An Evaluation of Secondary School Physical Education Websites

Transcription

1 An Evaluation of Secondary School Physical Education Websites Grant M. Hill, Michael Tucker and James Hannon Abstract Websites will become increasingly important to physical education departments as they seek to communicate the goals and content of their programs. A well developed website is an educational tool physical educators can use in their efforts to teach students about physical activity and health. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of website utilization and the components of websites in use in middle and high school physical education programs. In order to determine the status of active websites as well as the content and design quality of physical education websites in middle and high schools, 285 school websites in two Southern California counties were searched during October In order to assess the quality of those websites, a website checklist was utilized to evaluate content and design features that should be included on a website. The features on the checklist were organized into categories of content, control (navigation), consistency (readability), and corroboration (accountability). Only 50 (17.5%) of the 285 identified schools had an active physical education department website. In addition, most of the physical education websites were incomplete and lacked important design and content features. Consequently, most of the websites did not favorably represent their departments or the profession of physical education. The low percentage of websites found and the low quality of the websites that were discovered indicate that most physical educators are not taking advantage of an educational tool that has great potential to both promote their department and aid in student learning. Since websites will become increasingly important to physical education departments, physical education teachers need to create websites that are well designed in order to strengthen their efforts to teach students about physical activity and health. Establishing effective lines of communication with administration, faculty and staff, parents, students and the community is an important component of a quality physical education program. An excellent way to effectively communicate the goals and expectations of a physical education program is through a department website (Barnd & Yu, 2002). Department websites also can create a positive image of a program that is up-to-date and on the cutting edge (Baker, 2001). A department website can encourage and improve parental involvement in their children s education (Wilkinson & Schneck, 2003). A physical education website can also communicate important fitness information and health principles. Teachers can use a website to provide homework assignments, feedback and spark students interests in various physical activities. Physical education teachers who create well designed department websites may increase the possibility students will take control of their own health (Elliot, Stanee, McCollum, & Stanley, 2007). Websites can do more than just inform users about a program; they can educate users, as well. Azuma (1999) stated that a useful aspect of creating a website is that it provides teachers with the ability to link to other educational resources and create personalized databases that reinforce their program objectives. School websites are normally designed with four main objectives in mind: (1) an introduction to the school, (2) a connection to outside resources, (3) a display of 1 Season Year

2 2 The Physical Educator exemplary work, and (4) a data resource (McKenzie, 1997). Miller, Adsit, and Miller (2005) created a check list of common items found in school websites and conducted a survey of users to determine the importance of each item. Items they listed include; mission statement, rules and policies, curriculum standards, teacher information, homework, calendar of activities, links for parents, links for students, student work samples, and the school s physical address. In order maximize the effectiveness of a physical education website, the site must be well designed. For example, a teacher information section should include a picture of the teacher with their name and contact information, a brief biography listing education, affiliations, certifications, awards, and hobbies in order to show that teachers are qualified (Miller et al., 2005). The teacher information section initiates a friendly and positive relationship with the website users. The school name, address and phone number provide contact information and inform readers where a school physical education department is located. An ideal website should also clearly communicate the expectations of the physical education department, including rules, procedures, and other expectations. The best way to organize this information is in a physical education contract in a downloadable attachment. Additional methods to communicate expectations are through a department motto and a department philosophy statement (LaMasters, 2000). With the standards-based emphasis trend in education becoming prevalent, a copy of the state physical education standards should be included. An outline of the units for the year will show what activities and fitness skills the students will be expected to learn. Another way to provide information about teacher expectations is to include detailed course descriptions. A helpful feature for teachers and students is the use of a class calendar that lists activities and any homework for the week or month (Miller et al., 2005). An ideal website should include fitness information (Elliot et al., 2007). Including definitions of the five components of fitness and basic fitness principles will increase the reader s fitness knowledge base. Test procedures and evaluation charts from whichever standardized fitness test a department administers during the year will increase students awareness and may improve their techniques and motivational level on the tests. Records of previous year s fitness test scores and the department s goals for the current year is another valuable source of motivation. Links to health-related websites will add depth and direction to users search for fitness information (Baker, 2001). Posting homework assignments to a website is another way to make the website educational (Miller et al., 2005). An ideal website should include performance cues for each of the activities that will be taught during the year. Just like a demonstration of the activity increases the students understanding during instruction, the use of pictures and/or video clips, along with the activity cues, provides valuable information for students when they view the website (Elliott et al., 2007). Assessment tools used in grading, like rubrics, are another way to inform students of expectations and educate them on the combination of skills that are needed to perform various activities. Creating an ideal website is useless unless the target audience continually utilizes it. An ideal website should include features that will provide useful information, make the website fun, and encourage users to regularly return to the website. Student recognition in the form of a Student of the Week or Month and examples of excellent student work may increase the probability of getting students to return to the website. The use of motivational quotes and/or physical education tips that are changed periodically can also encourage return visits (Baumbach, Brewer, & Renfroe, 2004). Providing students with feedback by giving them access to their current grade is a feature that may also be included on an ideal website. Placing links to sport and physical education websites designed for children to encourage web surfing should increase the use of

