Opportunities and constraints in online physical education

Abstract

Abstract. In this difficult pandemic period, the imminent changes have mainly affected physical activity and particularly physical education lessons at all education levels. This is a reality for both urban and rural schools. While the transmission of information through the online environment is done without too many obstacles in other purely theoretical teaching activities, in physical education, the transmission and acquisition of knowledge but especially evaluation have been and are still affected. In this paper, we aimed to identify the main constraints in conducting online physical education lessons from the subjective point of view of students, parents and teachers. We also set out to make a comparison between the views of urban and rural actors. The assessed period was from March to December 2020, when the activity took place only online due to the “red code”. The survey was carried out between December 7-18, the last school week of the year. The conclusion showed that parents, teachers and students had different opinions on the main difficulties encountered during this period. Students’responses mainly highlighted their poor knowledge of using educational platforms, inappropriate space for practical activities and lack of connection devices. Parents’ responses focused on both their impossibility of supervising children and reduced possibilities of supporting them due to lack of knowledge or time. From the perspective of teachers, we identified their impossibility of actively monitoring students’ health and problems related to the verification of compliance with labour protection rules during practice.