Development and analysis of a distance learning system aimed at improving the pedagogical support provided to student athletes in higher education

The need for teachers in higher education to be informed about particular aspects inherent to the dual career pursued by student athletes is clearly highlighted within the European Commission's minimum quality requirements for dual career support (2016). Moreover, the European Commission (2016) recommend to provide to these academic actors a “teaching module focusing on the goals, benefits, impact and requirements of such a dual career, preferably online” (p. 72). In line with the European projects “GEES” (2016), “B-WISER” (2018), “Mind The Gap” (Cartigny et al., 2019), and “ECO-DC” (Morris et al., 2020), training modules for dual career support providers of student athletes have already been proposed by Wylleman et al. (2018). However, there seems to be no research (at the time of conducting this study) providing training for members of a higher education community and on the pedagogical support required for such students. This would still be justified as teachers can play a crucial role in the academic success of student athletes.
The specific objectives of this study are (1) to design a distance learning system aimed at enhancing the pedagogical support provided to student athletes in the context of their dual career; (2) to implement this learning system within an university educational community; (3) to assess its utility, usability and acceptability (Tricot et al., 2003), while analysing its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT; Helms & Nixon, 2010).
With this in mind, we decided to use the constructivist paradigm in a process of pedagogical design targeting mainly members of the educational community of a European university (University of Liège – ULiège). Among the many existing models in pedagogical engineering, the “BECOMERIOR” model (Leclercq, 2007) has been chosen. This model postulates that any learning system is based on 10 components: Needs; Existing; Design; Objectives; Methods; Evaluation; Development; Intervention; Observations; Regulation.
The target audience is represented by the three categories of university actors directly involved in the academic training of these students: members of the “ULiège’s student athletes commission”, members of the ULiège educational community and academic tutors. A total of 17 subjects participated in this study.
Data collection tools were used at two key moments: during the pre-test of the system that was undertaken before making it available to subjects and during the observation-regulation stages. The data collection is based on a mixed approach, with complementary quantitative and qualitative data being collected through a questionnaire. For the quantitative approach, descriptive statistical analyses were conducted, and for the qualitative approach, a thematic content analysis based on the SWOT matrix was performed.
Based on the BECOMERIOR model, this study finally allowed to design and implement an unprecedented distance learning system, composed of 4 modules and 9 sub-modules, for members of the ULiège educational community, but also – through the quantitative data collected – to confirm its usefulness, usability and acceptability. The complementary qualitative data provided by the SWOT analysis finally make it possible to identify its strengths and weaknesses, and above all, to identify opportunities for improvement of it as well as possible threats related to its implementation.
Following the analysis of the results obtained in this study and a socioecological, holistic and systemic approach of the dual career, the device could both be made officially available to ULiège bodies and encourage other higher education institutions, in Europe and elsewhere, to adapt it to their own context.