3 a website by students (Baumbach et al., 2004). Other content that should increase student use of the website are announcements of upcoming events, the school s team sports schedules, intramural activities, and interesting or outstanding physical education related accomplishments of students, staff, or faculty. An ideal website should include information that will increase the students activity level outside of class. Community resources, including contact information for various gyms, youth sports leagues, and private instructors (dance, martial arts, etc.) should be included. Ferney and Marshall (2006) found that users of website based physical activity interventions preferred websites that provided access to information on specific local physical activity facilities and services. Two additional features that might be useful on a website include information about departmental fundraising activities, such as jogathons, and parenting tips (Miller et al., 2005; Plano ISD School Web Page Guidelines, 2007). The idea behind the parenting tips is to provide parents with basic information that will help them improve the health of their children and help them assist in their children s learning. Although the importance and value of creating a physical education website has been acknowledged in the literature (Baker, 2001; LaMaster, 2000), there is little information available regarding how many secondary physical education programs actually have active websites as well as how those websites are designed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of website utilization and the frequency of specific components of websites in use in middle and high school physical education programs. Methods In order to determine the status of active websites as well as the content and design quality of physical education websites in middle and high schools, 285 school websites in the two Southern California counties were searched during October The sites were located by searching the websites of all public schools listed in those counties in the 2007 California Public School Directory. In order to assess the quality of those websites, a website checklist was created by the primary researcher by reviewing numerous existing websites, reviewing the literature, and by interviewing current physical education department heads. The checklist was designed to evaluate content and design features that should be included on a website (see Figure 1). The features on the checklist were organized into categories of content, control (navigation), consistency (readability), and corroboration (accountability) (Barnd & Yu, 2002). The checklist was validated for content by a group of five physical education department heads who have websites for their programs as well five teachers at secondary schools who currently maintain their school websites. These individuals were selected primarily because their websites contained many of the content and design features on the initial website checklist. The checklist was initially modeled to closely resemble the one created by Miller et al. (2005) and later edited for clarity and content. After searching the school websites and completing the checklists, data were entered into a MicroSoft Office Excel file and percentages for categories were generated. Results Only 50 (17.5%) of the 285 identified schools had an active physical education department website. In addition, most of the physical education websites were incomplete and lacked important design and content features. Consequently, most of the websites did not favorably represent their departments or the profession of physical education. These findings indicated that most physical educators were not taking advantage of an educational tool that has great potential to both promote their department and aid in student learning. In Table 1, frequencies and percentages of specific physical education teacher information are displayed. Listing teacher names was the most common content feature (82%). The other most 3 Season Year

