Post Pandemic Pilates education adopts the Medical industry approach by learning Online

Prior to COVID-19 online learning was becoming the norm for compulsory post qualification Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for medical professionals including Doctors, Nurses, Physiotherapists etc.  However, in the fitness industry and particularly in the Pilates niche of our industry, online learning even for CPD, was frowned upon in favour of traditional face-to-face methods. 

The teaching of Anatomy and Physiology was the discipline in fitness instructor training to be accepted as offering benefits to the client, compared to classroom teaching of the subject matter, but after that, it took a pandemic to change attitudes and behaviour.

The Impact of COVID on teaching methods

 The COVID-19 pandemic and resultant physical distancing have had a significant impact on the conversion of traditional teaching methods to online teaching methods.  This is driven by the fact that to survive the Pandemic, traditional method schools had to either pivot towards online learning or fail as businesses.  

Initial reticence of the Pilates and fitness industry

In the case of Group exercise in the fitness Industry, the celebrity exercise video had been sitting on the shelves of those seeking to lose weight, or squeeze a workout into a busy schedule, for years.  However, peer pressure in the Pilates industry had been a really effective ‘gatekeeper’ to ensure customers wanting ‘real’ Pilates needed to be exercised face-to-face.  

When innovators like Emma Newham (Pilates Union UK) launched an online Pilates matwork instructor training course over ten years ago, peer pressure from ‘Pilates influencers’, particularly on social media, frightened instructors away from taking the course AND frightened other innovators from following in her footsteps.

The outcry was to many of us, nonsense.   I had brought Stott-Pilates Instructor training to the UK several years before Emma launched her online Pilates Matwork Training.  Stott-Pilates had been making serious revenue from insisting that students enrolling on their courses must purchase Videos or DVD’s of the curriculum, to study alongside their face-to-face course, as did other training companies.   It just seemed that a move to the internet was one step too far.

The Medical Industry sets the trend in online learning

By 2020, the medical industry had moved much of its CPD for medical practitioners onto the Web, and ‘learn in your own time’ online multimedia portals were offering opportunities to learn; improving the convenience and quality of training compared with the face-to-face workshop.   So, for this industry, it was an easy step when COVID-19 arrived, to move all education onto the Web.  

Mbodies follows the trend

Clients of Mbodies Training Academy had always been more clinically oriented than most other training schools other than APPI.  Mbodies client base, with high numbers of Physiotherapists, embraced the decision to turn all Mbodies education courses into high quality online training, without push back.   The Physios themselves were quick to move their own treatment of their Physiotherapy clients from face-to-face, to virtual video and audio conferencing methods such as Zoom.  However, initially there was push back from the Pilates instructors while they took time realising that unless they moved their own businesses online, they would lose their clients and income.  Indeed, large numbers of Pilates businesses closed during the pandemic, whilst private physios were less affected.

Pilates Instructors made the move to running their own businesses online. Once they had done this, the psychology of taking their own training online, also quickly pivoted to the extent that whilst a proportion of instructors continued to insist on face-to-face training, the majority had discovered the benefits of an online course. 

Key benefits of Online learning included:

·        A lower cost of the course

·        No travel – a consideration with rising fuel costs

·        Learning in one’s own time and outside of work or childcare hours

·        No hotel costs – a consideration with hotel costs rising steeply       

·        No geographical limitations: so available worldwide, to a larger customer demographic, and to study remotely should it be required. 

The face-to-face training course pre COVID-19 had the potential to be profitable, provided numbers attending exceeded approximately 8 delegates.   The business model was overhead heavy, - venue costs, tutor costs, course material printing, accommodation, and food for instructor trainers etc. Typically, the first 6 places on a course were required to cover the overheads, after this; additional students represented high profit opportunities.

The pivot towards online training preferences during lockdowns has had a devastating effect on learning offered face-to-face.  Whilst overheads have risen, the split between those instructors wanting face to face only, or online only, has made it difficult to deliver profitable face to face courses.   

Preference moves to online learning, as face-to-face declines

In the case of Mbodies Training Academy, the numbers applying for face-to-face courses declined by more than half, whilst those applying for online courses grew.   As a result, the numbers of face-to-face courses offered, was reduced from several courses a year to perhaps just one or two courses a year.  This still only resulted in enrolment of a maximum of 7 students, so the profit threshold of 6-8 delegates made face to face courses, difficult to justify as they are no longer commercially viable.  The days of 12 to 20 delegates on a face-to-face course were well in the past.

