Pete Banbury takes a look at the future of education and training in the fitness industry
T
raining and education are entering an explosive phase of development right now. Technology has blown the doors off convention and led
to strong debate: some decry ‘cold electronic gimmickry’ that will never replace face-to-face learning; others herald technology as the gateway to a more creative, personalised education. And the health and fitness industry
isn’t immune to this debate. Mel Spooner, FitPro’s head of commercial operations UK, says: “Face-to-face learning is highly valuable and presents a powerful engagement platform between coach and learner. However, time and budget constraints, career lifecycles and the dilutive effect of classroom learning mean that face-to-face learning alone cannot future-proof professional development for our industry. Relying solely on face-to-face will present barriers to recruiting, developing and retaining great trainers in our industry. This shouldn’t be scary; it’s reality and, as an industry, we simply have to adapt.”
Mobile learning Amid the mêlée of divided allegiances, a new strain of online education is emerging: mobile learning. Also tagged as mLearning, it maximises all possible benefits of technology – viewing material via mobile phone, tablet or laptop and using multimedia engagement in a much more modern way, with social media mechanisms such as video uploads, downloads, podcasts, status updates and ‘likes’ to the fore. Imagine a scenario where, instead
of providing some text for students to learn or a video for them to view with a multiple choice question at the end, a training provider posts a small amount of content and sets a task. Let’s say the students are PTs at a health club chain that’s aiming to improve its customer- facing interpersonal skills on the gym floor and, for the club, the personal trainers’ compliance is essential. The task sets the scene about what
positive behaviours the trainers should be considering. They are then asked to go away and video-interview club members using their smartphones,
September 2014 © Cybertrek 2014 Mobile learning allows for high levels of engagement and interaction with peers
Community-driven mobile learning encourages learners to be individual and show off their talents
asking the members about their top three bugbears when it comes to PTs’ behaviour in the gym. The trainers then have to upload these clips from their smartphones to the mobile learning platform and view other trainers’ videos. The final part of the task is to ‘like’ their three favourite video clips and comment on how they think that trainer could improve interactions with the customer. How is that approach so different
from what we’re doing in the fitness industry now? After all, online learning is not new, and we’ve had video presentation capability for some time. Why all the fuss? Well when we analyse, that task took
advantage of many important factors. Firstly it was experiential and contextual to the PTs’ work – tasks were done in a real environment and they would have learned so much more in the process than they would using hypothetical, theory-based task scenarios. Secondly they collected their
information in a fun way through interviews and used their ever-present mobile phones to film and then upload immediately to the mobile platform – a great use of accessible technology. And finally, taking advantage of
widely used social media mechanisms, the trainers invited their peers to
‘like’ their videos, and comment on what they thought of them and how they could improve. And that’s not even mentioning that all the learning evidence is charted and time-stamped.
Bev Williams, senior qualifications
manager at CYQ, says: “Mobile learning isn’t something simply for the younger generation in our sector. We’re seeing how both learners and centres are benefiting from online access to awarding organisation documentation. To progress this into smartphone and tablet access is logical for us. And with social forums in mobile learning, we know the learners are being supported at all times with tutor comments and
‘likes’ – all of which are documented and time-stamped on the platform. It’s perfect evidence for their ePortfolios.” And health club operators are
already beginning to see the potential of mobile learning. Chris Ward, UK national personal training manager at Fitness First, comments: “With the rise of remote connectivity and social media platforms, ways of learning must follow suit. Today’s generation expect information at their fingertips, and our personal trainer workforce is no different. With limited time to step away from their busy client bases, the ability to learn on mobile learning platforms, in their own time, on demand, will shape the way fitness professionals are educated for many years to come.”
Customised, not standardised The beauty of community-driven mobile learning is that it encourages learners to be individual and to show off their talents rather than adapting to prescribed, homogenised standards –
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 51
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