Designing digitally-augmented feedback for physical education

Active participation in physical activity (PA) is beneficial for teenagers’ physical and mental development [1]. Moreover, it can also prevent childhood obesity and cardiovascular diseases [2]. However, extensive studies have shown that most adolescents (12-15 years) tend to drop out from regular PA [3,4], partly due to lack of interests [4].
Physical Education (PE) is an essential setting for adolescents to participate, learn skills [5], and develop interests towards PA [6]. Previous studies have suggested fun, enjoyment [7] and social relationship [8] as the primary motivational factors for teenagers’ PA participation [9,10]. In PE, playfulness and social interaction are also seen as meaningful experiences [11] and thus become educational goals that go beyond teaching students’ motor skills [12]. Thus, our research investigates the design of playful and social experiences in PE context to enhance the motivation of adolescents to be physically active.
In the field of human-computer interaction (HCI), many researchers have explored designing digitally augmented feedback (DAF) to promote adolescents’ PA playfully and socially. For instance, Hitron et al. [13] developed tangible Scratch Nodes which provides a pair of players real-time LED light feedback during outdoor play. Delden et al. [14] augmented several virtual effects on a physical play space in the traditional group tag game. These researches have shown that using DAF could stimulate multisensory experiences and improving the performance of players. However, to our knowledge, few studies have explored the design approach and evaluated the effects of DAF on adolescents’ PA in PE context.
In our research, we follow the approach of research-through-design [15] where the theoretical analyses, design practices, and evaluations are performed iteratively. Our research questions are: 1) How to design DAF to enrich and enhance adolescents’ playful and social experiences in PE context? 2) To what extent could the playful and social experiences from DAF facilitate PE?