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The challenge of teaching physical activity classes online

by Dr. Tony Monahan

When CUNY declared all classes to be taught online on March 19, 2020, Queensborough Community College instructors seemed to be prepared. Many were already using Blackboard and QCC had been conducting online instruction training for several years through the eLearning Institute. Faculty who completed this program were already experienced in teaching fully or partially online classes. Unfortunately, not all QCC professors were prepared for such a dramatic adjustment.

After the lockdown, faculty faced the challenges of passive unseen students, technical difficulties, fewer class collaboration opportunities, as well as increased time spent planning and executing lessons. Professors of physical activity classes however, faced another layer of challenges. Essentially, these classes required a physical presence with specialized equipment and facilities that abruptly become unavailable.

In the spring, 2020 semester, the Health, Physical Education and Dance (HPED) department ran 72 activity-based classes. These ranged from dance and performance to individual activities such as tennis, swimming, and archery, to team sports such as basketball, soccer and volleyball, to leisure activities such as fitness walking, yoga, and tai chi. Each of these classes are based on active student participation and performance. Because of this, many of them did not use Blackboard. Yet after the lockdown, all had to hastily move onto a remote format. Professor Young Kim affirmed, “I needed to learn technology such as Blackboard and YouTube video creation within a short period of time.” Professor Sue Garcia added, “I’ve been teaching Physical Education classes for several years now which I love and is my passion! I was always in the gym or in the pool and then suddenly I’m sitting down and trying to figure out how Blackboard works and Zoom! I had several difficulties.” Self-defense instructor Kyle Chong also admitted difficulties. “It was a bit difficult to adjust from in-person to online instruction for physical activity class in respect to self-defense. I had to think and imagine how the students would comprehend the movements involved in learning through a video; especially when there is no contact of any sort with any other person/persons outside your immediate family.”

Lacking Facilities

The majority of academic college courses do not require a specialized facility to conduct classes. But what if the facility itself is needed for the class? The HPED department utilizes dance studios, gymnasiums, weight rooms, and a swimming pool for its activity classes. What happens when those facilities are not available? The average home bathtub just isn’t big enough to practice the breast stroke.

During the initial lockdown, faculty were fortunate to have had their students in-person for a half-semester. Therefore, it was a little easier to continue without facilities because of the students’ prior experience in the pool, gyms, and weight rooms. Volleyball instructor Pete Marchitello responded to his dilemma by stating, “During COVID, I created workouts by researching resistance training and volleyball exercises from YouTube videos.” Dance instructor Nicole McClam rearranged her furniture each day she taught. “My immediate difficulty was how to teach movement based courses online. I did not have any skills to do that. There were Facebook Groups such as Dance Professors Online Transition Group that posted questions and shared resources for what worked and what did not.” She continued, “Specifically to me, I knew that I would have a difficult time seeing the students' alignment and movement online. They are smaller and two-dimensional on the screen, which loses a lot of nuance. I made adjustments to my physical space, acquired some equipment, and changed my teaching practices to make do without the school facilities and equipment.

Students in swimming classes were never encouraged to use their bathtubs, rather they received instruction and practice through a combination of virtual classes and instructional videos. Sue Garcia explained, “As far as my swim class, which was obvious no pools, I gave them YouTube assignments.” After the spring, 2020 semester, swimming classes were cancelled until they could resume in-person. HPED Chair Andrea Salis explained, “For health and safety, in-person class offerings were extremely limited in the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters.”

Lack of specialized equipment

Some classes, such as archery, badminton, tennis, and several team sports depend on specialized equipment to achieved skill competence - equipment that was no longer accessible after the lockdown. Faculty had to be innovative with their students. Dr. Jason Demas, who taught archery, basketball and volleyball acknowledged, “It was very difficult because students did not have access to equipment and sometime internet even. Lessons had to turn into reflection/response based immediately.” Weight training instructors Kim and Garcia had students using found items in lieu of weight equipment. Dr. Kim used “house items, such as one-gallon water bottle to perform bicep curls or upright row. Sue Garcia added, “I used body weight exercises and water bottles.” Kyle Chong filmed his lessons. “Everything I taught in-person during the regular semester was put into videos with the help of my students and assistant instructors.”

Innovative Professors

After spending 17 months in remote mode, students and faculty returned to campus (at least partially) in the fall of 2021. Swimming has returned and the HPED department is currently running 54 activity-based classes. Overall, the HPED faculty persevered with resilience and innovation. Instructors expressed appreciation for the new methods and techniques they developed during the lockdown. “I learned to use technology, prioritize time for checking assignments and communicate with students via email, face-time or text” stated Young Kim. Jason Demas added, “Students now were able to learn more about the techniques, tips, and history of the particular subject.” Pete Marchitello stated, “The programs that I created were challenging and comprehensive.” Perhaps Nicole McClam best described the HPED challenge with, “I am now teaching one movement class in-person and the experience is so much better. However, I learned some great lessons about students and metacognition in the online platform that I hope to carry into the in-person format.”

