Abstract
Empirical evidence has demonstrated the benefits of physical activity in preventing chronic diseases and premature death. Unfortunately, there is a global trend of insufficient physical activity, which was aggravated by the recent global pandemic. Although physical education is often used to promote physical activity, the transition to online education made it difficult to teach fitness and exercise from a distance due to several limiting factors. This chapter aims to respond to these challenges by implementing a school-based public health intervention using a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) tool called VD-CAI. Through an experimental approach, it was found that VD-CAI as an instructional technology shows a performance advantage compared to other pedagogies. Specifically, students who used VD-CAI in their physical education courses received higher scores and exhibited a more positive attitude. This chapter contributes to the growing scientific evidence of the effectiveness of school-based health education programs as well as the expanding literature on CAI and physical education.
TopMain Focus Of The Chapter
Empirical evidence has demonstrated the benefits of physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness (Miller et al., 2016; Reiner et al., 2013; Warburton et al., 2006). Accordingly, there is irrefutable proof that regular physical activity assists in preventing chronic diseases (e.g., osteoporosis, obesity, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease) and premature death. According to the guidelines set by the World Health Organization (2020), adults (18-64 years) should undertake at least 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity or at least 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity throughout the week. At the very least, this recommendation emphasizes the requirement of limiting the amount of time being sedentary and replacing it with physical activity of any intensity. Unfortunately, there is a global trend of insufficient physical activity (Guthold et al., 2020), which was aggravated by the recent pandemic (Kaur et al., 2020; Puccinelli et al., 2021). Physical education is often used as an auxiliary skill course or exercise training to promote physical activity (Demetriou & Höner, 2012; Trudeau & Shephard, 2008; Wallhead & Buckworth, 2004). However, the transition to online education made it difficult to teach fitness and exercise from a distance due to several limiting factors (Centeio et al., 2021). Thus, this chapter aims to respond to these challenges by implementing a school-based public health intervention using a CAI-based tool named “VD-CAI”. Specifically designed for teaching physical fitness and exercise, this tool is an extended version of nutrition systems called Plan-Cook-Eat (Garcia, 2019) and Virtual Dietitian (Garcia et al., 2020).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Computer-Assisted Instruction: A form of education in which a computer is used to present instructional material, provide feedback, and facilitate learning as well as deliver interactive lessons, tutorials, simulations, and assessments.
Physical Fitness: A set of attributes or characteristics (e.g., muscular strength and endurance) that people have or achieve that relate to the ability to perform physical activity.
Public Health Intervention: An action taken by public health officials, organizations, and communities to improve the health and well-being of the population.
Virtual Dietitian: A nutrition knowledge-based system that uses a forward chaining algorithm to general meal plans according to users’ profiles and preferences.
Physical Activity: It refers to any bodily movement (e.g., walking, running, and swimming) produced by the contraction of skeletal muscle that results in energy expenditure.
Physical Education: A course taught in school that focuses on the development of physical fitness and the ability to perform and enjoy daily physical activities with ease.