By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas
Indoor Cycling has always been about engaging students face to face, in a setting where member safety is enhanced and the specifics of riding an indoor cycle can be communicated effectively. This requires educated faculty to deliver the classes. It also creates additional expense for either the club operator or the instructor to pay for the education and additional time for the instructor to travel to and attend it.
Although online education can impact any instructor’s teaching knowledge, it hasn’t been widely accepted in Indoor Cycling. Currently, only two education companies offer online training: the Indoorcycling Group (ICG®), partnered with LIVESTRONG® Fitness, and Mad Dogg Athletics®, which provides Spinning®.
In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education published “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning.” The study found that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. Further, those who took "blended" courses, combining elements of online learning and face-to-face instruction, appeared to do best of all.
At ICG®, we saw that the greatest advantages of online learning, as suggested by this study, were time spent and expanded curriculum. Students spent additional learning time because an online module is self-paced. Expanding knowledge is simplified for the student through an extensive online curriculum because it’s easy to offer. Online learning is far more conducive both to increasing learning time and to learning a diverse program of study than is face-to-face instruction because it removes the two greatest barriers to instructor development — inconvenience and finance.
We’re not suggesting that it’s simply better to switch to online learning only. Others studies have shown greatest effectiveness through the use of online learning for advanced study, while keeping the basic practices face-to-face. This makes a good deal of sense with Indoor Cycling. Initial certifications should be in the form of live practicums to give new instructors the most saddle time.
Based on a growing number of studies, however, review, re-certification and the learning of advanced theory might best be done online. Self-paced online education provides as much time for study as the student needs, which can be particularly helpful when covering new material.
So, considering how important and expensive certifications for indoor cycling professionals can be, what might it be worth to you to be able to earn CECs online at your convenience and at your own pace, free of charge?
ICG® offers the most complete, internationally accredited program of continuing education — and we offer it for free. This support is available for ALL instructors through our online education platform. You can take the tutorials all at once or individually, as your time permits. What could be easier?
Just go to http://www.ic-pro.org/en/account/signin and create your own personal account. Your account will be immediately activated with all of our FREE CEC courses that are approved by ACE/AFAA and other certification organizations.
Our free curriculum includes:
Cyclewell: Circuit Format
Dri-Tri®: An express triathlon workout and teaching plan for the busy schedule
Continuing Education: 9 topics
- Aging and Adaptation
- Stretching
- Nutrition
- Competitive Cycling
- Training the Cancer Survivor
- Music and Motion
- Overtraining
- Periodized Training
- Heart Rate Training and Zones
I.C.G. Archive: 2 topics
1. Nutrition Periodization
2. Sportif Seasonal Training
The indoor cycling instructor is a prime candidate for advancement through online learning. The number of ICI-PRO website members and visitors demonstrates that a good percentage of indoor cycling instructors are online frequently. ICI-PRO website information is, as we know, genuinely useful for the indoor cycling professional. However, we still need to maintain certifications, which are costly and somewhat inconvenient, depending on instructor schedules. It’s for this reason that we invite you to take advantage of the ICG® online courses — some of which are of equally high quality as postings on this website — when you next need CECs.
We welcome the opportunity to serve you in this way.
Originally posted 2012-02-20 16:37:44.
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Jim,
I have taken a quick trip through the online learning center and it is very compelling. I will use it more often. Thank you ICI-PRO for providing access to such content.
I think you have spoken to this question before but I cannot find your response. Perhaps you talked about on a podcast.
Could you please explain ICG’s business decision to offer such content (including CEC’s) free.
Thanks and always great to read your stuff.
Thanks Chuck. The business decision to invest in accredited education and then offer it online for free is two fold. First, it is in our mission statement to enhance indoor cycling through innovation, education and philanthropy. Our education personnel are some of the most knowledgeable in the industry and we depend on them to continue to write quality training modules to advance the indoor-cycling instructor’s ability to offer better classes. Second, our business model includes a significant investment in education without any expected revenue. This is because we are a product manufacturer as well as an education and training company. ICG builds the LIVESTRONG and Tomahawk bikes as well as supports them through education and training. Our global relationship with Johnson Health Tech (who owns the LIVESTRONG Fitness brand) includes using their sales and marketing teams to help us distribute the product. Through this relatonship we are able to do what we do best, innovate and engineer new indoor-cycling products and then support our customers with first rate, accessible training and continuing education at little to no cost. At ICG we are happy that you purchase and use our products. We don’t feel you should also pay us to learn how to use them.