4 4 The Physical Educator common features in rank order were: addresses (60%), teacher phone number (44%), and teacher picture (40%). There was limited information about teacher s education (16%), hobbies (12%), and affiliations, certificates, and awards (10%). Table 1 Percent of Secondary Physical Education Program Web sites With Specific Physical Education Teacher Information Yes No % (n) % (n) Names address Phone number Picture Education Hobbies Affiliations, certifications, awards The features listed in Table 2 dealt with specific fitness information. Fifty-four percent of the websites contained some fitness information. The most common form of fitness information was links to heath related websites (30%). The FITNESSGRAM Healthy Fitness Zone Charts for boys and girls were found on 26% of the websites. Only 12% of the websites listed fitness test procedures or the schools fitness test scores from the previous year. The five components of fitness were found on only 8% of the websites. Table 2 Percent of Secondary Physical Education Program Web sites With Specific Fitness Information Yes No % (n) % (n) Fitness information of any type Links to health related web sites Fitnessgram Healthy Zone charts Fitness Test procedures Last years fitness test scores for school Five components of fitness Table 3 lists the percentages of specific content features found on the websites. The most common feature, found on 64% of the websites, was the department policies. The department policies were usually linked as a Portable Document File (PDF) file in the form of a typical physical education student contract. Department philosophy statement (46%) and a calendar listing department specific information (44%) were the next most common features found. The next grouping of features, in rank order were: homework assignments (38%), course descriptions

5 (36%), school name, address, and phone number (34%), yearly unit plans (30%), fun links for students to sport/physical activity websites (30%), announcements of upcoming events (28%), state P.E. standards (26%), access to current grades for students (not originally included on the checklist but found on 11 websites) (22%), and assessment tools used in grading (20%). Control features are what make the website easy to navigate and read. Table 4 includes frequencies and percentages of websites with specific control features. The feature that was most commonly found was that the page dimensions fit in the horizontal margins of the display screen. On 84% of the websites, the user was not required to scroll left and right to read all of the page content. Related topics were grouped together well on 70% of the websites. Fifty-six percent of the websites organized the information into an index or table of contents. While each of the websites were found by searching from the district homepage to the individual school websites, only 50% of the physical education websites had direct links back to their school and district homepages. Navigational buttons for home, and moving up and down a page were included on every page in only 32% of the websites. Most of the websites relied on the user to click their web browser back button to navigate between pages and websites. Only 14% of the websites included a site map as a navigational feature. Design consistency features improve the readability of the website. Out of the four design categories, consistency had the most features with high percentages. In Table 5, the frequencies and percentages of websites with specific consistency features are listed in rank order: readable font (98%), same font used throughout all web pages (94%), content at least 50 percent (i.e., however an 80/20 percentage content/navigation is best) (96%), Background color: single color easier to read (92%), solid color that clearly contrast font color (86%), same on all pages (84%), link colors (88%), location of text and icons (84%), and font color (82%). Of the web pages that had underlined words, 75% were linked to another web page, 74% connected to active and correct websites, 74% were easy to eyes - visual consistency, 66.7%, were blue and underlined, 64% were the same style as School s page and 52% of the visited links changed color. The referencing features listed in Table 6 needed improvements on most of the websites. Page headers that used meaningful and easy key words were found on 64% of the websites. Pages within the website were identified by a different header on 52% of the websites. Fifty percent of the websites placed key words first on headers so that search engines can easily locate them, such as school name followed by physical education department. Only 46% of the websites included both the school name and department name in the title of their home page. The features that are included in a good footer were not found very often. In rank order from most common to least common, the footer information is as follows: date the site was last updated (34%), copyright statement (32%), name of person responsible for contents of the website (24%), contact s address (20%), date the site was published (16%), contact telephone number (14%), mailing address (8%), FAX number (6%), and planned next update was never found (0%). Discussion The results of this study indicate a very low percentage of secondary schools have quality physical education websites. There may be several reasons for this. First, lack of experience and fear of technology may contribute to the low incidence of physical education department websites. Hopefully this situation will improve because advancements in technology are making it increasingly easy to create and maintain educational websites. Specifically, many schools already have websites that allocate space for linked departmental web pages. Furthermore, the design features that improve a website s readability and allow for easy navigation are often already in place, leaving the physical education teacher with only the content 5 Season Year

6 6 The Physical Educator Table 3 Percent of Secondary Physical Education Program Web sites With Specific Program Content Content Yes No % (n) % (n) Department Policies (contract, locker room rules, etc.) Department Philosophy Calendar of - Activities/homework/class Homework assignments Course descriptions School name, address, and phone # Yearly unit plans Fun links for students to sport/physical activity web sites Announcements of upcoming events State P.E. Standards Access to current grades for Students Assessment tools used in grading Team sports schedules Motivational quotes Department Motto After school or intramural physical activity information Department goals for current year Cues for certain skills (including pictures/video clips) Student Recognition Examples of excellent work or accomplishments Student of the week/month Community resources for health issues and information Search engine for kids Interesting/outstanding accomplishments of student/faculty P.E. tip of the day/week/month Community resources for outside physical activities Fundraising activities Parenting information to help parents assist in learning

