Abstract:

Student athletes or athletic students learn and experience a lot from sports activities, and participating in such activities offers the opportunity to pursue interests at a deeper level. They continually keep a record of their club activities in the paper-based athlete’s notebook. The notebook is expected to promote continual learning and athletic ability. However, paper-based athlete's notebooks have four problems:
Problem 1: It is difficult to link videos about practice and movements to the notebook.
Problem 2: It is difficult to specifically capture growth and change while reflecting on past records.
Problem 3: It is difficult to reflect on the athlete’s notebook while being assessed by peers and/or teachers.
Problem 4: It is difficult for teachers to assess the notebook at any time or place.

Nowadays, attention is being focused on using e-portfolios because of the spread of the use of ICT. If we could systematize the notebooks by using an e-portfolio system, we could solve the aforementioned problems.

In this study, we implemented the athlete’s notebook system on an e-worksheet called Manabi Sheet, which is an e-portfolio system. However, it is unclear what effect the system has on the learning of athletes.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the effect of the athlete’s notebook system. Specifically, we evaluated what kind of effect would appear from using the system regarding development of competitive ability in ball games. Therefore, in order to achieve the purpose of this study, the following four requirements had to be satisfied:
Requirement 1: Promotion of sports practice while athletes consider their own problems.
Requirement 2: Promotion of athlete thought on improvement strategies and reasons for outcomes in terms of their own skills.
Requirement 3: Promotion of the strengthening of athletes' physical strength and enhancement of their skills.
Requirement 4: Promotion of athletes practice while thinking about their roles in the team.

The e-worksheet system implemented in this study (Manabi Sheet) is an e-portfolio system that has worksheets as its interface, and worksheets can be individually accumulated to make personal e-portfolios. By allowing the system to manage e-portfolios for each worksheet, it is possible to retrieve common items and arrange them in chronological order to grasp the concept of their growth. In this study, we practiced using the athlete's notebook system on sepak takraw.

We evaluated whether Requirements 1 to 4 were satisfied by using the athlete’s notebook system, and we clarified the effects of the system on promoting competitive ability in ball games. Specifically, we conducted questionnaires and interviews with the fourteen athletes and two coaches of the sepak takraw team. In addition, we analyzed their use of the system. Thus, the results of the evaluation of this study can be summarized in four points:
1: It promotes sports practice while athletes consider their own problems during sports activities.
2: It promotes the athlete thought on improvement strategies and reasons for outcomes in terms of their own skills.
3: It promotes the strengthening of athletes’ physical strength and enhancement of their skills.
4: It promotes athletes practice while thinking about their roles in the team.

The results above suggest that all the requirements of the study were satisfied. Therefore, it can be seen that the system supports the promotion of competitive ability in ball games.

Keywords:

Athlete’s notebook，sports activities，e-portfolio，e-portfolio system， e-worksheet.