Move UBC : Commuters versus Non-Commuters
Creators: name: Becker, Kyle
name: Dupont, Victor
name: Fincham, Natalie
Publisher: name: The University of British Columbia
Year: 2019

description: The Move UBC campaign at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is an annual initiative seeking to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviours for university students, staff and the community overall (Move UBC, 2018). The purpose of our study is to identify barriers preventing students living on-campus and students commuting to campus from participating in UBC recreation programs. We will convey the information on the current perceived barriers identified through our online survey to Move UBC in order to address and increase participation rates. We used a Qualtrics online survey to collect our data due to its convenience and because it is UBC approved. Our survey consisted of 30 questions about the student’s faculty, participation in Move UBC events and barriers to participation. We recruited 7 participants from both groups: students living on-campus and students commuting to campus. The participants were recruited by posting an anonymous link on our personal social media accounts and posters displayed on campus. Qualtrics automatically compiles data, the quantitative data was analyzed based on the multiple-choice answer and the qualitative data was analyzed based on the similarity of the answers and organized into themes using content analysis. The data from the survey showed that 57% of the participants commute to campus. The data revealed that 71% of the participants are aware of Move UBC but the majority of them do not participate for a variety of reasons. These reasons range from a lack of time with other commitments including school work to participants not being truly educated on what Move UBC has to offer. These findings suggest that even though the majority of students are aware of Move UBC, there are a number of barriers that are restricting participation levels. Identifying these barriers allows us to come up with some recommendations that we feel would help increase student participation rates. With the data from the survey, it would be beneficial for Move UBC to consider the community and their current situation whether they live on campus or have to commute, and plan recreation programs or activities to cater to those participants commuting off campus. A recommendation for Move UBC would be to create a series of co-ed recreation programs and make separate groups within these co-ed programs. The answers to one of our open-ended questions suggests that participation would increase if there was more promotion of these events, not just promotion through paper but, if there was more of an education process behind the promotions. One last recommendation would be if Move UBC partnered with UBC parking and was able to generate a parking pass or parking code for members participating in Move UBC events. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”