7 Table 4 Percent of Secondary Physical Education Program Web sites With Specific Control Features Control Features Yes No % (n) % (n) Page dimensions fit in display screen Related topics grouped together Layout of page and location of information appropriate Index or table of contents Linked to School and District Home pages Users can easily navigate between pages and sections Home, Up and Down buttons on each page Site Map Table 5 Percent of Secondary Physical Education Program Web sites With Specific Consistent Features Consistent Features Yes No % (n) % (n) Font type readable font same font used throughout all web pages Content at least 50% (80/20 content/navigation best) Background color single color easier to read solid color that clearly contrast font color same on all pages graphic themed background Link colors Location of text and icons Font color All underlined words are linked to another web page All links connect to active and correct web sites Easy to eyes - Visual consistency Links to other web sites blue and underlined P.E. department web pages are same style as School s page Visited links change color Season Year

8 8 The Physical Educator Table 6 Percent of Secondary Physical Education Program Web sites With Specific Referencing Features Referencing Features Yes No % (n) % (n) Headers/Title Page (used by search engines) meaningful key words used different on each page within the web site essential words first for search engines include school and department name footer date site was last updated copyright statement contact information name of person responsible for contents address telephone number mailing address FAX number date the web site was published planned next update to create. Second, schools may lack adequate support or leadership in technology. Specifically, while some schools may have a designated person to manage the school website, other schools may not. Physical educators may also not see the value in having a comprehensive, up-to-date website. This is unfortunate because websites have the potential to educate and inform students and parents, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. In general, the 50 active school physical education websites included features that informed users about various aspects of their program. The most common information about the teachers listed on the websites was the teachers names. Identifying the teachers in the department is a natural item to place on a website. It was surprising, however that only 60% of the websites listed the teachers addresses and only 44% included a telephone number. The lack of this basic information makes it more challenging for parents to contact teachers, thus slowing down the lines of communication and possibly negatively effecting student learning. Not providing teacher contact information overloads the front office staff members who initially take phone calls from parents. While Miller et al. (2005) indicated that teacher and staff biographies were a desirable feature to include on a school website, the results of the current study indicated that teachers were not taking advantage of the opportunity to display their qualifications and interests due to the lack of biographies found. The result is a lost opportunity to encourage communication within the greater school community. Department policies were the number one content feature found on the websites. Most physical education departments have a student contract that they hand out to students at the beginning of the year. The students and their parents read and sign the contract, and the student returns it to their physical education teacher. Many of the websites that contained department policies were linked to a PDF file containing this previously created document. The ease of cutting

