Students at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) have been benefitting from the use of technology enhanced learning techniques to deepen their understanding of physical education and sports coaching.
Dr Dylan Blain, Academic Director for Sport & Healthy Living at UWTSD, is utilising the Immersive Suite at the Carmarthen campus to support student learning in a Competitive Activities module.
Dr Blain utilises the space to explore real game scenarios to support students to develop their knowledge of delivering high quality sporting experiences to young people. By visualising real-world sporting scenarios from high level sport, students can identify key elements of games that young people can learn at a developmentally appropriate level.
Dr Blain said: “The key is for students to understand what core aspects of the variety of games young people generally learn in school-based physical education and community sport so that they can then devise developmentally appropriate activities that support learning in a fun and enjoyable for all. In this module we focus on what is known as a tactical approach to teaching games.”
The Immersive Suites, which were installed in 2023 at the University’s Carmarthen and Swansea campuses, provide effective ways for many learners to develop their knowledge and skills. They provide artificial, digitally created content and environments that accurately replicate real life scenarios, in this case games and sporting events, so that new skills and techniques can be learned and perfected.
James Cale, UWTSD’s Director of Digital Services said: “Through our immersive spaces, we are revolutionising the way students learn, by providing them with an interactive, engaging, and memorable educational experience that brings the curriculum to life.
“Implementing immersive spaces in education not only enhances the students’ engagement and motivation but also allows them to experience and interact with the curriculum in a more meaningful and memorable way. This approach allows for more hands-on and experiential learning, which research has shown to be more effective in promoting long-term retention of information.
“The use of immersive technology such as virtual and augmented reality, allows students to explore and learn about subjects and concepts that would be otherwise difficult or impossible to replicate in a traditional classroom setting. The use made by physical education and sports coaching colleagues is a great example of what can be achieved.”
In addition to using the immersive suite in his teaching, Dr Dylan Blain has been at the forefront of integrating technology into physical education and sport. Alongside colleagues at the University of Bath and London School of Economics and Political Science, he recently published a paper on the potential of blended-gamified approaches to school based physical education as a means of imagining a future for the subject.
Dr Blain continues: “The forced remote delivery imposed by the lockdown periods during Covid-19 made us re-consider how we could use the lessons learned to enhance physical education post-pandemic. Blending such remote delivery options with more in-person learning is an obvious means, however implementing such approaches in gamified ways can potentially provide more motivational and engaging experiences for young people. All in all, we aim to promote positive physical activity experiences for young people and exploring the use of blended-gamified experiences is potentially one way of achieving this.”
