The evolution of teaching physical education online during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study examined the evolution of online teaching for fourteen New England K-12 physical education teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Commencing where Foye and Grenier ([2021]. Teaching during a pandemic. Physical educators' reflections on teaching remotely. Journal of Online Learning Research, 7, 133-151.) left off, the current study contrasts participants' experiences in the spring of 2020 with their experiences during the 2020-2021 academic year. Participants engaged in semi-structured interviews. Interview data underwent thematic analysis, with Whittle et al.'s (2020. Emergency remote teaching environment: A conceptual framework for responsive online teaching in crises. Information and Learning Sciences, 121(5/6), 311-319.) emergency remote teaching environments framework providing contextualisation for the study. Three sizeable differences emerged from March 2020 to the 2020-2021 academic year: participants widely utilised synchronous teaching environments, which they unanimously preferred to asynchronous environments; blended learning environments allowed for face-to-face engagement; participant concerns regarding student accountability and lacking interpersonal socialisation dropped from March 2020. Participant experiences are utilised to help guide future online physical education practices.