Comparing the Use and Effectiveness of In-Person and Remote Physical Education Delivery During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Physical Education is a key component to improve youth health, but there is limited information on Physical Education delivery in different formats.

Purpose: We compared PE formats (in-person versus remote) across evaluation aspects: weekly minutes; perceived effectiveness; and student-to-teacher ratio.

Methods: We distributed questionnaires (2020-2021 school year) to school contacts who represented NFL Play 60 FitnessGram^® Project (n=216) schools in multiple US cities. Questionnaires entailed learning format, weekly PE minutes, perceived effectiveness, and student-to-teacher ratio. We used linear mixed models to compare PE formats across evaluation variables.

Results: Among 165 schools, 10% (n=17) offered in-person instruction, 31% (n=51) offered remote instruction, and 59% offered both (n=97). Results revealed higher in-person PE minutes (77.2±7.3) compared to remote minutes (67.1±14.6), but results were not significantly different (p=0.19). School contacts reported significantly more effective in-person PE (4.0) than remote PE (2.8, p<0.001). In-person PE also had significantly smaller reported student-to-teacher ratio (16.7) compared to remote PE (23.7, p<0.001).

Discussion: Findings indicate PE was offered during the pandemic, but remote learning appeared less effective than in-person PE.

Translation to health education practice: Efforts are needed to improve remote PE to reinforce high-quality PE in the future.