Swim This Way: A Mobile App Platform Designed to Improve the Technical Skill of Freestyle Swimmers

Open water swimmers training with BC Endurance do not have easy and free access to reliable resources, especially when training out of season. To fill this gap, instruction was designed and developed for swimmers to improve their freestyle technique through a mobile app. Targeting the cognitive and psychomotor domains, the instruction drew on constructivism and Mayer’s principles of multimedia learning. The instruction was evaluated with live usability tests where users completed designated tasks via the think aloud method. Iterative changes were made between usability rounds followed by the evaluation of learning effectiveness of the instruction. Users (n=13) were given surveys to reflect on their experience with the instruction and ability to internalize its content. Users’ in-app experience was assessed via pre and post-tests and a psychomotor checklist. Users noted they enjoyed the flow of information and reported the video instruction was clear and helpful. All users achieved higher scores on the post-tests suggesting the instruction was effective regarding the cognitive domain. Additionally, all users completed the psychomotor checklist correctly, indicating they understood the task and were able to apply their new knowledge properly. The evaluation results suggest that the instruction addressed the problem specified for the target audience. Recommendations for future work include enhancing the learning experience by including more video instruction across related topics.