Investigating the Attitudes of First-Year Students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports of Galati towards Online Teaching Activities during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The paper identifies the perceptions of first-year undergraduate students from the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports in Galati on online teaching activities, dominant and needful in the current pandemic context. The questionnaire used contains 23 items and was structured based on four distinctive factors, namely attractiveness, accessibility, motivation and efficiency; it was applied after the winter session of the academic year 2020–2021. The values of the internal consistency coefficient Cronbach’s alpha indicate for the four mentioned factors a high fidelity for the measurements of the investigated features. The results of the 147 completed questionnaires allowed the definition of the independent variables sex (boys and girls) and environment of origin (rural and urban) the identification of their influence on the scores of each item (dependent variables) by using the statistical technique MANOVA (multivariate and univariate analysis), besides the values of F and the corresponding significance thresholds; the magnitude of the effect, expressed by partial eta squared (Ƞ2p), was also calculated. Even if the averages of item scores differ between sexes and backgrounds, the differences noted are in few cases significant: attractiveness and socialization for those in urban areas; participation in activities and effective involvement for girls; technical deficiencies, platform logging and weak computer skills for those in rural areas; and an increase in free time for girls and students in urban areas. The study undertaken allows the identification of the favorable aspects and the shortcomings of online teaching activities, these being the premises for optimizing the teaching process in the following stages.

Perspective Chapter: Analyses of Literature on the Lived-Experiences of International Post-Graduate Students during COVID-19

“…Numerous findings from these studies have shaped our view of how higher education is changing. While some researchers [18][19][20][21] have written extensively about the various strategies used by universities during this pandemic. Maphosa [22] has written about the widened inequality caused by the pandemic due to the unexpected shift to online teaching and learning.…”

Perceived Safety of Learning Environment and Associated Anxiety Factors during COVID-19 in Ghana: Evidence from Physical Education Practical-Oriented Program

“…This unprecedented shift posed new challenges, which included the development of alternate studying approaches and self-directed management of the studies for students with widespread uncertainty, anxiety, and panic [ 3 ]. For physical education (PE), unlike the teaching of other subjects, the practical didactic design component through visual and manual guidance constitutes nearly between 60% and 70% of the overall study program [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Therefore, the adaptation to lectures using a hybrid system to provide authentic planning and modifications to the PE curriculum has become burdensome [ 10 ], especially adjusting to new teaching and assessment procedures [ 8 , 9 ].…”

“…For physical education (PE), unlike the teaching of other subjects, the practical didactic design component through visual and manual guidance constitutes nearly between 60% and 70% of the overall study program [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Therefore, the adaptation to lectures using a hybrid system to provide authentic planning and modifications to the PE curriculum has become burdensome [ 10 ], especially adjusting to new teaching and assessment procedures [ 8 , 9 ]. For both students and teachers, the perception of getting infected with the coronavirus from the learning environment threatens not only their psychological well-being but also their physical, intellectual, emotional, and occupational well-being [ 11 ].…”

“…Students’ reported concerns about their academic performance and declined social interaction because of the pandemic have also been established [ 18 ]. Despite numerous studies investigating the impact of COVID-19 on university students’ mental health, economics, social, education, and related stress, anxiety, and depression reactions in several countries [ 16 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ], the perception of safety measures and the impact of anxiety on students may vary from one country to another, including subject-specific needs [ 8 ]. Country-specific data suggest that, as of 5 November 2021, Ghana had a total of 130,608 cases with 128,131 recoveries, 37 severe, 12 critical, 1203 deaths, and 1274 active cases per 100,000 population.…”

Teaching in Physical Education during Pandemic COVID-19: A Study of University Teachers

“…Likewise, Physical Education students have also had to face a totally different teaching-learning process, where all the practical subjects included in the curriculum have to be replaced by a virtual system. Consequently, the learning of the practical modules was developed under a teaching strategy that prioritizes the conceptual, at the cost of being reduced and marginalized the practical experience as stated by Laar et al [31] and Mocanu et al [32].…”