9 and pasting the information makes it a common feature as well. The department philosophy was the second highest content feature because it is usually part of the department policies contract. While department policies and philosophy were two features that were regularly included on the websites the remaining informational content features were sporadically used and lacking on most websites. The findings indicated that physical education website designers were not maximizing the potential from their websites. Many of the content features suggested by Miller et al. (2005), and Barnd and Yu (2002) were not consistently implemented on the websites evaluated. One of those features in particular that stood out was curriculum standards. Surprisingly, with the current trend in education of standards based instruction and assessment, the State Standards for Physical Education were found on only 26% of the websites. However, a useful feature that was found on 11 websites, but was not one of the original features included on the checklist, was the ability for students to access their current grade. This is another feature that is built into the design of some of the professionally designed and managed school websites. Students and parents are given log-in identification and passwords and are able to accesses student-specific information, including grades. Providing parents and students with access to their current grade is an excellent method of using feedback as a motivational tool, as well as keeping parents informed of their child s progress. The low frequency and percentage of website features that make a website educational indicated that most physical education websites were being solely used as a data resource (McKenzie, 1997). Features such as web quests (Woods, Karp, Shimon, & Jensen, 2004), homework assignments (Miller et al., 2005), and activity cues that include the use of pictures and/or video clips (Elliott et al., 2007) were seldom found and typically only on the best websites. Other key features missing from many of the websites were features such as; motivational quotes, tips of the day, week or month, and fun sport related links for children. These are features Baumbach et al. (2004) has suggested will entice users to regularly return to a website. Ferney and Marshall (2006) indicated that users desire information on specific local physical activity facilities and services, however, only one of the websites provided information that educated the users about community resources for physical activity. The lack of this information is unfortunate as it could be another method of providing opportunities for students to be active outside of class. The overall low use of content features was disappointing in light of the fact that a large percentage of students have indicated they regularly use the internet for school research and believe it helps them with their school work (Baumbach et al., 2004). The fitness information that appeared most frequently on the websites was links to health related websites. Finding this feature on websites indicated that they were being used to add depth and direction to users search for fitness information (Baker, 2001). The website creators may also assume it is easier to send people to another website that already has the information they may be looking for than to create a separate page with all the information. While it may be more prudent to redirect users to other websites for detailed health information compiled by specialists in the field, general fitness information should also be found on the physical education department website because programs have direct control over the information on their website and reduce the search time for users. Specifically, users may become frustrated if they are continually sent to other sites to find simple information.. Implications and Conclusions All physical education programs should have a comprehensive, well organized, and user friendly website. A well designed website is a great way to promote the profession of physical education and the department s own program. Important information placed on a physical education website is easily distributed and readily available 9 Season Year

10 10 The Physical Educator to students, teachers, and parents, thus improving communication. A well designed website creates a positive image of a program and sends a message of competence about the teachers in the department. A physical education website can be an effective educational tool. Teachers can provide a large quantity of information relating to fitness, health, and physical activities that can assist in student learning as well as be helpful to other viewers. The first step in designing a website is to contact the schools web administrator. They will provide district website regulations and the design parameters (Elliott et al., 2007). Once an understanding of the districts capabilities and limitations is obtained, website content can be selected and created (Weiler & Pealer, 2000). Booher and Wilcox (2001) suggest making a list of the requests most often received from students, fellow staff, and parents. In addition the checklist created in this study can be used as a guide when determining specific content to include on the website. Ideally the district or school will have a design template already created with space allocated for the physical education department. If no design template exists, then departmental collaboration about website design should occur. The template that is created should be used on every page of the website (Millholon & Castrina, 2003; Neal, 2000). The content should be organized by grouping related topics together and placing each topic on separate pages (Nielsen, 2000). A site map should be designed that shows how the pages are connected starting from the home page down. The information should be entered into files using web page creating software or by following the method instructed by the school web administrator. The website should then be tested by asking other people to navigate around on it and provide feedback (Pratt, 2007). It s important to work out the kinks before posting and activating it on the web (Lynch & Horton, 1999). Websites will become increasingly important to physical education departments as they seek to communicate the goals and content of their programs. Physical education teachers need to create websites that are well designed and make sure the content they place on them are comprehensive and educational (Swann, 2006). It also appears to be important that those who train preservice teachers incorporate website design as part of an undergraduate course in educational technology or as an experience integrated into a methods class (Papasterhiou, 2005). In addition, during a student teaching seminar class, students could be required to develop websites as part of an electronic portfolio. This would provide them a skill that many of their more experienced colleagues do not appear to possess. Future research will hopefully document a gradual increase in both the quantity and comprehensiveness of physical education websites. REFERENCES Azuma, J. (1999). Creating educational web sites. IEEE Communications Magazine, Baker, K. (2001). Promoting your physical education program. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 72(2), Barnd, S., & Yu, C. (2002). Creating an effective web site. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 73(5), Baumbach, D., Brewer, S., & Renfroe, M. (2004). What should be on a school library web page?. Learning & Leading with Technology, 32(1), Booher, A., & Wilcox, C. (2001). Tips on designing a web site. Media &Methods, 37(3), 14. Elliott, S., Stanec, A., McCollum, S., & Stanley, M.A. (2007). Uses of the internet by health and physical education teacher. Strategies, 20(5), Ferney, S., & Marshall, A. (2006). Website physical activity interventions: preferences of potential users. Health Education Research, 21(4),

