Prevent accidents in pupils school sports activities: support of physical activity and risk awareness using a combination of serious game and fitness tracking

Status:

completed 07/2022

Aims:

The aim of this project was to develop and evaluate a prevention programme for ball sports injuries at schools. The programme should achieve the objectives of

1. teaching risk knowledge and accident mechanisms;
2. teaching knowledge about physical and ball sport-specific skills, such as coordination;
3. enhancing the motivation to engage in preventive exercises in physical education (PE) classes;
4. fitting of the prevention programme with teachers needs regarding classroom practice.

Activities/Methods:

To achieve these goals, a blended learning concept was developed, consisting of a serious game and accompanying didactic materials. In the serious game, the Basketball Training Manager, students take on the role of the captain of a street basketball team. They put together training plans from real-life exercises to improve their team and achieve a good ranking in the league. The challenge is to keep the risk of injury as low as possible by choosing the right exercises. This should achieve the objectives 1 and 2. The target group-oriented setting of the game as well as the integration of the own game character into the team aimed at objective 3. Finally, the accompanying materials serve to facilitate the integration of the game contents into PE lessons. They contain, among other things, a compilation of preventive exercises as well as ready-made modules with application instructions for teachers. This should help to achieve objective 4.

The development of the blended learning concept was accompanied by two formative evaluations and its effectiveness was tested in a final summative evaluation. In the formative evaluations, 92 pupils and 9 teachers were assessed for their prior knowledge of injury risks and teachers expectations of the prevention programme. In the second formative evaluation, 13 students, 8 teachers and 5 experts from the fields of learning and instruction, psychology and human-computer interaction were interviewed about the first versions of the game and the accompanying materials. The results were iteratively incorporated into the development of the blended learning concept.

Finally, 67 pupils and two teachers from three schools in Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia took part in the final evaluation. The effectiveness of the combination of serious game and accompanying materials was examined over a period of four weeks. In a one-group pre-post design, the students were asked about variables of interest and, thus, changes were recorded. The teachers were asked about their experiences and evaluations of the programme after the intervention period.

Results:

The results show that most of the formulated objectives were achieved. Significant improvements were achieved in the post-test for (1) teaching risk knowledge and accident mechanisms as well as (2) teaching knowledge about physical and ball sport-specific skills. In addition, a significant increase in extrinsic motivation was found with regard to (3) promoting the motivation of the students for prevention. The intrinsic motivation of the students also increased, but not to a statistically significant extent. With regard to (4) fit of the prevention programme with classroom practice, the results were mixed. It should be noted that a considerable number of students used the game only slightly during the intervention period. The main reason given by the students was a lack of time. The teachers assessment of the blended learning concept was also mixed. In combination, the results of the students and teachers surveys suggest that the integration into the lessons depends strongly on the teacher and may require a more consistent integration into the lessons.

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