Online Distance Education on WordPress Web Based Platform as an Innovation in the Learning Process of Sports Students from Medical University – Sofia, during the Pandemic of COVID-19
Online Distance Education on WordPress Web Based Platform as an Innovation in the Learning Process of Sports Students from Medical University – Sofia, during the Pandemic of COVID-19

Summary/Abstract: This study presents an alternative approach to building and delivering distance learning by creating a web-based learning process for the students of sport at the Medical University in Sofia by means of WordPress, a free platform for online content and websites, supplemented with specific plugins that are integrated in the website of the Language Education and Sports department (DEOS) at the Medical University in Sofia (http://deos.mu-sofia.bg.). Due to seasing academic instruction as a result of the emergency state in the country and the COVID-19 pandemic, the instructors from the Sports sector at the Medical University needed to quickly replace and restructure the practical training sessions from the program into online and theoretical ones. In the course of education, the theoretical material on the major sports disciplines was presented online in the form of 41 lectures in PDF documents separated into specific sports and visualized by means of the Tablenator module in table format for each week of the semester. In addition to presenting the lectures by means of the eForm builder, a total of 2363 online tests on sports theory were carried out in order to control the students’ level of mastering the material. A group of 381 students, consisting of compulsory and elective form ones from the departments of Pharmacy, Medicine and Dental Medicine, took part in this web-based education. An anonymous survey was carried out at the end of the semester in order to assess the realization of distance education in sports. The survey showed the positive attitude on behalf of the students regarding the content and the organization of this type of learning, but at the same time, it indicated that students are not inclined to replace the practical participation in sports with online theory. The conclusions that were drawn indicate that in the case of a pandemic of this scale online education significantly contributes to enriching the students’ knowledge but cannot replace the practical participation in sports activities. This form of education is strictly specific, relatively new, and difficult to apply by the instructor, and requires time to fully integrate in sports departments

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