Special Articles: Health education, health promotion, and COVID-19
Advantages of online autogenic training seminar for freshmen university students
2021 Volume 29 Issue 1 Pages 87-94
Details
2021 Volume 29 Issue 1 Pages 87-94
Objectives: Online courses were introduced in all Japanese universities in 2020 because of the spread of COVID-19 infection. The autogenic training (AT) seminar held at University A was also taken online. This article reports on the practice of online AT seminars for freshmen.
Field activity: Participants were healthy freshmen enrolled in University A (N=21, 11 men and ten women). Instructors were four University A’ teachers. The AT seminar was held once a week for ten times from May to July in 2020 using a video conferencing system. Participants conducted AT individually and inputted the practice record into an electronic file. Each participant and the instructors shared the record using a file hosting service. Over one instructor checked the practice record and provided individual instructions using email.
Assessments: Sixteen participants completed all the sessions. The online AT seminar had the following advantages compared to the previous face-to-face seminar; students could watch and listen to question and answer sessions as well as opinion exchanges between instructors, and appropriate instructions were provided regularly to students. Moreover, the level of understanding, acquisition, and continuity of AT by the participants increased. Furthermore, the online AT seminar functioned as social support for new university students, contributing to maintaining and improving their well-being.
Future implications: Investigating the effects of combining online and face-to-face AT seminars.
