As reality of COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold in March 2020, it was becoming more and more apparent things were about to change in academia. It seems like overnight we quickly moved from traditional face-to-face (F2F) teaching models to a mixture of online, remote and hybrid learning platforms. Many instructors teaching exercise science labs found themselves in a very unique predicament: how do you teach psychomotor competencies in a virtual lab?  Those of you teaching in CoAES programs, this may have led to a second question: how do you evaluate these competencies virtually? Almost instinctually, you rushed to YouTube and Google for help. And after hours and hours of searching for video demonstrations on musculoskeletal and cardiorespiratory assessments, body composition, flexibility, clinometric administration and laboratory preparation there was little to show for all the effort. It may come as no surprise that the majority of videos do not follow specific standards and guidelines established by ACSM’s Exercise Testing and Prescription. Few tech-savvy instructors have circumvented this problem by creating their own lab videos. However, this does not solve the overarching issues most instructors face today. There truly is a void of accurate, high quality videos freely available to instructors.    

In the beginning of June 2020, ACSM formed a group to examine the needs for online teaching tools. The group was tasked with identifying potential material for a video repository and developing a standard scoring rubric. One outcome of these discussions was a list of core competencies routinely taught in exercise science labs across America. This list was then populated with 70 videos generously provided by members of the group and the Exercise Science Education Special Interest Group (SIG) members. The scoring rubric was created following recommendations from Cynthia Brame’s 2016 article Effective Educational Videos: Principles and Guidelines for Maximizing Student Learning from Video Content. Videos were rated on accuracy of protocol, duration (videos longer than five minutes were generally excluded), recording quality, audio and video quality, skill level, video cueing, inclusion of close captioning and a few other characteristics. A quasi peer-review model was utilized in video assessments. Two members from the group were randomly assigned to review and vote to include or exclude each video. Ties were broken by a third reviewer. All primary reviewers were blinded from other reviews, and reviewers were prevented from reviewing their own video submissions. Approximately 45 (or 66%) of the videos were selected for the final list. This list comprises videos from a wide range of topics including resting and exercising blood pressure assessment, spirometry tests, YMCA bike test, Wingate test, stress test, metabolic cart and Monark bike calibration, mouthpiece assembly and many others.

We are now pleased to provide you the list of approved videos. It is our sincere hope these videos fill pedagogical gaps caused by the pandemic. Please note some of the videos on this list are not perfect. For example, you may find someone leaning slightly on the bars during a treadmill test, or forgetting to get their hair wet before hydrostatic weighing assessment, but they all meet the minimal threshold for inclusion establish by the group. 

This list could not have been possible without the great vision and leadership of Lynette Craft (ACSM Chief Science Officer) and working group members including: Peter Ronai (Sacred Heart University), Paul Gallo (Norwalk Community College), Nicole Mendola (Norwalk Community College), Barbara Bushman (Missouri State University), Young Kwon (Humboldt State University), Christian Thompson (University of San Francisco), Brad Roy (Kalispell Regional Healthcare), and Jill Kanaley (University of Missouri). We also like to thank members of SIG for all of their video donations. A special thanks to Kim Reich (High Point University and Chair of the Exercise Science Education SIG) for coordinating efforts to obtain these videos.

This list continues to grow and evolve. And we are currently looking for more videos for the repository. If you have videos on any laboratory competencies within the exercise science wheelhouse and willing to share it with the ACSM community, please send it to tjwerner@salisbury.edu. Together we can get through this! 

Download the List & Access Other Virtual Education Resources

**This list is a member-exclusive piece of content. You must be logged in with your ACSM ID to access the resources. Not an ACSM Member? Join today!

Tim Werner, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Exercise Science at Salisbury University (SU). He earned his doctorate in Clinical Physiology and Metabolism from Virginia Tech.  He manages the Clinical Exercise Physiology Lab at SU and currently examining the role of exercise training and nutritional supplementation on acute and chronic changes in arterial stiffness. He teaches several undergraduate, graduate, and honors level courses in area of exercise physiology, clinical exercise physiology, metabolism and weight management. He is RCEP, CEP, EP-C and EIM-III certified from ACSM, and a Board-Certified Specialist in Obesity and Weight Management, and he continues to serve on several educational and research committees for ACSM, NSCA and CEPA.