SPHE461 - Current Issues and Trends in Fitness and Wellness

After successfully completing this course, you will be able to:

LO1: Evaluate the education requirements and credentialing process for fitness professionals, and their impact on the industry.

LO2: Evaluate and understand the scope of practice limitations of professionals within the fitness and wellness industry.

LO3: Examine the interrelationships between the initiatives of the Healthy People 2020/2030 and the health and well-being of the U.S. population.

LO4: Understand current national data for trends in fitness levels and chronic disease prevalence for the U.S. population and how they affect fitness trends and exercise programs.

LO5: Evaluate the importance of fitness assessments for determining both short- and long-term exercise programming

LO6: Develop an ability to use exercise science principles to design appropriate exercise and lifestyle interventions for clients

LO7: Understand how practice acts and Codes of Conduct dictate appropriate business practices, boundaries, and representation of one’s knowledge, skills, and abilities.

LO8: Understand the current research and body of knowledge regarding this industry, and be able to contrast this with misinformation, marketing strategies, and fads in order to design appropriate fitness and wellness interventions.

Reading Assignments:

As upper division students you are expected to read all required reading each week. This material will be covered in a variety of places, including forums, assignments, and a final project.

Discussion Forum Assignments:

Throughout the course you will write Discussion Forum posts in response to weekly information and scenarios. These responses, also called Posts, will involve analyzing readings, comparing and contrasting the views of authors, and critiquing arguments presented by the readings or the class. Posts will be graded for accuracy of interpretation, rigor of argument, and clarity of expression.

Responses and posts should abide by the University Netiquette policy (see below). The purpose of these Discussion Forum activities is to expand your learning opportunities by engaging in academic and thought-provoking asynchronous conversation with your classmates and instructor. The instructor’s role is to facilitate the learning process by participating in the discussions, promoting conversations, and promoting an advanced level of inquiry.

Homework Assignments:

Assignments will be evaluated based on the individual grading rubrics provided with each assignment.

Final Project:

The detailed guidelines and grading rubric for the Final Project are provided with the Final Project in the Assignments inside the classroom

This course uses Open Educational Resources. All of the resources for this class are located in the LESSONS area of our classroom under the heading Course Materials at the top of the Lessons page, or the Reading and Resources for each week of the course. Simply click on this link to access the Required Readings and Resources, from which you will find a clickable link to each week’s list of readings and resources.

Required Readings:

See Course Outline

Websites

In addition to the required course readings, the following public domain Websites may be useful. Please abide by the university’s academic honesty policy when using Internet sources, and if you use them, cite them properly. Note web site addresses are subject to change.