Influence of Online and Face-to-Face Wellness Courses on Exercise Participation

Previous research has documented significant increases in exercise participation following enrollment in Wellness courses offered in a traditional classroom setting. Newer technologies allow for the dissemination of health-related information in an online setting. However, no data exists that examine the influence of online courses on exercise participation. Purpose: The purpose of this investigation is to study the effect of enrollment in a face-to-face (F2F) or online Wellness course on participation in aerobic activity. The difference between the two formats was that the students in the online courses received their health-related information through online lectures and discussions. Methods: Data was collected from 522 subjects (451 F2F; 71 online) from 29 different sections of the Wellness course. Students were asked to fill out a three question survey pre- and post-semester. The three questions queried a student's level of frequency, duration and intensity of aerobic exercise participation. For each of the questions, students were given a choice of responses that ranged from 0 to 5 (0 being the lowest and 5 being the highest level of participation). Numbered answers were averaged across students in the F2F and online courses for use in subsequent analysis. Analysis/Results: Three repeated measures ANOVAs were calculated for the pre- and post-semester exercise participation scores for each of the three questions to examine if either the students in the online or F2F courses increased their level of participation in aerobic exercise. One-Way ANOVAs were used to determine if the answers to the three questions during the pre- or post-semester inquiry were significantly different for students enrolled in the online or F2F courses. Results of this investigation demonstrate that all students increased their levels of frequency, duration, and intensity of aerobic exercise participation at the end of the semester compared to the beginning. In addition, there were no significant differences between online or F2F students in the frequency, duration, and intensity of aerobic exercise at the start of the semester and in the frequency and duration of aerobic exercise at the end of the semester. However, students in the F2F course did show a significantly higher level (p<0.05) of intensity of aerobic exercise participation at the end of the semester. Conclusions: Taken together, these results demonstrate that students do increase their level of aerobic exercise participation following enrollment in a Wellness course regardless of how the course is delivered to the student.