The effectiveness of adopting tablet and Facebook for badminton skill learning in physical education

Introduction: Mobile devices and social media have gradually become essential part of the young generation’s daily life. Previous researches have indicated that applications of tablet and Facebook can enhance learners’... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction: Mobile devices and social media have gradually become essential part of the young generation’s daily life. Previous researches have indicated that applications of tablet and Facebook can enhance learners’ learning outcomes respectively. The purpose of this study is to adopt the recording function of tablet and build learners’ e-portfolio via Facebook to enhance badminton skills. Methods: The research method was based on “non-equivalent pretest-posttest control/comparison group design” of quasi-experimental design. 199 college students participated in this study who were randomly divided into an experimental group (97 learners) and a control group (102 learners). The experimental group were taught with tablet and Facebook while the control group were taught with traditional method. In the experimental group, the instructor used tablet to record learners’ motions, replay the recording and give instantaneous feedback to learners based on each learners’ recordings. After the class each week, the instructor then organize and sent the recordings to learners via Facebook Messenger, building each learners’ learning e-portfolio for reviewing learning process. The experiment, not including pretest and posttest, took eight weeks. The ANCOVA and t test were used for statistical analysis. Results: The learning outcomes of the experimental group in smashing and footwork are significantly higher than the control group (p < .05). For experimental group, the result of the self-assessment posttest is significantly higher than the pretest (p = .001). Conclusion: This study proved that adopting tablet and Facebook can significantly enhance learners’ learning in smashing and footwork compared to traditional method. Moreover, the self-assessment of learners also support the same results. Therefore, this study indicates that integration of tablet (recording function) and Facebook (e-portfolio) are efficient supplementary tools to assist learners’ badminton skill learning in physical education. For in future physical education, those tools could be used in improving other skills learning outcomes.