Resilient pedagogy: experiences of kinesiology faculty during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic required an emergency shift to remote teaching. Despite their limited previous experience with online or hybrid teaching, our cohort of kinesiology faculty (n = 112) had high confidence in their ability to deliver quality educational experiences for their students during the pandemic. With support from their institutions, technology departments, and teaching and learning centers, faculty developed new skills and organizational strategies. To achieve this, 81% of faculty reported needing extra course preparation time to deliver high-quality remote teaching, with 51% needing up to 5 extra hours per week per course. There is a fraction of faculty from this study excited about the prospect of teaching online in the future. These newfound online teaching skills should be leveraged to modernize course offerings in kinesiology departments, supporting student recruitment, retention, and success.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The COVID-19 pandemic caused temporary and permanent changes to higher education, specifically kinesiology programs. This article highlights the resiliency of faculty in kinesiology programs, how they adapted, where they felt supported, and what they hope to bring with them into their future pedagogy practices.

Impact of COVID-19 on access to laboratories and human participants: exercise science faculty perspectives.

Restrictions due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic impacted the ability of faculty and students in exercise science to work in lab settings with human participants. The purpose of this study was to determine how exercise science faculty were impacted by COVID-19 restrictions with respect to access and use of exercise science lab and research facilities. Of the 100 surveyed participants categorized as requiring access to people and lab spaces (lab-based faculty), 61% (n = 61) reported decreased research productivity with 87% (n = 53) of those faculty in one or more of the following subdisciplines: exercise physiology, clinical exercise physiology, or biomechanics. Of all lab-based faculty, 40% (n = 40) participants reported having access to students and lab spaces and 55% (n = 55) indicated they were allowed to conduct in-person research. Of tenure-track lab-based faculty, 80% (n = 20) reported a decrease in research productivity, of which 60.0% (n = 12) identified as female. Among faculty with 5 or less years of teaching experience (n = 23), 69.6% (n = 16) reported a decrease in productivity, with 68.8% (n = 11) of those being female. All exercise science faculty surveyed reported issues with safety and social distancing, modified lab and research procedures, faculty workload, and research productivity. This information can be leveraged to create better infrastructure to support faculty and develop and implement strategies to reduce workload inequities.

Faculty perceptions of the exercise science student learning experience during the coronavirus pandemic.

Significant disruptions in higher education course delivery occurred during the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic. The implementation of emergency remote teaching (ERT) offered exercise science faculty a safe method to continue educating students in courses generally taught face-to-face. The purpose of this investigation was to explore faculty perceptions of their ERT efforts with respect to student successes, challenges, and faculty expectations. Through an electronic survey, participants (n = 112) from higher education institutions in 31 states and three Canadian provinces provided feedback on their perceptions of the student experience across 315 fall 2020 courses. Data analysis included a thematic analysis to identify themes and trends in participant responses. Faculty identified student adaptability, increased autonomy of learning, and maintenance of learning as successes. Also noted was the increased flexibility of alternative pedagogy methods. Participants perceived student challenges related to technology, time management, and well-being. Faculty perceived students expected increased accommodations and instructor responsiveness during fall 2020. While faculty and students were challenged to adapt during the global pandemic, the perceived ERT experiences during COVID-19 highlight the resiliency of higher education students and underscores changes needed by educational institutions to provide resources and training upon return to traditional education or in response to a future crisis.

Effects of guided mindfulness meditation on anxiety and stress in a pre-healthcare college student population: a pilot study.

Objective: To identify the effects of guided mindfulness meditation on anxiety and stress in pre-healthcare college students. Participants: Students (n = 33, age 19-22 years) were tested between September and November of 2017. Methods: Students completed 5-12 minutes of meditation 6 days/week for 8 weeks. We examined differences in pre- and post-intervention stress, anxiety, mindfulness, and heart rate variability. Results: All variables significantly improved after the intervention. When broken into quartiles based on minutes of meditation, groups 1 (0-184 min, p = 0.044) and 2 (184.1-268 min, p = 0.042) significantly increased mindfulness after the intervention. Group 3 (268-350 min) significantly decreased state anxiety (p = 0.015) and increased mindfulness (p = 0.029). Group 4 (350.24-424.05 min) decreased stress (p = 0.003), state anxiety (p = 0.007), trait anxiety (p = 0.003), and increased mindfulness (p = 0.007). Conclusion: Five to twelve minutes of daily mindfulness meditation is associated with decreased stress and anxiety, and increased mindfulness with greater changes observed following more minutes of meditation.

5000 Meter Run Performance is not Enhanced 24 Hrs After an Intense Exercise Bout and Cold Water Immersion.

Cold water immersion (CWI) is used by endurance athletes to speed recovery between exercise bouts, but little evidence is available on the effects of CWI on subsequent endurance performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of CWI following an acute bout of interval training on 5000 m run performance 24 hrs after interval training, perceived muscle soreness (PMS), range of motion (ROM), thigh circumference (TC), and perceived exertion (RPE). Nine endurance-trained males completed 2 trials, each consisting of an interval training session of 8 repetitions of 1200 m at a running pace equal to 75% of VO2peak, either a control or CWI treatment, and a timed 5000 m run 24 hrs post interval training session. CWI was performed for 12 min at 12 degrees Celsius on the legs. Recovery treatments were performed in a counterbalanced design. Run time for 5000 m was not different between the CWI and control trials (CWI = 1317.33 ± 128.33 sec, control = 1303.44 ± 105.53 sec; p = 0.48). PMS increased significantly from baseline to immediately post exercise (BL = 1.17 ± 0.22, POST = 2.81 ± 0.52; p = 0.02) and remained elevated from baseline to 24 hrs post exercise (POST24 = 2.19 ± 0.32; p = 0.02), but no difference was observed between the treatments. No differences were observed for the interaction between time and treatment for TC (λ = 0.73, p = 0.15) and ROM (λ = 0.49; p = 0.10). CWI performed immediately following an interval training exercise bout did not enhance subsequent 5000 m run performance or reduce PMS. CWI may not provide a recovery or performance advantage when athletes are accustomed to the demands of the prior exercise bout.