Evaluation of PSD’s online activities during the COVID-19 pandemic: April to July 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has halted most activities across the world, including sports and development. It has impacted people of all ages, physically and psychologically, especially children and youth. When the Government of India announced the nationwide lockdown on 24 March 2020, Pro Sport Development (PSD) sought new ways to support the development of children and youth, especially from marginalised sections of society. As its Community Sports Program in Bhubaneswar, Odisha came to a halt, PSD innovated with ways to engage the participants online.

In April 2020, PSD started creating fitness, yoga, and fun games activities through videos to motivate and engage its participants to stay safe, healthy and fit at home.[1] In July 2020, PSD sent a survey to the 413 participants via Google Forms to evaluate these activities. 298 participants (72% response rate) between the ages of 12 to 15 years responded to the survey, with 52% being female respondents.

The survey consisted of six simple questions asking participants how much they enjoyed the activities, how frequently they engaged in the activities, the perceived impact of these activities and their preference for future engagement.

Some insights from the study include:

• 92% of the respondents stated that they liked the activities in the videos a lot
• 68% of the respondents claimed that they did the exercises at least 3 times a week
• 58% of the respondents claimed that the videos improved their fitness, while 21% said that it improved their concentration and 15% said it made them happy
• The fun game videos (36%) and physical fitness videos (36%) were most liked by the respondents, with yoga videos being a close second (25%)
• Interestingly, more than half of the respondents would like to continue with the activities throughout the year

From the data collected, it was clear that the majority of the respondents enjoyed the activities. Moreover, the activities in the videos served their main purpose, as more than half of the respondents (56%) stated it improved their fitness.

PSD believes that the evaluation of its online activities during COVID-19 is of crucial importance as it can provide insights for the larger picture of engaging children and youth in such activities in the future. PSD hopes that this evaluation could play a role in seeking solutions to current challenges and encourage  other organisations to aim towards keeping sport pertinent in these crucial times.

You can read the full report here.