11 LeMaster, K. (2000). Build a web page and promote your program. CAHPERD Journal/ Times, Lynch, P., & Horton, S. (1999). Web style guide. New Haven: Yale University Press. McKenzie, J. (1997). Why in the world wide web? Technology & Learning, 17(4), 26. Miller, S., Adsit, K., & Miller, T. (2005). Evaluating the importance of common components in school-based websites: frequency of appearance and stakeholders judged value. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 49(6), Millholon, M., & Castrina, J. (2001). Faster Smarter Web Page Creation. Microsoft Press. Neal, N. D. (2000). Using internet technology in physical education and dance. Strategies, 13(3), Nielsen, J. (2000). Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. Indianapolis, Indiana: New Riders Publishing. Papastergiou, M. (2005). Learning to design and implement educational web sites within pre-service training: a project-based learning environment and its impact on student teachers. Learning, Media & Technology, 30(3), Plano ISD. (2007). Plano ISD School Web Page Guidelines. schools/webpages/. Pratt, M.K. (2007). How to build a better web site: follow these tips and the world will beat a path to your URL. Computerworld, 41(21), Swann, P. (2006). Got web? Investing in a district website. The School Administrator, 63(5), 24. Weiler, R., & Pealer, L. (2000). The sitelegend: twelve components of a new strategy for providing website documentation. Journal of School Health, 70(4), Wilkinson, C., & Schneck, H. (2003). The effects of a school physical education and health website on parental knowledge of the program. Physical Educator, 60(3), Woods, M., Karp, G., Shimon, J., & Jensen, K. (2004). Using webquests to create online learning opportunities in physical education. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 75(8), 41-46, Drs. Hill and Tucker teach at the California State University, Long Beach and Dr. Hannon is on the faculty at The University of Utah 11 Season Year

12 12 The Physical Educator Figure 1 The Physical Education Web Site Checklist. Directions: Check yes to indicate those components that are included and no for those components that are either missing or inadequate. Web Site Checklist Yes No Content: P.E. Teachers Names address Phone number Picture Education Affiliations, certifications, awards, Hobbies Department Policies (contract, locker room rules, etc.) Department Philosophy Yearly Unit Plans State P.E. Standards Student Recognition Student of the week/month Examples of excellent work or accomplishments Homework assignments Calendar of - Activities/homework/class Fitness information Five components of fitness Fitnessgram Healthy Zone charts Links to health related web sites Fitness test procedures Last years fitness test scores for school Department goals for current year Community resources for outside physical activities Community resources for health issues and information Interesting or outstanding accomplishments of students or faculty Assessment tools used in grading Announcements of upcoming events Team sports schedules After school or intramural physical activity information Cues for certain skills (including pictures and/or video clips)

13 Web Site Checklist Yes No School name, address, and phone # P.E. tip of the day/week/month Motivational quotes Fundraising activities Parenting information to help parents assist their children s learning Fun links for students to sport and physical activity related web sites Course descriptions Department Motto Search engine for kids Access to current grades for students Control: Home, Up and Down buttons on each page Site Map Linked to School and District Home pages Page dimensions fit in display screen Index or table of contents Related topics grouped together Layout of page and location of information appropriate Users can easily navigate between pages and sections Consistency: Font same font used throughout all web pages readable font (readings suggested only use Arial or Times New Roman on PC and Helvetica and Times on Mac) Location of text and icons Link colors Font color Background color same on all pages single color easier to read solid color that clearly contrast font color If Graphic themed background is used it is used throughout Easy to eyes - Visual consistency Visited links change color Links to other web sites blue and underlined Content at least 50% of page (80/20 content/navigation best) Zero spelling and grammar errors All underlined words are linked to another web page P.E. department web pages are same style as School Home page All links connect to active and correct web sites 13 Season Year

14 14 The Physical Educator Web Site Checklist Yes No Corroboration: Headers/Title Page (used by search engines) meaningful key words used different on each page within the web site essential words first for search engines include school and department name Footer contact information name of person responsible for contents address telephone number mailing address FAX number copyright statement date the web site was published date site was last updated planned next update Comments: