Enriching work-integrated learning students' opportunities online during a global pandemic (COVID-19)

This paper examines how five students within a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise university WIL course developed learning opportunities that resulted in WIL being moved from the workplace to create authentic online initiatives during the COVID-19 restrictions. This exploratory research provides insights into the students' learning outcomes from creating online WIL initiatives that developed and promoted activities for a range of stakeholders involved in sport organizations, schools, and fitness industry businesses. The impact of these initiatives resulted in enhanced participation opportunities and engagement in physical activity for a range of sport teams, school children, and fitness clients. Themes are presented from content analysis of student perceptions of individual's learning outcomes from moving WIL online. The findings indicated that from the students' perspective, their online initiatives enriched capability but required adaptability, flexibility, and resilience. The period of online WIL also enabled the development of transferable skills and graduate attributes.