Faculty Interview

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Kevin Kolack (Department of Chemistry)

by Dr. Punita Bhansali

Dr. Kevin Kolack (Department of Chemistry) has a lot of experience with eLearning (even before the pandemic). This semester, he has been doing HyFlex as well. In this article, he tells us about his perspectives on using different methods of delivery and transitioning back to in-person.

In March 2020, what was your experience as you transitioned to fully online?

Let me begin by saying that I’m a huge proponent of good online learning. I was the Secretary and then Chairperson of the eLearning Committee from 2014-2019. (Disclaimer: The responses here are my own opinions, are offered in the spirit of collegiality and best practices, but do not necessarily reflect those of the current eLearning Committee.) Online courses can be incredibly useful for busy, motivated students, but they are more demanding for faculty to set up and at least equally as demanding for students to take, despite common misconceptions to the contrary. The eLearning Readiness Program is an excellent tool to help students determine if online courses are a good fit for them, and the CUNY and QCC faculty eLearning Institutes are wonderful professional development courses that train us content experts how to set up and deliver student-ready, engaging classes equitably.

That being said, the eLearning Readiness self-assessment shows a very large percentage of our students are not equipped for online learning, in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons. What we have offered since March 2020 required Herculean effort, and faculty and staff are to be commended for it (especially since they weren’t compensated for it), but it was an emergency response.

Having taught online since 2015 (including offering one office hour per week online (synchronous with an in-person office hour), I was ready to deliver my content and exams, stay in touch with students, and keep referring them to resources like the food pantry and the counseling center. While we took “the pause,” I kept meeting with students who were able to do so online during our normal class times and office hours (though I must admit my office hours were and have been as poorly attended as they were pre-pandemic). To help my colleagues, I set up a Blackboard organization containing folders for all of our courses so that materials such as lecture videos, homework assignments, and exams could be shared. I posted lecture and lab videos for 75% of the courses we offer which helped fill in some gaps for faculty. Copying materials between the organization and individual classes is quick and easy. I and a few other faculty members digitized and posted our traditional paper departmental laboratory final exams for deployment on the Blackboard organization. I’m proud of our efforts, proud to be a member of the QCC faculty, and very happy that most of our students completed the Spring 2020 semester successfully. As in every semester, I’m disappointed that some didn’t.

What are some approaches you used that helped you and the students with the fully online learning environment?

Going through the eLearning Institute and setting up my Blackboard courses with “universal design” principles and the Quality Matters rubric as guides pre-pandemic made for an easier transition. In March 2020, I only had to move exams and delivery of the (student-centered) “lectures” themselves online. Some of my classes were already “flipped,” so students were accustomed to watching the lectures online. Discussion boards had been set up at the beginning of the semester. My performance training allowed me to lecture from home almost as easily as in person since I already had the necessary equipment (tiny home office, camera, microphone, computer, dual monitors, green screen, drawing tablet) and practice using it. The real challenge was the labs, as I describe below.

You’ve been doing some in-person classes. Can you discuss the transition from being fully online back to doing some in-person classes? What are some challenges you have faced with this transition?

When QCC began offering more in-person classes in Fall 2021, a few students were eager to resume the in-person experience. Public transportation remains an issue for many of our students. The primary challenge has been 180 degrees from where we were pre-pandemic when no one wanted to take chemistry online. Now, for a variety of reasons, students choose remote over in-person. However, we will have graduates who will have fulfilled their lab science requirement without ever setting foot in a lab. I do not think this meets our learning outcomes. Watching videos of labs and even performing virtual reality simulations of labs (which are expensive) does not satisfy the psychomotor aspect of the teaching laboratory. Research has repeatedly shown this to be true. (Research also shows no significant difference in cognitive and affective domain outcomes between in-person and online, for well-designed courses.) Our students must demonstrate, in reality, the ability to read and follow instructions, practice lab safety, problem-solve real-world situations (not simulations), and record and analyze real data, which they will do in real employment situations once they leave QCC.

How are students adjusting to the transition?

The few students I’m seeing in person this semester have expressed happiness to be back on campus in the lab. Of the 8 in-person students in my hyflex lab, 6 will complete the semester, and all more successfully than their 14 online colleagues, none of whom dropped the course but all of whom are less engaged in the laboratory experience.
Today, we’re dealing with students who graduated from high school online, who already tended to be unwilling/unable to participate in class due to life, family, or work obligations, and who have now seen the advantages of not commuting to QCC and really want to stay online. Where they avoided taking online chemistry classes pre-pandemic, these are now the first classes to fill up. While some students do have a quiet place to take classes remotely, others are logging on to synchronous classes while they are at work! It is going to take a coordinated effort among the departments to offer high quality, carefully developed online classes that meet the learning outcomes of the college, programs, and courses.

