Halima Goss

• Associate Director Online Teaching Coordination, TALSS
• Manager - Software, Multimedia and Internet Learning Environments (SMILE), TALSS

Intended Audience:

Participants who may enjoy being immersed in this experience are academics, teaching and learning support staff, student support staff and post graduate students with an interest in both the integration into teaching and learning of technology supported diagnostic activities and the concepts of Fitness, Health and Wellness.

Expertise Required: Ability to use a web browser

Aims:

To provide workshop participants with:

• A case study demonstrating the integration of instructional and diagnostic technologies into an undergraduate unit
• An opportunity to 'experience' the learning activities utilised within the undergraduate unit
• An opportunity to examine and reflect upon the strategy used to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching approach

Objectives:

Upon completion of the workshop participants should:

• Be proficient at using the teaching resources used within the unit
• Have considered ways of integrating similar strategies and technologies
• Gained an undergraduate student's perspective of the instructional design used
• Have evaluated the teaching approach experienced

In this 'compressed semester' workshop participants will undertake learning activities using the technological resources in the same way as QUT undergraduate students do in the unit HMB 171 (Fitness, Health and Wellness). Following the experience, the participants will reflect on the design and delivery of the unit (including the role of the technology) and critique the evaluation strategy used in this unit.

Background Information:

The unit HMB171 is offered in both semesters each year and has an average enrolment of 300 students per semester.  It is a first year core unit for all Human Movement students and is also offered as an elective to all QUT students. It was first offered in 1994 as a second semester, second year core unit within the Bachelor of Applied Science (Human Movement Studies) with an enrolment of 68 students.  Increasing demand for the unit has catalysed the design of new teaching strategies and associated adoption of new technologies to support the learning objectives within the rationale for the unit.

The rationale of this unit encompasses the following main themes:

• An understanding of the interrelatedness of fitness, health and wellness as a basic premise of individual health related behaviour 
• Effective planning and application of personal physical activity programs
• Experiencing a self-determined and self directed personal wellness behaviour change program
• The application of motivational strategies to improve adherence to Personal Wellness Behaviour Change programmes
• Improve the skills, competencies and empathy of the health educator/human   movement professional in delivering sustainable physical activity programs aimed at improving client wellness

An ongoing strategy to ensure the continuous improvement of the student learning outcomes was the implementation of periodic evaluation.  Initially, focus groups and paper - based student evaluation surveys were utilised.  Recently an online questionnaire was incorporated into the evaluation mix.

Workshop Overview:

The workshop has been designed to provide an insight into the design, delivery and evaluation of major components of the teaching and learning in the unit "Fitness, Health and Wellness" as taught in the QUT School of Human Movement Studies.

Participants will examine and utilise the technology that has been used to facilitate a number of activities designed to be authentic and immersive for students. The instructional strategies have been selected to enable students through their own personal experiences and characteristics to construct their knowledge of the theoretical and practical foundations of the subject.  This unit demonstrates a set of strategies that have been used to provide a constructivist learning environment for a large cohort without the need for extensive increases in teaching staff.

Finally, an examination of the evaluation instrument used to gauge the effectiveness of the learning experiences and teaching tools will enable active discussion about the "unit", the instructional approach taken to scaffold students in constructivist learning environments and the selected evaluation and assessment strategies themselves.

The Workshop Sequence

Introduction

An overview of the "unit" and the discipline will set the scene for the workshop.  Participants will be immersed in the topics by developing their own frameworks of the concepts of Fitness, Health and Wellness.

Preparatory activities to enable participants to develop a profile of their personal understanding

Participant on line completion of Wellness Wheel (estimated), Wellness Perceptions Questionnaire, Testwell College Version Wellness Inventory, Wellness Wheel (calculated)

Through these activities, each participant will develop their own private profile that will guide them through the next phases of the learning process.  This basis forms the platform for construction of knowledge and understanding.

Delivery of unit's Wellness content

Participants are exposed to theoretical frameworks which will serve as elements in their knowledge construction.  This activity will be in the form of a lecturette.

Reflective activity

Participant on line completion of Behaviour Change Guide (personal case study).  This will be an opportunity for participants to experience the way undergraduate students integrate the new knowledge into their cognitive domains in order to develop their personal behavioural and developmental objectives.

Repeat participant self-assessment items

The self assessment activity in the condensed "experience" will enable participants to quantify the changes in their understanding and subsequent development.  It is aimed at providing a snapshot of the change in growth of knowledge and behaviour as well as being an indicator of improved Wellness.

Participant on line completion of Evaluation Survey

Having completed the unit of study, participants will provide feedback to the instructors.  The evaluation survey instrument will serve to highlight the areas that were evaluated in the "real" unit as well as illustrate an online evaluation method which serves to provide ongoing feedback to instructors.

Wrap up

Participant discussion and reflections on the total 'student' experience with an emphasis on the evaluation strategy.  The perspectives of workshop participants on a range of issues including activity design, instructional strategies, evaluation strategies and use of technology will be sought and reflections of how these ideas may translate to other units, subjects and teaching strategies will be collated.