Thoughts on OLPE

            Online Physical Education (OLPE) is an oxymoron.  Anything in relation to online is meant to be a quick and easy alternative, and the same rule applies to Online Physical Education.  The fact that you can take the class at the comfort of your own home makes it too easy and tempting to simply not do the physical activities that are required.  With no actual PE teacher there to monitor your every move, or to offer motivation, the tasks become somewhat meaningless.  Even if one were to fulfill the requirements and stick to the outlined objectives, surely there would come a time when the individual would just skip an activity that he or she does not particularly enjoy.  It might even be safe to assume that some would just blow off the physical portion of the course completely and simply fulfill the written requirements, if there are any that is.
            At an elementary level, when parents can at least monitor their children and make sure that they are actually partaking in the physical activities, online physical education may possibly be acceptable.  This is applicable especially when we are dealing with students who home-schooled to begin with or maybe students who don’t feel comfortable exercising in front of their classmates (due to self-conscious feelings about their bodies and such).  However, once you get to dealing with older kids particularly in high school and in college, this alternative should not even be considered.  First of all, high school kids are stubborn to begin with and if they have a hard time listening to teachers who are in control of their grades, they would have an even harder time taking their parents’ empty threats seriously.  And, secondly, if you start offering these alternatives to college students you will find that some are just looking for an easy ‘A’ to boost their GPA so even if they did take the responsibility of completing what is asked of them, they wouldn’t put in as much effort as they would have had there been a teacher watching.  Furthermore, although there might special cases where OLPE would come in handy, for the most part it should not be regarded as a suitable alternative to an actual PE class.