Tell us about your experience with HyFlex at QCC:

As was noted in the last issue of the PSC’s Clarion, setting up a GOOD hyflex course means you are teaching 3 courses in 1– in-person, online asynchronous, and online synchronous– and students can move freely between the 3 options. You do not know how your students will participate, and it may change from day to day. If in-class participation is required, you must have an equivalent online assignment available. And you have to keep track of it all. This is an incredible ask in the name of offering students flexibility. You’re only getting paid to teach 1 course. There are only so many hours in the day. There’s a reason the eLearning Guidelines adopted by the Senate say that no faculty member should be teaching more than 8 contact hours per week online. Setting up and running a good online course, really chasing down students and ensuring everyone participates, takes a LOT of time.

QCC is not among the 14 CUNY schools piloting hyflex, as you can see:
https://www.cuny.edu/academics/faculty-affairs/cuny-innovative-teaching-academy/cuny-hyflex/info/
https://www.cuny.edu/academics/faculty-affairs/cuny-innovative-teaching-academy/cuny-hyflex/hyflex-support/#hyflex-liaison

My course is one of those accidental hyflex courses that resulted when a low-enrollment in-person course was coupled to an online course. While it's successful in delivering the flexibility goal of hyflex, it requires more investment/support than QCC can provide right now to make it equal to the traditional experience (see below). Our students may WANT the flexibility (and some, the lack of participation and oversight) hyflex offers; it is not what they NEED, in my experience.

What are some of the challenges with using multiple methods of delivery at this time?

When you’re teaching in-person, you’re moving around the room, checking in with students, putting students in groups to solve problems. You have an active learning environment. Now add synchronous online students to the mix. Granted, putting students in physically-distanced groups may actually be easier online, but can you encourage the same level of participation and engagement when moving from breakout room to breakout room as you can groupings of desks in the classroom? Are you going to write on the board, or on the podium computer or a tablet so that everyone can see? Sure, there are cameras that are high-resolution enough so that remote students can see the board and can follow you around the room absent having a cameraperson, and you can wear a microphone so students always hear you, but this requires capital investment. And how are you going to monitor the chat and breakout rooms of your online students while simultaneously managing your active in-person classroom? And don’t forget about your asynchronous students! How are you going to assess their engagement with the course? I’ve talked with more than a few faculty who feel uncomfortable enough just being on camera, without also dealing with these tech issues. Perhaps CETL can offer another course in this. Complicating matters, there were/are many of us teaching from home with a spouse and/or child also working from home, like many of our students. And don’t forget that pre-pandemic, Blackboard itself was only used by ~50% of faculty! Like learning subject matter, designing and delivering a tech-heavy course requires practice!

Are the technologies that you are using, as well as the technologies that are available to students, sufficient? Or is there room for improvement?

For faculty, some schools have technicians or teaching assistants in the classroom to serve as camera operators, to monitor chats, etc. I don’t think CUNY has the funds for this, or even widespread use of high-resolution robotic cameras. For students, the laptop loaner program, like the DOE iPad program, has been wonderful in expanding student access to computers and the internet, but it was expensive and pandemic-relief funded. Continuing it will require significant investment to maintain equitable access. I have expressed my opinions on mandating the use of cameras and other engagement and academic integrity issues in other forums. Yes, expansion of online offerings was part of the CUNY and QCC strategic plans pre-pandemic, and the pandemic gave us a huge push in doing so. We are now moving back to more in-person offerings. Where we land as the pandemic winds down remains to be seen, but I believe the bulk of our efforts must remain campus-based.

What if things get worse again with the pandemic? Do you propose that we should still primarily be campus-based?

While I am experienced in emergency services and married to a public health professional, I am not one, nor am I a virologist, epidemiologist, or aerosol scientist. I do, however, teach science literacy and believe we should follow the advice of trained professionals. There is no global conspiracy of science, as far too many people have been led to believe. Vaccination, air filtration, and physical distancing policies have slowed the transmission of the virus, while ignoring these things has clearly allowed it to propagate and mutate. While the cost-benefit analysis of closing K-12 schools appears to be leaning toward keeping students in person, the evidence is less clear in higher education. I would hope that administrators and faculty can work together collegially to safely educate the greatest number of students in the most effective way possible, and I believe that for the majority of our students, face-to-face learning is the most pedagogically-sound option.

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