Course Activities

Learning activities will include assigned readings from the prescribed text or suggested articles, engaging in course-generated activity labs that may require either written or video recording of results, and the completion of study units grouped around eight module themes.

Study assignments and activity labs will be aligned with the appropriate fitness themes. Most of the labs require access to fitness equipment, a fitness facility, as well as volunteer or client assistance to act as the "subject" for your assignments. These labs will also require the use of a video camera, which will be used to keep a running "video" log of activities and will be submitted as part of the final project, some editing may be required. Students will be required to complete a number of selected exercises in each study unit before advancing to the next study unit. Assignments will be submitted at regular intervals for evaluation and grading. At the end of the academic semester, students will create a final project and will be required to provide a video that clearly demonstrates: their ability to manage a cardiorespiratory fitness assessment; their ability to select an appropriate test protocol; their ability to accurately determine heart rates and blood pressures at rest and during exercise; their ability to accurately locate anatomic landmarks and then use skinfold calipers to measure body composition; and their ability to determine joint flexibility. Students will then develop a complete written exercise prescription that must include all the domains of physical fitness.

To best organize yourself and your files for this course, follow the below recommendations: You should create a Fitness Portfolio file on your computer to keep all of the forms and documents you create in association with this course. You will have the opportunity to download many forms in the course and save them into your Fitness Portfolio file for your future use. Each assignment will need to be referenced later, when completing your final project and may be valuable for you in your current or future job.

We also suggest that you review the requirements of the Final Project at the beginning of this course by going to Module 9 first, and reviewing the Module and Assignments pages. This will help you understand the goals of the course and help you to tailor each of the assignments and video productions to the final project. Reviewing the final project now and during each assignment will save you a lot of time at the end of the course.

Please read the mentor's letter, in the Mentor's Information area of the course Web site to get important details about your mentor.

Learning Strategies and Evaluation Methods

The course evaluation methods will be as follows:

Letter grades for assignments, online participation, and the final project are based on the following numerical grades: