Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary

Teach courses pertaining to recreation, leisure, and fitness studies, including exercise physiology and facilities management. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

The occupation "Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary" carries an automation risk of 40.7%, which closely aligns with its base risk of 41.3%. This moderate risk level reflects the occupation’s blended responsibilities, balancing tasks that can be partially automated with those that demand significant human input. Automation is making inroads particularly into administrative and repetitive aspects of teaching, while core human-centric functions remain more secure. Thus, although these educators may see new technologies support their work, the risk does not approach the levels seen in more technically repetitive or procedural jobs. Among the most automatable tasks for this occupation are: acting as advisers to student organizations, initiating and moderating classroom discussions, and preparing course materials such as syllabi and handouts. The advising role involves many routine administrative functions that artificial intelligence or digital platforms can increasingly facilitate, such as scheduling, information dissemination, and basic student support. Similarly, classroom discussions, especially online, can now leverage AI tools for moderation or generating prompts, while preparing course materials can be streamlined with templates and digital content generators. However, while these tasks are amenable to partial or significant automation, they also contain elements—like nuanced judgement and interpersonal interaction—that resist full delegatability to machines. Despite the increasing sophistication of automation, certain tasks remain highly resistant. Providing professional consulting services to government or industry requires deep expertise, customized analysis, and domain-specific creativity. Advising student organizations often calls for individualized mentorship, motivational skills, and real-time decision-making in dynamic social settings. Preparing students to act as sports coaches, moreover, involves not only technical instruction but also the transmission of values, leadership, and adaptive strategies—core aspects that are less susceptible to automation. The comparatively high bottleneck skill of originality (3.0–3.1%) underscores this resistance: designing new training regimens, developing unique teaching strategies, and innovating in student guidance are activities not easily replicated by AI. As automation evolves, it is these creative, interpersonal, and context-specific skills that safeguard the profession against higher levels of displacement.