Applied Coaching Research Journal Research Journal 2 | Page 28

APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2018, Vol. 2
This pattern of activity suggests that participants
clearly had a preference for accessing the course
during the traditional working day and avoided
weekends and to a lesser extent the evenings.
This is contrary to when most traditional coach
education courses take place, which is during the
weekends and evenings. These findings suggest
that online learning can provide a more flexible and
convenient mode of delivery that allows individuals
the opportunity to learn at a time which suits them
and accommodates their wider commitments
and responsibilities.
To explore which parts of the course were most
popular, unique visitor number data were analysed.
Specifically, the number of visitors to each of the
70 pages was used as an indication of the level of
interest in each section (page) of the course. Box 1
shows the top seven page titles using this approach.
Box 1: Seven section page titles showing higher than
average visitor numbers relative to other pages
• What conversations do coaches and psychologists
have?
• What does fun mean in children’s sport?
• Why being born in May has its advantages
• What drives international athletes?
• Sport Psychologists explain their work
• How much can we trust what journalists say?
Engaging learners is a central and acute issue in
much distance learning, since often there is no tutor
to guide learners through material. The content has
to be accessible, clear and has to capture attention
to sustain learners’ interest. Learners were asked
what their preferred types of learning activities
were, with the most commonly cited being:
• watching videos (95%) and
• getting feedback via quizzes/tests (90%).
This is reinforced from course review comments
such as: “The use of different educational means
- quizzes, articles, videos, journal articles - was
very useful in facilitating learning” (L1). It appears
variety in appropriate tasks and activities helps
sustain engagement.
The durations of activities are also important.
Internal Open University research has demonstrated
that participant retention on short courses is partly
related to use of video clips that are less than three
minutes. However, the use of clips alone has modest
value for learners. Learner comments suggested one
aspect of the design of video use was particularly
important: “Videos and discussion follow up was a
really useful facility” (L2). Before watching a video
the online text tells the participants what to focus
on – active watching – and afterwards there is a
commentary about what ‘experts’ (the course team)
thought as they watched the video (ie the discussion
follow-up referred to by participant L2). This design
feature helps to reinforce and shape participant’s
understanding and aligns with Kori et al.’s (2014)
findings.
• A fresh look; coaching commandments
A wide range of factors contribute to the popularity
of different pages (eg study order, text content,
video elements, and links to assessment). Page
titles that were framed as questions appeared to
be popular. Using a question to frame a section
also provided a clear structure for the section – a
distinct narrative focus and purpose. A further
learning design consideration is the amount of time
participants spend on the course pages per visit:
80% spend less than two hours, while 37% spend
less than one hour. The content therefore needs
to be structured in small manageable chunks (less
than one hour of study time) to accommodate this
dipping in and out of the course.
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Discussion: the impact on coaching practice
It is recognised that expressions of attitudes to a
course cannot straightforwardly be equated with
learner development and impact, but attitudes to
learning is used here to stimulate discussion in the
context of the filtering process described by Stodter
and Cushion (2016).
The overwhelming majority of those completing
the post-course survey had a positive learning
experience with “interesting” (94%), “thought
provoking” (81%) and “stimulating” (70%) being the
three most commonly agreed terms used to describe
their learning. A further sign of overall satisfaction
was the 96% who agreed that “I would recommend