Tuesday, 03 April 2001	11:00 - 12:30	room 7	Poster/Discussion	Research & Evaluation
The effect of a web-based virtual classroom in a Physical Education course
Liu, Yeou-Teh; National Taiwan Normal University; Taiwan Chen, Ming-Pu; National Taiwan Normal University; Taiwan Jwo, Juuin-Chen Clark; National Taiwan Normal University; Taiwan
areas: Universities and Higher Education issues: Quality; Technology-Pedagogy Interface aspects: national; virtual
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of a web-based virtual classroom delivering a physical fitness course in physical education. Two classes of university undergraduate students who signed up for physical fitness courses with the same instructor participated in the study. One class of 34 students was randomly assigned to the traditional teaching environment as the control group, and the other class of 29 students used an Internet-support learning system as the experimental group. For the experimental group, a class homepage which included a general course information and an on-line discussion panel was set up for the students to use for the entire semester. In addition, one quarter of the course material was delivered through the Internet based learning system, and during that period, students in the experimental group only attended the virtual classroom via Internet. All the participants took a written and a skill test at the end of the semester. The skill tests were videotaped and graded later by another two movement experts through playback. The results showed that the cognitive component of the course was better attained with the Internet-support learning system than the traditional learning environment; the movement skill learning in physical fitness did not show a significant difference between the two learning environments. However, the presentation media in the virtual classroom had a significant influence in learning movement skills. The results of the study suggested the use of the web-based virtual classroom is as effective, if not more, as the traditional physical fitness course delivered in the university. Other PE courses with more vigorous activity components will need to be investigated further.