How to Choose a Fitness Tracker for a PE Course

The One Requirement a PE Course Has

A graded PE course needs the student's activity to arrive in the gradebook on its own. That happens through one path: the tracker syncs to Google Health, or to Apple Health on an iPhone, and the student links that health account to eFit in one tap. From there, activity and nutrition flow in automatically. The connection takes less than two minutes at the start of the term, and once it is made the activity grade needs no further logging from the student.

Write the requirement into your course that way and the shopping question answers itself. Any tracker that syncs to Google Health works, including Fitbit, Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch, Garmin, Xiaomi Mi Band, and Fossil smartwatches. Android phones and Wear OS watches report in the same way, and Polar, Misfit and others sit in the same compatibility list. eFit reads that data on a read-only basis, which means the platform can see a student's steps and Active Zone Minutes and can change nothing on their account. Students can disconnect at any time from their tracker settings inside eFit.

Framing the requirement around the health platform also protects you when a student shows up with something you have never seen. The test you apply is simple: does this device already put its steps into Google Health or Apple Health? If it does, the course works. Our page on automatic activity tracking and grading shows the full connection path from device to gradebook.

What Does a Graded PE Course Read From the Device?

Two measures carry the grade: daily steps and activity minutes. eFit calculates the activity portion of a course grade from step totals, moderate and vigorous activity minutes, and the goals an instructor sets. A 2022 JMIR validation study by Germini and colleagues found good step-count accuracy for wrist-worn devices, which is why steps and activity minutes make a fair basis for points. Our post on what the research says about activity tracker motivation walks through the pooled evidence behind both measures.

Resting heart rate comes in as a trend a student can watch across the term, showing cardiovascular change over weeks. The trend sits outside the activity grade and gives the student something to watch across the term. Heart rate does appear in one graded place: the 1-Mile Walk Test uses it, along with time, weight, age and gender, to calculate VO2MAX, and students enter those results themselves during the pre and post fitness assessment windows. Nutrition data flows in through the same health connection and supports the food logs and macronutrient charts used in a nutrition assignment.

This matters for device selection because it narrows what you have to care about. A device that counts steps reliably and records activity minutes covers the entire graded requirement. Whatever else a device offers is a bonus for the student who enjoys it, and the graded portion reads steps and activity minutes.

Six Selection Criteria for a School Setting

Hand a student a spec sheet and they will compare the wrong things. These six criteria are the ones that predict whether a device produces a clean semester of data, and every one of them can be checked before any money changes hands.

Notice how many of these describe a habit. The device that wins a PE semester is usually the one that fits an existing routine, because the grade rewards consistency across a whole term of ordinary days.

Which Device Families Work, and Who Each One Suits?

Here is the compatibility list from eFit's own materials, arranged by the kind of student each family tends to suit. Specifications change every year and vary by model, so treat this as a way to narrow the field and check the manufacturer's current documentation for anything that matters to a particular student.

One more path belongs beside that table: no wearable at all. That path is fully supported, and it deserves its own section.

The Phone-Only Path

A student with no wearable uses the step counter already built into their phone. Modern phones count steps with their own motion sensors, that count goes into Google Health on Android or Apple Health on iPhone, and eFit reads it from there with no additional device needed. The student completes the same connection step everyone else does and earns the same activity grade on the same scale.

Say this in class during week one, before anyone spends money. A required purchase turns an activity grade into a test of household budget, and the phone path removes the extra purchase for any student who already carries a smartphone. It also removes the awkward conversation in week six when a student's device breaks and they assume their grade is gone.

The one coaching point for phone-only students is placement. A phone counts steps while it is on the student's body, so a phone left in a locker during a workout misses that workout. Ask phone-only students to keep the phone in a pocket, an armband or a waistband during activity. For students whose routine makes that impractical, an activity-minute target set on their individual student profile can carry the grade.

What Should the Syllabus Say About Trackers?