Meanwhile the business model of the Online training course, with the heavy investment up-front in producing the online learning materials, but low overheads of actually running courses, made the promotion of online rather than face-to-face, more sensible, given the investment in the course had already been sunk.

Research, particularly from the medical sector, into the comparison between online learning compared to face-to-face is consistently showing that ‘outcomes’ in terms of ‘education’, i.e. what the client actually learned from the course, was equal or improved in the online learning samples compared to face-to-face cohort.  In terms of examination passes there is little or no difference.

However, the more psychological ratings show client satisfaction with online compared to traditional learning, favouring the convenience of online, but way down in terms of interaction and skill as opposed to knowledge learning.

Online versus classroom teaching for medical students during COVID-19: measuring effectiveness and satisfaction.

In this 2020 study 10 parameters were measured for the effectiveness of eLearning based on a 5-point Likert-scale, and five parameters were measured for satisfaction.   The results were:  e-learning was more or equally effective in four parameters such as assignment submission and for meeting individual needs, but less effective in six parameters, including building skills rather than academic knowledge, and interaction level.   Satisfaction was either high or neutral in all five parameters.

Conclusions: Their findings showed that e-learning can advance the teaching process in medical schools in some respects, but cannot be used for the entire teaching process.

Mbodies have also observed that face-to-face education is a speedier way to reach a learning goal where a course is of long duration (more than one day of traditional face to face course) compared with eLearning, but eLearning is quicker for the short course or workshop.  

For long courses, students studying  face-to-face are forced to book in their diaries the dates of the course, and travel to sit and attend with few external distractions.   However, those taking long course eLearning tend to allocate dedicated time for the first one or two days of the course, BUT after that the learning becomes a part of time pressures of work and general family life.   For the short course or Workshop with e-learning there is no wait of one or two months for the course date to arrive - the course can be booked and taken online immediately.

Mbodies now  moves education solely Online

For 2023 Mbodies has moved as a Training company to all online learning, with the last face-to-face course, Pink Ribbon Post Rehabilitation, 2-day course ran in October 2022 with 8 students.   The Pink Ribbon course is the last course to be turned into online learning, and the opportunity to update the contents of the course to meet the fast-changing advances in surgeries and treatments, means that the course will go live on April 1st 2023.  Already there are more students signed up for the April online course on early bird pricing, than attended the October 2022 course.

Tutor support

Mbodies has taken note of the value of face-to-face interaction in all its long course learning.  Online courses that represent more than 2 days of face-to-face learning; for example, Apparatus education with Reformer, Tower, Chair, Barrels etc. is learning online with options to hire apparatus at home, or attend local studios to practice, but each student is allocated a local Instructor/trainer or where not possible, an online tutor for zoom based face-to-face sessions.  Students are encouraged to use some of the substantial cost savings offered by the online course to schedule regular tutor support sessions, where the tutor can work on skills learning and teaching style and get hands on with the client to improve their ability to teach.  

The effect of this has been to bring discipline into the online learning with goal setting in terms of learning to be evaluated by the tutor at the next session, therefore leading to quicker completion of the course.  At the same time, students value in satisfaction terms, the personal feedback and advances they make in teaching skills, whilst appreciating the flexibility the online learning brings.

The concept of combining online learning of Repertoire combined with tutor support allows for innovation in learning for Pilates studios and companies.   For example, Pilates North West recognise the value of having local certified Pilates matwork instructors being offered access to their studios to do their Mbodies online Apparatus learning.  Instead of one on one tutoring, they offer small group apprentice learning on one morning each week, offering class teaching and one-on-one teaching opportunities for the students, according to the stage of their education.  Owners of the studios attribute some of their growth, which exceeds their position pre COVID, to this initiative.

By Chris Onslow: Pilates and Fitness Business Consultant

Chris Onslow, has run Pilates focussed businesses since 1998.  He and his team specialise in supporting Pilates entrepreneurs and business owners.  With a rich history of owning and running successful Pilates studios in the UK, and supporting others in Europe and the Middle East, Chris has broad expertise in maximising profitability and optimising operational efficiency.  His agency provides top-tier advice on selecting new, pre-owned, and hireable Pilates equipment from renowned brands such as Align-Pilates, Balanced Body or Stott-Pilates/Merrithew.  As the founder of Mbodies Training Academy, Chris continues to revolutionise Pilates education, offering premier online and hybrid CPD and qualification courses for Pilates apparatus instruction and special population CPD.  Discover more about how Chris can support your Pilates Business or home exercise choices at www.pilates-consultant.co.uk