Physical edUcation Learning e-platform for exerciSing at homE

The pandemic situation has forced the schools to switch from offline to online training almost every month. The insecure future of offline education calls for the development of well designed and tested online tools and platforms for teaching and learning in PE. The practice of regular physical exercises which may minimize the emergence of problems that directly affect people’s behaviour should be encouraged, during social isolation in the pandemic period. In this sense, the PE teacher is classified as the professional who can provide guidance and monitoring, so that the practice of physical exercise is done correctly and safely. On the other side, PE teachers and coaches were not prepared and an urgent action in this segment was required. This is the place where the importance of PULSE is mainly located. PE teacher must be considered an essential health professional during this pandemic periods because they can guide and stimulate individuals to practice physical exercise routinely, in order to keep and improve their health. On the other side, technology is something close and natural for children and young learners. Children are fans of technology & various sorts of digital applications.

The benefits of physical activity are well explained in multiple EU policy documents. PULSE took pro-active steps to reverse the decline in physical activity. Its contribution was the development of attractive and interactive educational formats regarding promotion of Physical Education through – building an online physical education platform, using the opportunities of the mobile information and communication technologies, creating a freely available platform for the development and implementation of educational content on modern digital devices with the opportunity to exercise at home. The PULSE focus was on building capacity to implement online and distance teaching and learning through the PULSE learning platform; to develop digital pedagogical competences of educators, enabling them to deliver high quality inclusive digital education through the short-term training of teachers; and to develop and use high quality digital content such as innovative online resources and tools through the newly developed PULSE trainings.

The project dealed with enhancing the healthy and active lifestyle of young people during pandemic with the purpose to deepen the digital skills and competences of teachers in physical education that show a spreading lack on how to keep pupils actively in distance and remote learning conditions. 3 main Activities (Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, Implementation, Follow-up – sharing and promotion of results and sustainability) and 4 main project results (Best Practices Catalogue, Structure and definition of contents, PULSE e-learning platform and mobile apps and PULSE training programmes and user guidance) were delivered for the 24 months of the project. The aims of the project were: 1. Building a strategic partnership between educational and sports organizations for the development and the delivery of educational content for the needs of the school environment; 2. Exchange of best practices and programmes on training of physical education; 3. Development and delivery of physical education content and exercises; 4. Development of accessible (free) PULSE online learning platform and mobile applications (apps) for the implementation of training programmes on a wide range of modern mobile devices– smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.; 5. Development of PULSE educational content with a standard structure, which was used by the project partners for the implementation of the pilot testing of the programmes. After completion of the project, it would be used by other schools, sport organizations, pupils, teachers, etc.; 6. Development of a multilingual learning content, accessible for schools and pupils in the EU in the framework of Erasmus+ programme; 7. Creation of available physical education content and training for pupils through modern digital devices, which most of them already possess, and the utilization of modern ICT technology in favor of enhancing the healthy and active lifestyle; 8. Transfer of technology to the interested actors within the EU and all countries participating in Erasmus+; 9. Dissemination and exploitation of results. The project was implemented by a partnership of 6 organizations from 4 different countries (Republic of Bulgaria, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania andRepublic of Slovenia.)

The following project results were produced through the project lifetime: • Established long term strategic partnership between the participating organisations; • Innovative online educational platform and mobile applications (apps), which are freely accessible through digital devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops), given the opportunity for education anywhere at any time for all interested stakeholders in order to develop, implement and access multilingual physical educational trainings and exercises; The platform focused on two phases - the development of initial PE culture – coordination activities, motion and movement skills of the targeted groups (6 – 9 years) and as phase 2 focused on their inclusion in team sports (10 years of age and beyond) – football, basketball and gymnastics etc. • Standard for innovative format with the opportunity for a creation of educational content through text, video, graphic; • Freely accessible physical educational content; • Effective use of the opportunities of ICT technologies for the purposes of lifelong learning, anywhere at any time; • Building an increased sense of the value of healthy, active lifestyles; • Improved competences in the field of ICT; •Dissemination and exploitation strategies; • Quality assurance plan.