Device disputes at the end of a term often trace back to a syllabus that said "students need a fitness tracker" and stopped there. Four short paragraphs cover the questions students actually ask.

• The connection requirement. State that every student connects a tracker or a phone to Google Health, or to Apple Health on iPhone, links it to eFit in the first week, and keeps the connection active all term. Give the deadline as a date.
• The no-purchase clause. Say plainly that buying hardware is optional and a phone's built-in step counter is sufficient. Students read the syllabus before they read your email.
• The sync expectation. Tell students their activity syncs automatically throughout the day, and that a manual sync in their fitness app followed by a refresh fifteen minutes later clears most sync problems. Name the date each week's activity closes.
• The accommodation path. Invite students with an injury, a disability, a documented plan or a device problem to contact you, and say that individual step goals, activity-minute targets and alternative activity options are available. eFit supports individualized targets on any student's profile while the grading scale stays the same for the class.

Our guide to grading physical education fairly and defensibly covers the rest of the policy language, and the online PE course design guide has a four-week starter syllabus you can adapt.

Setting the Class Up So Any Device Works

A course built around the health platform stops caring which brand each student wears. Setting up a first course takes about fifteen minutes, and onboarding support is free.

• Create the course and set the thresholds. Enter the course details and dates, then configure the step and activity-minute goals your grading scale reads. eFit scores weekly and semester grades against those thresholds automatically.
• Share the enrollment link. Post it in your LMS, and students join from there and connect their own devices.
• Watch week one on the dashboard. The analytics dashboard shows who has joined and who still needs a nudge, with a day-by-day history for each student across the term. Automatic email reminders go to students with low activity on a schedule you set.
• Adjust individual goals as needed. Open a student's profile to set an individual step goal, an activity-minute target or a custom accommodation.
• Move grades to your gradebook. Choose your LMS, choose the grade type, then download the file and import it. eFit formats the CSV for D2L Brightspace, Canvas, Blackboard Learn and Moodle, covered on our LMS grade export page.
• Budget the adoption honestly. Faculty accounts are free and student access is $59 per semester, with the details on our pricing page. More than 50 institutions run eFit, and 17,000+ students have been served cumulatively to date.

If your section meets partly or entirely online, the device question carries more weight, because the tracker becomes your record of what happened. Our online PE software page walks through how activity verification holds up in a remote or hybrid course, including what a defensible record looks like when a student appeals a grade.

Frequently Asked Questions About Choosing a Fitness Tracker for PE

What is the best fitness tracker for a PE class?

The one a student will wear every day that reports into Google Health, or Apple Health on iPhone. Fitbit is the device eFit recommends, and Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch, Garmin, Xiaomi Mi Band and Fossil smartwatches all sync as well. Beyond that connection, the deciding factors are comfort during a full day of wear, automatic syncing, and a charging habit the student will keep.

Do students have to buy a fitness tracker for a PE course that uses eFit?

Buying hardware is optional. Students without a wearable can use their smartphone's built-in step counter, which reports into Google Health on Android or Apple Health on iPhone, and eFit reads the activity from there with no additional device needed. Those students earn the activity grade on the same scale as everyone else.

Does the brand of tracker change a student's grade?

No. eFit grades daily steps and activity minutes against the goals an instructor sets, and those measures arrive through Google Health or Apple Health in the same form from every compatible device. Every compatible device is scored by the identical rule.

How does a student connect a tracker to eFit?

The tracker syncs to Google Health, or to Apple Health on iPhone, and the student links that account to eFit from the Connected Devices screen and follows the authorization prompts. It takes less than two minutes, and from then on activity and nutrition sync automatically throughout the day. eFit requests read-only access, and a student can disconnect at any time from their tracker settings inside the platform.

What should an instructor do about a student whose device breaks mid-semester?

Move them to the phone path and adjust the goal if the transition costs them days. Their phone's built-in step counter reports into the same health platform, so the course record continues without a new purchase. Open the student's profile to set an individual step goal or an activity-minute target that reflects the weeks they can still complete.