Technology-Enhanced Learning in Sports Education Using Clickers: Satisfaction, Performance and Immediacy.

INTRODUCTIONAs part of Judo education and training, athletes are taught to act as coaches making prompt decisions on battle events, which requires a good understanding of rules and regulations of sport. Instructional content for this type of training is designed annually by International Judo Federation (IJF) which determines official position on manners, conduct and arbitration rules of sport. This instructional content is based on a rich collection of authentic video-snapshots taken from International Judo competition. Correct decisions on event of each video-snapshot and explanations are also provided by IJF. In a seminar on rules and regulations of sport, athletes typically watch video-snapshots and elaborate on what is right or wrong in case of demonstrated events. The seminar either involves a class-wide discussion of video-snapshots and appropriate decision-making or it takes form of a typical individual assessment of athletesu0027 understanding of rules and regulations (i.e., a knowledge test with multiple-choice type of possible decisions Judo coach should have made in each case). In any case, it is desirable that athletes respond quickly and accurately to demonstrated events, replicating fast pace in making judgments required by a coach during a Judo battle.In this study, investigators (a Judo trainer and an educational technologist) sought to examine potential value of using clickers to improve effectiveness of Judo seminars on rules and regulations of sport. We would argue that, despite richness of IJF instructional content, current practice of training fails to simulate fast reaction time and decision making required during a Judo battle. Thus, we perceived clickers as a relevant technology to integrate into these seminars to simulate fast paced nature of Judo coaching. Clickers are remote personal response systems, recorded in literature with different names like Classroom Performance System (CRS), Clicker Assessment and Feedback (CAF) and Audience Response Systems (ARS). They consist of a small remote control, which is accompanied by a receiver connection as well as an application for operation of system and recording of results. Their in educational settings has been found to assist interaction between learners and instructors, support understanding of subject of course, allow assessment of leanersu0027 stage of knowledge, and enable feedback loop between learners and instructors (e.g., Boyle u0026 Nicol, 2003; Ioannou u0026 Artino, 2010; Premuroso, Tong, u0026 Beed, 2011; Roush u0026 Song, 2013).Furthermore, study draws on ideas of gamification as an educational method that sets overall learning process as a game or competition. The term refers to use of game mechanics in non-gaming contexts (Deterding et al., 2011) or the phenomenon of creating gameful experiences (Koivisto u0026 Hamari, 2014). The challenge is to adapt game features in a learning environment, in this case an assessment setting, without squeezing out what is enjoyable about games (Garris, Ahlers, u0026 Driskell, 2002). There have been many attempts to implement gamification in many areas of education and training, to make learning more engaging (Ott u0026 Tavella, 2010) and researchers have argued that gamification methods can affect learnersu0027 or traineesu0027 motivation and interaction within a learning/training setting (Ejsing-Duun u0026 Karoff, 2014). Also, results from tertiary education show significant correlation between performance of students in gamified activities and their performance on a final examination (Mavridis et al., 2014). We therefore, expected that clickers could gamify Judo seminars giving trainers chance to praise athletes, making seminar more attractive and potently more effective.Overall, learning technology in sport education is not a topic we see researched very often; yet we suggest its potential to improve sports education and sport-related outcomes should not be undervalued. …