The evolution of teaching physical education online during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

This study examined the evolution of online teaching for fourteen New England K-12 physical education teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Commencing where Foye and Grenier ([2021]. Teaching during a pandemic. Physical educators’ reflections on teaching remotely. Journal of Online Learning Research, 7, 133–151.) left off, the current study contrasts participants’ experiences in the spring of 2020 with their experiences during the 2020–2021 academic year. Participants engaged in semi-structured interviews. Interview data underwent thematic analysis, with Whittle et al.’s (2020. Emergency remote teaching environment: A conceptual framework for responsive online teaching in crises. Information and Learning Sciences, 121(5/6), 311–319.) emergency remote teaching environments framework providing contextualisation for the study. Three sizeable differences emerged from March 2020 to the 2020–2021 academic year: participants widely utilised synchronous teaching environments, which they unanimously preferred to asynchronous environments; blended learning environments allowed for face-to-face engagement; participant concerns regarding student accountability and lacking interpersonal socialisation dropped from March 2020. Participant experiences are utilised to help guide future online physical education practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Online physical education (OLPE)
• emergency remote teaching environments framework (ERTE)
• synchronous teaching
• blended learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brandon Foye

Brandon Foye is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Health Education / Physical Education program at North Dakota State University. His teaching specialisation is in physical education teacher preparation courses, as well as coaching courses. His research currently centres around K-12 online physical education, in addition to online teacher education in physical education.