Feasibility and acceptability of “active” classroom material among French university students and lecturers: a pilot study

Abstract

Background: Sedentary lifestyles are a plague of today's society in terms of physical, psychosocial and cognitive health. Students are particularly at risk because they spend most of their daily time sitting and inactive. The current pedagogical model must be rethought in order to promote their health, well-being and therefore their success. The objective of this project was to equip one classroom of the sport university with various active workstations (steppers, pedalboards, cycling desk, Swiss-ball, etc...) and to evaluate the feasibility and the influence of this type of material on cognitive and psychological factors of the students and to collect the feedback of lecturers during this experience. The global adherence to such material among students and lecturers also need to be assessed before generalizing the use of such material, which represent a certain cost for institutions. Methods: A total of 663 students and 14 lecturers took part in a survey that aims at evaluating various aspects of lecture’s quality after their first experience in the classroom. Results: The majority of students and lecturers reported positive effects of such material, by a reduction in fatigue, distraction and boredom. The most plebiscited materials were the cycling-desks and the swiss balls. Finally, 89.4 % of students were in favor of using active material in future lectures if they had the possibility to, as well as 71% of lecturers, demonstrating the global acceptance of such material. Conclusion: The present study brings promising results toward a more general implementation of such material in universities. Once a familiarization period is observed, such material in classroom could help prevent the deleterious effect of sedentary behavior as well as promoting a more active dailylife for the future workers represented by students.